Geography Physical Notes

Question 1

formation of a corrie

Answer 1

1. Snow gathers in North facing hollows high up in the mountains where it is sheltered from the wind and sun
2. As the snow builds up, air is squeezed out and snow becomes hard packed nieve
3. After all the air is squeezed out, the snow becomes compacted and turns to ice
4. Gravity causes the ice to slie downwards in a rotational movement
5. As the ice rotates, it erodes the back of the hollow by plucking- when ice freezes to the land and tears the rocks away from it
6. and ice erodes the bottom by abrasian- the rocks plucked wear away the land like sandpaper
7. frost shattered rocks fall into the hollow
8. The heaviest ice in the middle of the corrie erodes the deep bowl shaped
9. as ice slides out of the hollow, some rocks may be deposited to form the rock lip

Question 2

formation of a U shaped valley

Answer 2

1. Snow gathers in North facing shallow hollows high up in the mountains where it is sheltered from the wind and shaded from the sun.
   -As snow gathers, air is squeezed out and the snow becomes hard packed neve. -Eventually all the air is squeezed out and the snow turns to ice.
   -Gravity causes the ice to slide downwards and forms a huge river of ice called a glacier.
   - The glacier flows from high land into a small V shaped valley which has interlocking spurs.
   - The huge weight of the glacier bulldozes through the valley cutting through interlocking spurs and straightening it.
   - The sides of the valley now have truncated spurs as the interlocking spurs have been chopped off.
   - The glacier also erodes the bottom and sides of the valley through the following processes
   - Plucking- this is when the ice freezes to the rocks and tears them away from the land. This steepens the sides of the valley
   - Abrasion- This is when the plucked rocks wear away the land like sandpaper. This deepens and widens the bottom.
   - freeze thaw weathering- This is when rainwater gets into cracks of the rocks, during the night the water freezes and it thaws during the day, this causes the rocks to expand and break apart.
   - A much deeper, wider and straighter U shaped valley is left behind

Question 3

Formation of Terminal Moraine

Answer 3

1. The glacier has flowed through a U shaped valley and has eroded huge amounts of material as it has widened and deepened the valley and bulldozed through interlocking spurs.
2. The eroded material that is transported and deposited by the glacier is called moraine
3. Some material is dragged underneath the glacier along the valley floor, this i called GROUND MORAINE.
4. Some material is pushed along the front of the glacier like a bulldozer, this is called END MORAINE.
5. IN this way the eroded material moves from the zone of accumulation( point where it was eroded) to the point of ablation( the point where the glacier melted)
6. After the ice age, the glacier melted and the end moraine was deposited at the front of the glacier to form a small linear hill of boulder clay. This is the TERMINAL MORAINE.
7. The terminal Moraine shows the furthest extent that the glacier travelled
8. Behind the terminal moraine, the ground moraine has been dumped underneath where the glacier once flowed to form a layer of fertile BOULDER CLAY.
9. This boulder clay is said to be UNSORTED with a mix of different sizes of materials such as pebbles and boulders.
   10.This is because the glacier has sufficient energy to carry all different sizes of material.

Question 4

Formation of a drumlin

Answer 4

1.As the glacier flows through the U shaped valley, it drags large amounts of ground moraine underneath it.
2. The ground moraine is said to be consisted of a mix of unsorted rocks from pebbles to boulders. Tis is because the glacier has sufficient energy to carry all different sizes of rock.
3. In some areas the ground moraine may become particularly heavy and dense.
4. If the material becomes too heavy for the glacier to carry, it will dump this material underneath as it continues to move downhill.
5. This often occurs when there is an obstacle on the ground such as a large boulder which blocks the moving ground moraine and builds up around it.
6. As the glacier moves downhill, it shapes this lump of boulder into a streamlined hill with a steep facing slope up the way and gentle facing slope down the way.
7. When the ice melts, an elongated hill called a drumlin is left behind
8. Drumlins often come in swarms and are described as a basket of eggs. This is due to the heavy nature of the boulder clay.

Question 5

Formation of an esker

Answer 5

1. During the ice age, glaciers flowed through U shaped valleys.
2. The friction of the heavy ice on the valley floor caused some ice to melt at the bottom of the glacier.
3. This created meltwater streams which flowed underneath the glacier along the valley floor.
4. The meltwater streams created long and narrow tunnels through the ice at the bottom of the glacier .
5. The streams carried sands and gravels through these tunnels. These were smaller sorted material as it was transported by the meltwater which is less powerful than the glacier.
6. Some sand and gravel was deposited along these tunnels to from long snake like ridges of eroded material.
   7.After the ice melted long mounds of soil were left exposed to the surface.
7. The bottom of the ridges have larger particles of gravel which were dumped first by the streams and on top of these is smaller particles of sand which were dumped later as the stream had less water. This is said to be sorted.
8. Eskers are therefore long snake like mounds on the floor of the U shaped valley, running in the same direction as the misfit rivers and valley sides.

Question 6

describe cliff erosion

Answer 6

1. In hilly areas such as headlands, where there were high winds, tall destructive waves attacked the base of the cliff
2. the base of the cliff got eroded by the following processes:
   - Hyrdaulic action - the force of the water combined with compressed air attack weaknesses and cracks in the rocks
   - abrasion- the eroded material in the sea such as sand and gravel are thrown against the rocks by the waves, and wears them away like sandpaper
   solution -this is when chemicals in the sea such as salt and acid dissolve the rocks by chemical weathering
3. in this way the hillside gets undercut to create a wave cut notch
4. the land above the wave cut notch gets attacked by weathering such as freeze thaw action which leads to it becoming unstable
5. Periods of high rainfall leads this land to becoming top heavy, saturated and unstable.
6. Eventually the land collapses into the sea. The fallen rocks create a rocky beach called a wave cut platform and the smaller rocks are broken up by the waves in a process called attrition
7. Over time, further erosion takes place cutting and the coastline will be cut further inland as undercutting and cliff collapse continues to take place.

