EQ3

Question 1

What is the difference between eustatic change and isostatic change?

Answer 1

Eustatic = global sea level change
Isostatic = local land level change.

Question 2

What impact did the last ice age (10,000 years ago) have on sea level?

Answer 2

The ocean was 120m lower, due to more volume in the crysophere. This led to more of the continents being exposed.

Question 3

What occurred when the last ice age ended?

Answer 3

Britain appeared, due to the land between France and england dissapearng.
The bridge from Siberia to alaska was submerged.
(10,000 years is rapid in geological terms)

Question 4

What impacts longer-term natural climate change?

Answer 4

Milankovitch cycles.

Question 5

What impact do Milankovitch cycles have on natural climate change?

Answer 5

Occur every 100,000, 41,000, and 22,000 years.

Question 6

What are Milankovitch cycles?

Answer 6

They are the different rotations around the sun which the earth experiences.
- Energy access varies more when the earth rotates around the sun in an oval, not a circle, its eccentricity.
- The greater the tilt of the earth, the greater the solar energy that hits the poles.
- The greater the precession of the earth, the more neergy will reach the poles.

Question 7

How is the theory of Milankovitch cycles supported?

Answer 7

Ice cores - CO2 evidence from Antarctica shows that there has been a glacial period approximately every 100,000 years.

Question 8

What is occuring in Scotland and the UK, and why?

Answer 8

Scotland is rising and south england is sinking. This is due to post-glacial isostatic adjustment, which is caused by the end of the Ice Age period which ended 12,000 years ago.

Question 9

What landforms are formed at places which have emergent coasts?

Answer 9

Raised beaches and fossil cliffs which can be found in Scotland.

Question 10

What landforms are found at submergent coasts?

Answer 10

• Rias
• Fjords
• barrier islands
• dalmatian coastlines

Question 11

What is a model which shows the different emergence and erosion of coastlines?

Answer 11

Valentin’s classifications of coasts (1952)

Question 12

What is the current belief surrounding contemporary sea level change?

Answer 12

It is occuring 25% faster than previously thought. In the 20th century, it was estimated that the ocean was rising by 1.2mm a year, now it is thought it is rising by 3 mm.

Question 13

What is the challenge with measuring sea level change?

Answer 13

Other factos can ‘contaminate’ data:
- tectonic movement
- thermal expansion
- Oceanic tidal change every decade

Question 14

How is sea level change measured?

Answer 14

Sea Level and Climate Change Monitoring System

Question 15

What impact does tectonic activity have on sea level?

Answer 15

The Kaikoura earthquake of 2016 affected a peninsular of New Zealand, where the tectonic shoft led to the rise of the seabed by as much as 5.5m in some areas.

Question 16

How can tectonic activity affect sea level change locally?

Question 17

Whatimpact does sea level change have on islands such as Vanuatu?

Question 18

What occurred at Hallsands, Devon?

Answer 18

In 1917, the village was abandoned, due to a major storm breaching the shore, and the villagers had to flee.
It was caused by offshore dredging creating sediment starvation.
This is an example of positive feedback.

Question 19

What are the human factors which threaten the coast through erosion?

Answer 19

• Offshore dredging, as seen in Hallsands.
• Dams on rivers - Aswan High Dam Erosion rates at the Rosetta jumped from 20-25m a year to over 200m a year due to sediment starvation.

Question 20

Why does the erosion rate of Holderness vary?

Answer 20

Human factors:
- Physical defences in places such as Hornsea have prevented erosion.
- However, this may cause sediment starvation.
Physical factors:
- Seasonal change throughout yearly change in erosion.
-

Question 21

What are the social and economic impacts of rapid erosion at skipsea?

Answer 21

economic:
24 homes will be lost to erosion within 5 years.
Demolition costs £15,000 - £14,000
Social:
Intense stress within the community from losing homes.
Feeling of abandonment by the authorities.

Question 22

What impact is climate change having on erosion rates?

Answer 22

They are at the highest they have been ever on record.
Cliamte change creates more stormy environments. More storminess has led to faster erosin rates, which is why the Holderness coast is retreating as rapidly as it is.

Question 23

Where in London will be threatened by increased flooding?

Answer 23

many cities in the UK may be fully submerged if global warming reaches 4 degrees. Cities such as Liverpool, Belfast, and Edinburgh would be completely submerged. As well as this, parts of London such as Battersea, and Lambeth would be completely submerged.

Question 24

Is there hig or low pressure during a storm?

Answer 24

Low pressure (Below 1000 mb)

Question 25

Is there rising or sinking air?

Answer 25

rising

Question 26

do storms encircle anti-clockwise, or clockwise in the northern hemisphere?

Answer 26

Anti-clockwise

Question 27

What are the physical factors which can cause flood risk?

Answer 27

local:
- low-lying land
- shape of the land - fubnelling coastline
Regional:
- cyclonic frequency.

Question 28

What are the human facotrs which can cause flood risk?

Answer 28

• Offshore dredging
• Climate change

Question 29

What are the factors which can increase flood risk?

Answer 29

• local - degree of subsidence, vegetation removal, population growth
• regional - storm frequency which is increased by climate change
• global - global warming

Question 30

How can we prepare for the future against climate change increasing flood risk?

Answer 30

We increase mitigation and adaptation against flooding (more detail in Carbon cycle content)

Question 31

What are the factors which increase flood risk in Bangladesh?

Answer 31

global human factors:
- Climate change is increasing coastal erosion rates.
Local human factors:
- Offshore dredging to create mud barriers against storm surges creates sediment starvation.
Local physical factors:
- Bangladesh is funell-shaped, and has 50% of its land as <10m above sea level.

Question 32

What country lies on a Delta, is vulnerable to tropical cyclones, is the world’s most densely populated country, with 46% of its people living less than 10m above sea level.

Answer 32

Bangladesh