Geography Flashcards
All Y9 Geography topics
What is a Natural Hazard?
A natural process which poses some sort of danger towards humans or even wildlife
What do you know about tornadoes?
Climatic (wind),
Fast moving winds in a vortex, warm air rises and spins above cold air
What do you know about volcanoes…
Tectonic, magma breaks through gaps in tectonic plates to form them
What do you know about Wildfires…
Climatic(sun), sun/lightning sets vegetation on fire (which are effective fuels, so the fire spreads)
What do you know about droughts?
Climatic(no rain), occurs when more water is used than is replenished, and can be fueled by changing wind patterns
What do you know about floods…
Climatic, when there is more water when the can can absorb, happens often in flood plains, and so civilizations in flood plains are flooded more
What do you know about landslides…
When rocks and soil is loose, it can fall and create a landslide
What do you know about earthquakes…
Tectonic, when movement of tectonic plates is blocked, the force builds up and is released in an earthquake
What do you know about tsunamis…
Earthquakes below the ocean can displace lots of water, causing a tsunami
What is the difference between a hazard and a risk? (Good to know, but probably not tested on this)
A hazard is anything with the potential to do harm and a risk is the likelihood that a hazard will cause a specified harm to someone
What are tropical storms?
Natural hazards where there is an area of low pressure with winds moving around the calm central eye of the storm. It has heavy winds and rainfall.
Where do hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons form?
Hurricanes- Atlantic, Cyclones- Indian, Typhoons- Pacific
Conditions needed for a tropical storm to form:
Sea surface temperature of at least 26 degrees, between 5 and 20 degrees north/south of the equator, low wind shear, 90m+ deep waters, cumulonimbus clouds
What wind speeds do tropical storms need to have to be officially counted as a hurricane?
74mph+
Tropical storm- Step 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
1.Air is heated above the surface of the warm tropical oceans, and the warm air rises rapidly under the low pressure conditions 2. As the air rises, it cools and condenses to form cumulonimbus clouds which generate torrential rainfall. The heat given off when the air cools powers the tropical storm (latent heat) 3. The rising air draws up more air and large volumes of moisture from the ocean, causing strong winds 4. The Coriolis effect causes the air to spin upwards the calm central eye of the storm. Cold air sinks in the eye, meaning that there is no cloud, so it is dryer and much calmer here 5. The tropical storm travels across the ocean in the prevailing wind. When the tropical storm meets land it loses its power as it loses a source of moisture and heat, so it weakens, and is further slowed down by friction upon passing over the land. The average tropical storm has the lifespan of 2 weeks.
What is a storm surge?
When sea levedl rises rapidly and particularly high due to a tropical storm
Tornadoes- Characteristics
Usually form in late afternoon, when warm humid air meets with cold dry air, often preceded/occur alongside high winds/heavy thunderstorms/hail, life span of few seconds to a few hours, average width is 660 feet, average speed of movement is 30 mph, they die within 6 miles on average
How tornadoes form- wind shear, updraft, storm, supercell
(Wind Shear) Fast moving winds roll the air below into a horizontal vortex (a spinning tube) above opposing surface winds (Updraft) Air near the ground is warmed by the sun and lifts up, causing the horizontal vortex to become upright (Storm) The updraft creates two vortices. The stronger one becomes the heart of the thunderstorm and the other one dies (Supercell) Upper level winds tilt the mesocyclone (the rotating updraft) allowing the storm to grow, as warm air is sucked into the storm away form the cool air in the downdraft
What scale is used to measure a tornado’s intensity?
The Fujita scale, ranging from F0 (weak) to F5 (strong)
Examples of tornadoes, effects, responses, etc
Varies, use book
End of climatic hazards topic.
Yay.
