Key term
OCR A-Level Geography H481
Coastal Landscapes
Topic overviewThe coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and materialSediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sedimentWinds, fetch and the generation of wavesConstructive and destructive waves, and how waves breakTides, tidal range and ocean currentsLithology, geological structure and the plan of the coastWeathering and mass movement on the coastMarine erosion, transport and depositionBays, headlands, cliffs and shore platformsGeos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumpsBeaches and the changing beach profileSpits, bars, tombolos and salt marshesHigh and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapesEmergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffsSubmergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beachesCoastal management and its effect on the sediment budgetPorts, tourism and unintended change at the coast
Glaciated Landscapes
Topic overviewThe glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputsGlacier mass balance and the equilibrium lineClimate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciationGeology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapesFirn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheetsWarm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movementWeathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environmentsGlacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rockEntrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sedimentCorries, arêtes and pyramidal peaksGlacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakesMoraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheetsCharacteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over timeGlacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plainsPermafrost, patterned ground and pingosPeople in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarstPeople in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley change
Dryland Landscapes
Topic overviewDryland landscape systems: inputs, stores, flows and outputsAridity, the water balance and the UNEP aridity indexRainfall, pressure belts and the global pattern of aridityRock type and structure in dryland landscapesRelief, aspect and desert microclimatesSediment supply and the dryland sediment budgetPolar drylands and the cold desertsHot deserts of the low and mid latitudesSemi-arid environments and the desert marginsWeathering and mass movement in dryland landscapesFluvial and aeolian processes in the desertWadis, canyons, pedestal rocks, ventifacts and desert pavementsBarchans, linear dunes, star dunes, alluvial fans and bajadasThe Mojave and the Sahara as desert landscape systemsInselbergs, pediments and relict landforms of past pluvialsFrost-shattered debris, nivation hollows and solifluction depositsWater supply, dams and landscape changeTourism, off-road vehicles and landscape change
Earth’s Life Support Systems
Topic overviewWater and carbon as the foundations of life on EarthOpen and closed systems, and the major global stores of water and carbonInputs and outputs of the water cycle: precipitation, snowmelt and evapotranspirationInputs and outputs of the carbon cycle, and the forms of chemical weatheringEvaporation, transpiration, condensation and the causes of rainfallInterception, runoff and catchment hydrologyPhotosynthesis, respiration, decomposition and combustion as carbon flowsNatural sequestration in oceans, vegetation, sediments and rockStores, flows and physical controls in the tropical rainforestDeforestation, farming and forest management in an Amazon drainage basinStores, flows and seasonal change in the Arctic tundraOil and gas development in the Arctic tundra, and its managementDynamic equilibrium, land use change and water extractionFossil fuel combustion, carbon sequestration and feedback loopsChange over time in the cycles, and the monitoring that records itLinks and interdependence between the water and carbon cyclesGlobal strategies to protect the carbon and water cycles
Changing Spaces; Making Places
Topic overviewThe characteristics that shape a place profileContrasting place profiles: Chelsea and BlackpoolPast and present connections, and the scales that embed a placeShifting flows of people, resources, money and ideasSpace, place and the effects of time-space compressionPerception, identity and emotional attachment to placeInformal representations of place in media and the artsFormal and statistical representations of placeMeasuring social inequality and its spatial patternsDeindustrialisation, globalisation and structural economic changeRecession, austerity and the government's role in inequalityLiving with inequality: Sparkbrook and Sutton ColdfieldPlayers driving economic change at different scalesThe Ruhr: a region reshaped by structural economic changePlacemaking and the marketing of places to investorsDesign, mixed use and community-led placemakingRebranding through reimaging and regenerationSalford Quays: from docks to MediaCityUK
Trade in the Contemporary World
