Distinctive Landscapes

Question 1

What is a Landscape?

Answer 1

> Made up of all the visible features of an area of land.

Question 2

What is a natural Landscape?

Answer 2

> A landscape with more physical features

Question 3

What is a Built landscape?

Answer 3

> A landscape with more visible human features.

Question 4

What are the characteristics of upland areas?

Answer 4

> Mostly found in North and west of the UK.
Generally formed of hard rocks which resist erosion.
Many are glaciated, the gradient is steep
Climate tends to be cooler
Land use include sheep farming, quarrying and tourism.

Question 5

What are the characteristics of Lowland areas?

Answer 5

> Most found in south and east
Generally formed from softer rocks
Landscape is flatter with gently rolling hills
Climate tends to be warmer and drier
Vegetation grows easily
Land use include quarrying tourism and arable farming.

Question 6

What are the characteristics of Glaciated landscapes?

Answer 6

> Most found in the north-west of the UK.
Ice is very powerful so it was able to erode the landscape carving out valleys.
Formed by glacial meltwater and deposits extend south of this line.

Question 7

What is Mechanical Weathering?

Answer 7

> Breaking down of rock without changing its chemical composition.

Question 8

Explain how mechanical weathering happens?

Answer 8

> It happed when the temperature alternates above and below 0degrees.
Water gets into the rocks that has cracks, when the water expands it freezes, which puts pressure on the rock.
When the water thaws it contracts, releasing the pressure on the rock
Repeated hawing and freezing widens the cracks and causes the rock to break up.

Question 9

Explain how Chemical weathering happens?

Answer 9

> Rainwater has CO2 dissolved in it, which makes it a weak carbonic acid.
Carbonic acid reacts with rock that contains calcium carbonate, so the rocks are dissolved by the rainwater.

Question 10

What is Mass Movement?

Answer 10

> Shifting of rocks and loose material down a slope.
It happens when the force of gravity acting on a slope is greater than the force supporting it.

Question 11

What is slides and slumps?

Answer 11

Slides: Material shifts in a straight line
Slumps: Material shifts with a rotation

Question 12

What is Hydraulic action?

Answer 12

> Along coats waves crash against rock and compress the air.
This puts pressure on the rocks, repeated compression widens the crack and makes bits of rock break off.
In rivers the force of the water breaks rock particles away from the river channel.

Question 13

What is abrasion?

Answer 13

> Eroded particles in the water scrape against the sea bed, removing small pieces and wearing them away.

Question 14

What is Attrition?

Answer 14

> Eroded particles in the water smash into each other and break into smaller fragments
their edges get rounded off as they rub together
The further material travels, the more eroded it gets.

Question 15

What is attrition?

Answer 15

> Dissolved CO2 makes river and sea water slightly acidic.The acid reacts chemically with some rocks.

Question 16

What is traction?

Answer 16

> Large particles like boulders are pushed along the rive rland

Question 17

What is saltation?

Answer 17

> Pebble sized particles are bounced along the reiver bed by the force of the water

Question 18

What is suspension?

Answer 18

> Small particles like slit and clay are carried along by the water.

Question 19

What are constructive waves and characteristics?

Answer 19

Waves that deposit more material than they erode.
>They have a low frequency
>They’re low and long
>The swash is powerful and backwash is weak

Question 20

What are the reasons rivers slow down and deposit material?

Answer 20

> The volume of water in the river falls
The amount of eroded material in the water increases
The water is shallower
The river reaches the sea/lake at its mouth

Question 21

How are headlands and Bays formed?

Answer 21

> They form where there are alternating bands of resistant and less resistant rocks along a coast.
The resistant rock is eroded more slowly and it’s left jutting out forming a headland.

Question 22

How do headlands become a stack?

Answer 22

> Headlands are usually made of resistant rocks that have weaknesses like cracks
Waves crash into the headlands and enlarge the cracks mainly by abrasion
Repeated erosion and enlargement of the crack causes a cave to form
Continued erosion deepens the cave until it breaks through the headland forming an arch
Erosion continues to wear away the rock supporting the arch, until it eventually collapses.
This forms a stack an isolated rock that’s separate from the headland.

Question 23

What are the characteristics of sand beaches?

Answer 23

> They’re flat and wide
Sand particles are small and weak
Weak backwash can move them back down the beach creating a long, gentle slope.

Question 24

What are the characteristics of shingle beaches?

Answer 24

> Steep and narrow
Shingle particles are large and the weak backwash cant move them back down
The shingle particles build up and create a steep slope.

Question 25

Explain the process of longshore drift

Answer 25

> Waves follow the direction of the prevailing wind
They usually hit the coast at an oblique angle
The swash carries material up the beach, in the same direction as the waves
The backwash then carries material down the beach at right angles, back towards the sea

Question 26

How are spits formed?

Answer 26

> They are just beaches that stick out in the sea, they’re joined to the coast at one end.
Spits form at sharp bends in the coastline.
Longshore drift transports sand and shingle past the bend and deposits it in the sea.
.Strong winds and waves can curve the end of the spit

Question 27

Describe the location of the Dorset coast?