Question 7

Formation of a bays and headlands

Answer 7

1. Bays and headlands are found in areas where bands of hard and soft rock lie perpendicular to the coastline. This is called a discordant coastline.
2. As a result of differential erosion, the soft rock gets eroded more easily and at a faster rate than the hard rock.
3. The soft rocks gets eroded by the following processes
   Hyraulic action - The force of water combined with compressed air attack weaknesses and cracks in the rocks
   Abrasion- eroded material such as sand and pebbles are thrown against the rocks by the waves, and wear them away like sand paper.
   solution- when chemicals in the sea such as acid and salt dissolve the rocks by chemical weathering
4. At areas of soft rock, the eroded material is transported out to sea by the backwash, leaving the area set back from the surrounding coastline which is made up of hard rock. This creates a bay.
5. The waves loose energy in the sheltered bay and deposit sand and pebbles to form a beach.
6. The bands of hard rock remain as a headland on one or both sides of the bay.

Question 8

Formation of stacks/stumps/arches and caves

Answer 8

1. Headlands are formed from hard resistant rock which tick out into the sea. It is in an unsheltered area exposed to high winds and tall destructive waves.
2. The waves attack weaknesses such as cracks in the headland and is eroded by hydraulic action- the pounding of the waves forces water and compressed air into the cracks, causing mini explosions which break up the rock.
3. the crack gets wider by abrasion- the eroded material in the sea such as sand and pebbles which are thrown against the rocks and wear them away like sandpaper.
   and solution- chemicals in the sea dissolve the rocks such as acid and salt by chemical weathering
4. Eventually the crack grows into a cave. The sea crashes into the cave and the hydraulic power of the waves is much greater, under pressure in an enclosed area.
5. Eventually the cave gets eroded through to the other side of the headland to form an arch.
6. The base of the arch gets further eroded and undercut, as the arch gets wider and wider, the roof will become unstable and collapse into the sea to from a stack.
7. The base of the stack will also be eroded, and as the stack gets undercut by the waves it will become top heavy and collapse into the sea to form a stump.

Question 9

Formation of a sand spit

Answer 9

1. A beach is deposited by small constructive waves with a strong swash and a weak backwash.
2. The beach gets affected by a process called longshore drift
   - Prevailing winds cause the waves to approach the beach at an angle.
   - The swash pushes the sand diagonally up the beach
   - the backwash of the waves returns to the sea at right angles taking sand with it.
3. The next wave continues this process and overtime, large amounts of sand is pushed sideways across the beach from left to right
4. As shown on the diagram, the left side of the beach is narrower than the right.
5. When the moving sand approaches a bay, the coastline suddenly changes direction at X
6. The waves lose energy in the more sheltered bay and do not have enough energy to push the sand round the corner into the bay
7. As a result, the sand is pushed across the mouth of the bay into open waters
8. As the waves lose energy, the sand is deposited across the mouth of the bay and eventually builds up over time to form a spit
9. The spit often develops a hooked end due to prevailing winds and waves changing direction in the middle of the bay.

Question 10

Podzol soil formation

Answer 10

• Coniferous forestry found in Scandinavia with a cold climate and high levels of rainfall
• Thin leaf layer layer of leaf litter of pine needles and cones which slowly decay in the cold climate
• Thin layer of dark, raw, mor acidic humus
• saturated top soil due to high precipitation and spring snow melt
• Grey top soil with a sandy texture
• Heavy leaching occurs- when nutrients are washed downwards through the soil
• Hard iron pan which further impedes drainage
• sub soil stained orange due to iron- further evidence of leaching
• Large glaciated material due to little weathering and shallow tree roots and few burrowing animals to break it up
• clearly defined horizons as few burrowing animals to mix up the bacteria
• little bacteria in cold climate to absorb nutrients from the air.

Question 11

Formation of Brown earth soil

Answer 11

-decidious trees found in western europe
with a mild climate and moderate rainfall
- Thick leaf litter layer( decays rapidly in mild climate
- Thick layer of mildly acidic mull humus
-well drained top soil due to more evaporation
- Brown top soil with a loamy texture
- capillary action- nutrients are drawn upward by the tree roots.
-soil is mixed up due to more burrowing animals e.g worms
- glaciated parent material is broken up by deep tree roots + burrowing animals
- more bacteria in soil in mild climate to absorb nutrients from the air

Question 12

Formation of Gley soil

Answer 12

-Found in North e.g Alaska
-very little leaf litter, mosses and lichens, slow decay in cold climate
- thin layer of dark mor raw acidic humus with a peaty texture
- Top soil is saturated and has a silty texture with a grey blue colour due to gleying ( low levels of oxygen)
- sub soil has large rocks due to little weathering
- virtually no weathering of glaciated material few burrowing animals + tree roots
- No drainage downwards as it is blocked by the permanently frozen sub soil called permafrost
- Clearly defined horizons
- very little leaching
- no bacteria

Question 13

explain why only certain amount of solar energy…

Answer 13

1. Reflected by the atmosphere
   - atmosphere consists of clouds, water vapor, dust and gasses
   - white color of clouds reflects more energy
2. Absorbed by the atmosphere ( give percentage
3. Surface albedo - earths surface albedo varies from place to place with lighter colored areas such as snow and ice in the poles reflect more energy so there is a higher surface albedo
   - darker colored areas such as rainforests absorbs more heat