Topic overviewMerchandise, services and capital flowsGlobal trade patterns: inter-regional and intra-regional flowsTrade, export value and human developmentTrade as a driver of growth, stability and developmentTrade inequalities, conflict and injusticeTransport, technology and the global supply chainMultinationals, outsourcing and the new international division of labourRegional trading blocs and the European UnionSouth–south trade and the growth of traded servicesIndia: trade patterns of an emerging economyThe United States: a core economy shaping world tradeEthiopia: trade on the periphery of the global system
Global Migration
Topic overviewThe global migrant population: size, composition and direction of flowInter-regional and intra-regional flows, and the world's major migration corridorsRemittances, the Human Development Index and the migration-development linkMigration as a driver of stability, growth and developmentInequality, conflict and injustice in the global migration systemEconomic globalisation and the emergence of new source and host areasYoung workers, women migrants and the growth of South-South movementConflict, persecution and the world's refugee movementsNational immigration and emigration policy, and how it is changingMexico: an emerging economy shaped by a migration corridorThe United Kingdom: an advanced country driving change in the migration systemNepal: a low-income country with little leverage over its migration
Human Rights
Topic overviewThe idea of human rights and its legal foundationsNorms, intervention and geopoliticsForced labour and modern slaveryMaternal mortality and access to safe childbirthCapital punishment and where it persistsPatterns of gender inequality: schooling, reproductive health and workWomen's rights in IndiaHuman rights abuse as a cause and a consequence of conflictInstitutions, treaties and laws that protect human rightsGlobal governance of human rights in eastern DR CongoShort-term relief and long-term change in DR Congo
Power and Borders
Topic overviewStates, nations and the sovereign control of territoryNorms, intervention and geopoliticsContested borders and the legacy of colonial boundariesTransnational corporations and economic sovereigntyTrading blocs, supranational institutions and pooled sovereigntyEthnic dominance, minority marginalisation and separatismUkraine: sovereignty and territorial integrity under challengeResources, conflict and the causes of geopolitical instabilityGlobal institutions, international law and the flows that carry interventionSouth Sudan: governing a conflict from global to localShort-term and long-term outcomes of intervention for people and placesThe Democratic Republic of the Congo: global governance in an LIDC
Climate Change
Topic overviewReconstructing past climates from natural archivesIcehouse and greenhouse Earth, from Cenozoic cooling to the HoloceneContinental drift and volcanic activity as drivers of climateMilankovitch cycles and changes in solar outputThe natural greenhouse effect and the atmosphere's greenhouse gasesWarming of the surface, atmosphere and oceans since the late 19th centuryRetreating ice, shrinking snow cover and rising sea levelWhy greenhouse gas emissions have risen since the pre-industrial eraThe changing global balance of emissions, from an AC to an EDCThe enhanced greenhouse effect and the global energy balanceThe evolution of the global warming debateGovernments, international organisations and the media in the climate debateClimate models, the carbon cycle and feedbackFuture emission scenarios and projected temperature and sea level riseImpacts on ecosystems, health and extreme weatherThe vulnerability of people and environments to climate changeMitigation through energy efficiency, fuel shifts and low-carbon energyCarbon capture and storage, forestry strategies and geoengineeringRetreat, accommodation and protection as adaptationAdapted homes, cities, transport and economiesContrasting countries: impacts, opportunities and the challenges of respondingThe IPCC, international agreements and policy from global to local
Disease Dilemmas
Topic overviewWays of classifying disease, and the epidemic to pandemic scaleMapping the burden of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, diabetes and heart diseaseDisease diffusion, the Hägerstrand model and the barriers that slow itTemperature, rainfall, relief and water supply as controls on diseaseMosquitoes, vectors and the seasonal rhythm of outbreaksClimate change, emerging infections and diseases that jump from animalsCholera in Haiti after the 2010 earthquakeRising living standards and the epidemiological transitionDiseases of poverty and diseases of affluenceAir pollution and lung cancer in ChinaMalaria in Nigeria: from causes to controlCardiovascular disease in the United KingdomThe World Health Organization and the surveillance of global outbreaksMédecins Sans Frontières and the West African Ebola epidemicPhysical barriers to treatment and the fight against HIV and AIDSMedicinal plants, their growing conditions and the trade that threatens themPharmaceutical transnationals and the global flow of medicinesEradication campaigns, grassroots education and the role of women
Exploring Oceans