Answer 27

> It is located on the south of England
It is called the Jurassic coast because it has lots of fossils

Question 28

What is the geomorphic processes in 2 places?

Answer 28

Durdle Door:
>It formed on a hard limestone headland.
Erosion by waves opened up a crack in the headland, Which became a cave and then developed into an arch.
>The arch is being gradually broken down by mechanical and biological weathering.

Chesil Beach:
>A tombolo.
>It formed by longshore drift.
Behind Chesil Beach is a shallow lagoon called The Fleet lagoon.

Question 29

How has climate and weather influenced Geomorphic processes?

Answer 29

Temperature:
>The Dorset coast has warm, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
>Salt weathering is the dominant form of mechanical weathering, particularly ins summer.
The warm temperatures cause sea water to evaporate form rock quickly.

Wind:
>The Dorset coast’s location means that it’s exposed to prevailing winds from the south-west/
>These prevailing winds can bring storms to the UK from the Atlantic Ocean.
>Hydraulic action and abrasion both increase during a storm and erode the base of the cliffs.

Rainfall:
>Soils and rocks become heavier when they’re saturated, which can make them more prone to mass movement.

Question 30

How does Geology affect the Dorset coast?

Answer 30

> The coastline is made from bands of hard rock and soft rock.
The rocks have been eroded at different rates, which has created the area’s coastal landforms.
Soft rock are easily eroded by hydraulic action.
Weathering tends to happen gradually and cause small changes.

Question 31

How can Geology, Climate and Weather interact?

Answer 31

> It’s often a combination of climatic and geological factors that affect how erosion and weathering shape the landscape.
Lots of rain makes chalk and limestone vulnerable to carbonation weathering because the rain water is slightly acidic.

Question 32

What are coastal management strategies?

Answer 32

Groynes:
>They are wooden and stone fences that are built at right angle to the coast.
>They trap material transported by long-shoe drift, this creates wider beaches which slow the waves, giving greater protection from erosion.
>New timber groynes were putten in Swanage Beach.

Question 32

How are groynes used to help coastal management strategy?

Answer 32

Groynes:
>They are wooden and stone fences that are built at right angle to the coast.
>They trap material transported by long-shoe drift, this creates wider beaches which slow the waves, giving greater protection from erosion.
>New timber groynes were put in Swanage Beach.
>However they stopped the beach material from moving along the coast, they’ve starved areas further down the coast of sediment, making them narrower.

Question 33

How are Sea walls used to help coastal management strategy?

Answer 33

Sea Walls:
>There are concrete sea walls in place along most of Swanage Beach.
>Sea walls reflect waves back out to sea, preventing the erosion of the coast.
>But they can’t create a strong backwash which removes sediment from the beach and can erode under the wall.
>They also prevent the cliffs from being eroded, so there’s no new material to replenish the beach, this will gradually lower the level of the beach.

Question 34

How are V-Shaped valleys formed?

Answer 34

1)In the upper course of ariver, fast-flowing water following heavy rain and high turbulences cause loose rough particles and boulders to be transported by the river.
2)They are scraped along the river bed whic causes downwards erosion.
3)The river doesn’t have enough energy to erode sideways, so vertical erosion is dominant
4)This deepens the valley creating a V-shape.

Question 35

How are Waterfalls formed?

Answer 35

1)The river flows over an area of hard rock followed by an area of soft rock
2)The softer rock is eroded by hydraulic action more than the hard rock.
3)This creates a step, as the water goes over the step it erodes more an dmore of the softer rock.
4)A steep drop is eventually created = waterfall.

Question 36

How are Gorges formed?

Answer 36

1)The hard rock is eventually undercut by erosion, it becomes unsupported and collapses.
2)The collapsed rocks are swirled around at the foot of the waterfall where they erode the softer rock by abrasion.
3)Over time more undercutting causes more collapses, the water fall will retreat leaving a gorge.

Question 37

How are Meanders formed?

Answer 37

1)The current is faster on the outside of the bend because the river channel is deeper.
2)So more erosion takes place on the outside of the bend, forming river cliffs
3)The current is slower on the inside of the bend because the river channel is shallower.
4)So eroded material is deposited on the inside of the bend, forming slip-off-slopes.

Question 38

How are Ox-Bow lakes formed?

Answer 38

1)Erosion causes the outside of the bend to get closer, untill there’s only a small bit of land left.
2)The river breaks through this land and river flows along the shortest course
3)Deposition eventually cuts off the meander forming an ox-bow lake.

Question 39

How are Levees Formed?

Answer 39

> Natural embankments along edges.
During a flood eroded material is deposited
The heaviest material is deposited closest
Overtime, the deposited material builds up= Levees.

Question 40

How are Flood-Plains formed?

Answer 40

> When a river floods onto the floodplain
the water slows down and deposits eroded material
This builds up a floodplain.
Meanders migrate across a floodplain