Name three types of skewed information
Personal bias, Outdated bias, News bias
Name four types of (often incorrect) intuition
Things are getting worse, a hard barrier between rich and poor, rich then social, sharks are dangerous
Describe what the population will look like at 2100
Fertility rate will average out at about 2 children per woman, better health leading to more surviving elderly, world population plateaus at 11 billion
Describe the destiny instinct
The idea that innate characteristics determine the destinies of people, countries, religions or cultures, i.e. the belief that Africa will remain an LIC
Describe the general trend of world population
Population increases very gradually over the years, high birth rate (due to lots of children needed for agricultural work, and due to high infant mortality rate), then in 1800s many countries have industrial revolutions, lifestyle goes up, health & medicine becomes better, life expectancy goes up, infant mortality goes down. This results in massive population growth. In 1900-2000 the population increases by almost 5 billion. Birth rate then begins to decrease, starts coming to slightly over 2, by 2100, the world will have plateaued at 11 billion
Gapminder- the 4 income levels
Level 1- earn less than $2 a day, extreme poverty, Level 2- between $2 and $8 a day, where almost half of the population is, Level 3- between $8 and $32, Level 4- $32+
Describe the gap instinct
The habit to generalize things into two separate, defined classes (whereas the reality is that the majority are generally in the middle
What are the 4 rules of thumb that you can use to control the Gap Instinct?
- Most things improve 2. The most people are in the middle 3. First social, then rich 4. Sharks kill few
Definitions: Literacy rate
The percentage of adults who can read or write
Definitions: Birth rate
Number of babies born every year per 1000 people in a population
Definitions: Death rate
Number of people that die every year per 1000 people in a population
Definitions: Fertility rate
Number of babies per woman
Definitions: Gross National Income per capita
The value of a countries goods and services divided by the number of people living in that country
Definitions: Population
The number of people living in a country
Definitions: Human Development Index
An index measuring key dimensions of human development, represented as a decimal number
Definitions: Life expectancy
The average number of years a person born in a particular country might be expected to live
Definitions: Per capita
Divided by population
List some left-wing newspapers
Left-wing- The Guardian, The Mirror.
List some right wing newspapers
Right-wing- The Sun, Daily Mail
California Wildfire Effects
Communication- telephone lines damaged, evac. hampered Property- 30000 homes destroyed, 153000 acres of land burnt Money- $8.4 billion in insured losses
Hurricane Sandy Primary Effects
At least 286 killed, 8.5 mil+ homes/businesses without power, $71 billion total damage, shanty towns in Haiti washed away, fires in New York
Hurricane Sandy secondary effects
Psychological impact, people left homeless, livelihoods lost, untreated sewage washed into public drinking water
Hurricane Sandy Short term Responses
Barack Obama appeals for calm and for people to stay out of harm’s way, people taken to evacuation centres (e.g. schools) 100000s evacuated by police
Hurricane sandy long term responses
Obama ordered federal agencies to help with preparation for other impacts of climate change like this, and improve community/infrastructure’s resilience to them, departments like SBA (Small Business Administration) helped people/businesses recover from Hurricane Sandy)
Joplin tornado impacts
Over 100 deaths, 1000 injuries, people made homeless, 25% of Joplin destroyed, $2.8 billion damage, more than 140000 insurance claims, lots of debris/spilt fuel from cars
Joplin tornado immediate responses
Temporary cell towers to aid communication, search and rescue, declared state of emergency, national guard deployed, mass shelter for homeless
Joplin tornado long term responses
places rebuilt, many left Joplin (leaving empty plots), infrastructure rebuilt
Storm Desmond rainfall
broke all previous UK records, Honister in Cumbria received 341.4mm of rain in 24 hrs,
Storm desmond impacts
5200 homes flooded in Cumbria/Lancashire, 10 000s lost power, many schools closed, Lancaster University cancelled teaching for the term, many roads closed
Storm Desmond Responses
Chancellor George Osborne announce £50m fund for families and businesses, would also be given council tax and business rate relief, over £10 mil pounds raised for those affected, Prince’s Countryside Fund releasing £40000 for rural communities, businesses and farmers in North England/Scotland to help them recover