Topic overviewThe size and spread of the world's oceansThe shape of the sea floor, from shelf to trenchSalinity and temperature through the water columnSurface currents and the great ocean gyresThe North Atlantic conveyor, from Gulf Stream to deep return flowLight, warmth and nutrients as limits on ocean lifeFood webs in the inter-tidal zone and the deep seaHarvesting Southern Ocean krillWhaling, stakeholder conflict and resource thresholdsOcean energy: oil, gas, waves and tidesMining the deep sea bed for metalsThe global commons, maritime zones and ocean governanceThe major sources of marine pollutionThe Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its aftermathDrifting plastic and the North Pacific garbage patchOcean acidification, warming seas and coral bleachingRising sea level and low-lying island communitiesSea ice, the albedo feedback and irreversible thresholdsThe changing Arctic: peoples, politics and new sea routesShipping lanes, container ships and seaborne tradeNaval power and contested seasPiracy and migration by sea
Future of Food
Topic overviewFood security and its three pillarsMeasuring hunger: undernourishment data and food security indicesShifting patterns of food security between and within countriesClimate, soil, water and relief as controls on where food can be grownThe journey of food from farm to plate, and the waste it leavesTypes of farming: intensive, extensive, subsistence and commercialGlobalisation, rising demand and global tastesThe issues and opportunities of a globalised food industryLand ownership, competition and land grabbingMalthus, Boserup and the population–resource debateYemen: conflict, aridity and the collapse of food accessVulnerable people and the pinchpoints in global food distributionDesertification and the drylands of the SahelExtreme weather, water scarcity and tectonic shocks to food productionInuit hunting and food security in the ArcticSalinisation, deforestation and agrochemical pollution from farmingThe Aral Sea: a landscape remade by irrigationHealth effects of hunger, over-nutrition and agrochemical exposureMalawi and the United States: contrasting experiences of food insecurityTrade policy, the World Trade Organization and appropriate aidAgribusiness, food TNCs, supermarkets and fair tradeFrom emergency relief to capacity building and system redesign
Hazardous Earth
Topic overviewThe Earth's internal structure and the global pattern of platesContinental drift and the evidence from fossils, rocks and ancient glaciationsSea-floor spreading, palaeomagnetism and the age of the ocean floorDivergent boundaries and the landforms of the mid-ocean ridgesSubduction at oceanic-continental and oceanic-oceanic boundariesContinental collision and conservative boundariesMagma chemistry, viscosity and explosive volcanism at subduction zonesEffusive eruptions, shield volcanoes and hot-spot volcanismVolcano size and shape, super-volcanoes and the Volcanic Explosivity IndexLava flows, pyroclastic flows and volcanic gasesTephra, ashfall, lahars and volcanic tsunamisEarthquake focus, depth and the seismic waves releasedMeasuring earthquakes: Richter, moment magnitude and Mercalli intensityFault scarps, rift valleys and the landscapes faulting createsGround shaking, ground displacement and liquefactionEarthquake-triggered landslides, avalanches and floodingTsunamis from sea-bed uplift and underwater landslidesWhy people choose to live in tectonically active placesThe impacts of volcanic eruptions in countries at contrasting levels of developmentThe impacts of earthquakes in countries at contrasting levels of developmentPredicting, monitoring and managing volcanic hazardsLand-use zoning, building design and managing earthquake riskChanging risk over time and the disaster risk equationThe Park model of disaster response
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewGeographical data, its types and the ethics of using itCollecting data: sampling, measurement error and digital devicesQualitative methods, sources and drawing conclusionsMeasures of central tendency and dispersionCorrelation, lines of best fit and Spearman's rankSignificance tests: chi-squared, Mann-Whitney U and the t-testClimate graphs, maps and graphical techniques
Glaciated Landscapes
- 17 subtopics
- 45 things to know
- Component 01
What Glaciated Landscapes covers
Glaciated Landscapes is examined in Component 01, Physical systems. It covers the glacier as a system of inputs, stores, flows and outputs; mass balance and the equilibrium line; how climate, latitude, altitude, geology, relief and aspect control glaciation; how snow becomes glacier ice in valley glaciers and ice sheets; warm-based and cold-based ice and how glaciers move; and weathering, nivation, glacial erosion and the entrainment, transport and deposition of sediment. It also covers the landforms of glaciated uplands and lowlands, from corries, arêtes, troughs and ribbon lakes to moraines, drumlins and till sheets, with Helvellyn and the Laurentide Ice Sheet as examples; kames, eskers and outwash plains left by deglaciation; permafrost, patterned ground and pingos; and how resource extraction, thermokarst, dams, reservoirs and tourism change periglacial and glaciated landscapes.
