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Geographical Skills

OS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferences

  • 3 things to know
  • All three papers

Overview

Naming relief features, drawing cross sections with an exaggerated vertical scale, V-shaped and U-shaped valleys, and inferring farming, river crossings, drainage, industry, forestry and steep slopes from map evidence.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Which major relief features should you be able to name from a map?

Key term

What is a cross section?

Key term

How is the shape of a cross section obtained from a map?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Which major relief features should you be able to name from a map?

    Model answer

    Hills, ridges, escarpments, plateaus, spurs, valleys and plains.

  2. 2

    What is a cross section?

    Model answer

    A side-on view of the land along a chosen line, showing how the height rises and falls between two points.

  3. 3

    How is the shape of a cross section obtained from a map?

    Model answer

    The height of every contour the line crosses is read off and marked at the correct distance along it, and the marks are joined up to give the profile.

  4. 4

    Why is the vertical scale of a cross section usually exaggerated?

    Model answer

    Height differences are tiny beside horizontal distances, so without exaggeration the profile would look almost flat.

  5. 5

    How do the cross sections of a river valley and a glaciated valley differ in shape?

    Model answer

    A river valley is a narrow V with sloping sides, while a glaciated valley is a wide U with steep sides and a flat floor.

  6. 6

    What is an inference when reading a map?

    Model answer

    A sensible conclusion about the area that the map does not state outright but the evidence on it supports.

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