The 17 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- The glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputsRecall questions on the glaciated landscape as an open system: its inputs of matter and energy, stores, flows and outputs, dynamic equilibrium, negative and positive feedback, albedo, and the glacial sediment budget with a worked storage calculation.Open →
- Glacier mass balance and the equilibrium lineRecall questions on glacier mass balance, accumulation, ablation and sublimation, the accumulation zone and equilibrium line, the seasonal balance of an Alpine glacier, water equivalent and net balance calculations, the accumulation area ratio, and why a snout advances or retreats only after a lag.Open →
- Climate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciationRecall questions on how precipitation, maritime and continental climates, latitude and altitude control glaciation, the dry interior of Antarctica, the environmental lapse rate with a worked calculation, the snow line on Kilimanjaro and in Norway, and why glaciers reach sea level in Greenland.Open →
- Geology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapesRecall questions on lithology and geological structure in glaciated landscapes, how jointing and weak or resistant rock bands shape erosion and troughs, the Skiddaw Slates and Borrowdale Volcanic rocks of the Lake District, and how relief and aspect decide where ice forms and why corries face north-east.Open →
- Firn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheetsRecall questions on how snow becomes firn and then glacier ice, the densities involved, why glacier ice looks blue, the role of meltwater, and valley glaciers, ice caps, piedmont glaciers and the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.Open →
- Warm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movementRecall questions on warm-based and cold-based glaciers and the pressure melting point, basal sliding, regelation, enhanced basal creep and internal deformation, the velocity profile of a valley glacier, extending and compressing flow, crevasses, glacier surges and the effect of summer meltwater.Open →
- Weathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environmentsRecall questions on frost shattering and freeze-thaw, blockfields, pressure release and chemical weathering in cold environments, scree slopes, rockfall after glacier retreat, solifluction and avalanches, and how nivation deepens a hollow into the first stage of a corrie.Open →
- Glacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rockRecall questions on abrasion and plucking, rock flour and striations, reading ice direction from roches moutonnées, crag and tail, whalebacks, knock and lochan topography, erosion by subglacial meltwater, and why thicker ice erodes faster.Open →
- Entrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sedimentRecall questions on how glaciers entrain debris, supraglacial, englacial and subglacial debris, passive transport, lodgement and ablation till, telling till from glacio-fluvial deposits, summer sediment output, and fieldwork using till fabric analysis, clast roundness and the Mann-Whitney U test.Open →
- Corries, arêtes and pyramidal peaksRecall questions on the shape and formation of corries, rotational slip, bergschrunds, rock lips and tarns such as Red Tarn on Helvellyn, arêtes such as Striding Edge, pyramidal peaks such as the Matterhorn, cols, and mapping corrie orientation with a chi-squared test.Open →
- Glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakesRecall questions on the U-shaped cross profile of a glacial trough, truncated spurs, hanging valleys and waterfalls, misfit streams, ribbon lakes and rock basins such as Wastwater, trough ends, rock steps, and fjords such as the Sognefjord.Open →
- Moraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheetsRecall questions on lateral, medial, terminal, recessional, push and ground moraines, erratics such as the Norber erratics and the Ailsa Craig microgranite, the shape, size and formation of drumlins and basket of eggs topography, and till sheets.Open →
- Characteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over timeRecall questions on the landform assemblages of glaciated uplands and ice-sheet lowlands, the Helvellyn area of the Lake District, the Laurentide Ice Sheet with the Canadian Shield, Long Island and the Finger Lakes, change over seconds, seasons and millennia, varves, and Britain's relict glaciated landscape.Open →
- Glacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plainsRecall questions on glacio-fluvial processes and deposits after the last glacial period, eskers, kames and kame terraces, outwash plains such as Skeiðarársandur in Iceland, jökulhlaups, kettle holes, and how these landforms are changing today.Open →
- Permafrost, patterned ground and pingosRecall questions on periglacial environments, continuous, discontinuous and sporadic permafrost, the active layer, frost heave and patterned ground, ice wedges, open-system and closed-system pingos in the Mackenzie Delta, relict periglacial features in Britain, and the effects of present-day warming.Open →
- People in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarstRecall questions on resource extraction in periglacial regions, Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, building on permafrost in Yakutsk, gravel pads and ice roads, how disturbance causes thermokarst, thaw lakes and drunken forests, the Batagaika crater, and the carbon released by thawing permafrost.Open →
- People in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley changeRecall questions on hydro-electric schemes in glacial troughs, the Grande Dixence dam in Switzerland, reservoir sedimentation, scour and bed armouring below dams, altered discharge regimes, and how ski pistes, snow-making, glacier retreat and tourist access around the Mer de Glace change mountain landscapes.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
Explain why a very cold polar desert may hold only small glaciers.
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Why do vehicle tracks across tundra persist for decades?
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Why does thawing permafrost matter far beyond the local landscape?
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Describe the seasonal pattern of mass balance for an Alpine glacier through one year.
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Define lithology as a control on glaciated landscapes
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What is firn?
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Name two sources of heat that can bring the base of a thick glacier to its pressure melting point.
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What is frost shattering?
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Name three conditions needed for effective abrasion.
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How does a glacier pick up debris from its bed?
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Give the Welsh and French terms for a corrie.
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Why does a glacier produce a U-shaped valley where a river produces a V-shaped one?
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How can a series of recessional moraines be used to reconstruct a glacier's history?
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Which landforms would you expect to find together in an upland shaped by valley glaciers?
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Describe the climate change that ended the last glacial period in Britain.
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Define permafrost.
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Name the tallest gravity dam in the world and the country in which it stands.
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Name the three main inputs of matter into a glaciated landscape system.
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Why is mass balance measured in metres of water equivalent rather than metres of snow?
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How does the annual precipitation total affect the size of a glacier?
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What is meant by geological structure in a glaciated landscape?
Process
Outline the stages by which fresh snow becomes glacier ice.
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Why is a cold-based glacier associated with very little erosion?
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What conditions make freeze-thaw weathering most effective?
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What is plucking?
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What is till?
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Name a corrie tarn on Helvellyn in the Lake District.
Process
How is a hanging valley formed?
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Name a British site where erratics rest on limestone pedestals.
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Which landforms characterise a lowland shaped by an ice sheet?
Process
How did post-glacial warming change the dominant geomorphic process in a deglaciating landscape?
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Distinguish continuous permafrost from discontinuous permafrost.
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How is water gathered for the Grande Dixence scheme?
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Which two sources supply the energy that drives a glaciated landscape system?
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Explain why there is a lag between a negative mass balance and a visible retreat of the snout.
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Roughly how much precipitation falls each year in the interior of Antarctica?
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Explain how well-jointed rock increases the rate of glacial erosion.
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Why does dense glacier ice appear blue?
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Compare typical rates of movement of warm-based and cold-based glaciers.
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What is pressure release weathering?
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Why is plucking most effective on well-jointed rock?
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State two ways of telling till from glacio-fluvial deposits in the field.
Key term
What is the typical ratio of a corrie's length to its height?
Key term
What is commonly found where a hanging valley meets a main trough?
Take Glaciated Landscapes further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Accumulation vs Ablation
Accumulation: mass is added to a glacier, chiefly as snowfall but also by avalanche and by hoar frost. Ablation: mass is lost from a glacier by surface thaw, sublimation, evaporation and the calving of icebergs.
Till vs Glacio-fluvial deposits
Till: material dumped directly by the ice, so it is unsorted, unstratified and angular. Glacio-fluvial deposits: material laid down by meltwater, so it is sorted by size, arranged in layers and rounded by transport.
Lateral moraine vs Kame terrace
Lateral moraine: a ridge of unsorted angular debris built along the side of a valley from rock that fell onto the edge of the ice. Kame terrace: a bench of sorted sand and gravel along a valley side, left by a stream that ran between the ice and the valley wall.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What does it mean to describe a glaciated landscape as an open system?
Model answer
Both energy and matter can cross its boundaries, so the landscape exchanges material and energy with the environment around it.
- 2
Name the three main inputs of matter into a glaciated landscape system.
Model answer
Snow and ice, rock debris from weathering and mass movement, and liquid water from rainfall and melt.
- 3
Which two sources supply the energy that drives a glaciated landscape system?
Model answer
Solar radiation, which drives melting and evaporation, and gravitational potential energy, which drives the movement of ice, water and debris downslope.
- 4
State two outputs from a glaciated landscape system.
Model answer
Meltwater and water vapour leaving the system, and sediment carried out beyond the ice margin by meltwater streams or icebergs.
- 5
What is a store in a glaciated landscape system?
Model answer
A place where matter or energy is held for a period of time, such as the glacier ice itself, a snowfield, a moraine or a proglacial lake.
- 6
Explain the difference between a store and a flow in a glacial system.
Model answer
A store holds material in one place, while a flow is the transfer of material or energy from one store to another.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Glaciated Landscapes revision questions
- What does Glaciated Landscapes cover in OCR A-Level Geography?
- 17 subtopics: the glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputs, glacier mass balance and the equilibrium line, climate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciation, geology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapes, firn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheets, warm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movement, weathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environments, glacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rock, entrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sediment, corries, arêtes and pyramidal peaks, glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakes, moraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheets, characteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over time, glacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plains, permafrost, patterned ground and pingos, people in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarst and people in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley change. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Glaciated Landscapes organised?
- By the OCR H481 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Glaciated Landscapes, on a schedule.
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