Tectonic Features

Question 1

What is a batholith?

Answer 1

A type of igneous rock that forms when magma rises into the earth’s crust but does not erupt onto the surface

Question 2

What are the 4 steps of a batholith formation?

Answer 2

1) large mass of magma intrudes into the ground
2) large masses of magma cool and solidify
3) large crystals form in the rock
4) they are dome shaped and overtime are exposed due to erosion

Question 3

What are U shaped valleys?

Answer 3

Glaciers use processes of plucking (erosion) and abrasion to widen steepen, deepen and smooth V shaped river valleys into U shaped

Question 4

What is a ribbon lake?

Answer 4

A large narrow lake occupying U shaped valleys, it forms in a hollow where a glacier has more deeply eroded less resistant rock

Question 5

How has geology shaped the UK’s landscape?

Answer 5

• Once covered by the tropical seas, when fish died their skeletons sunk to the bottom and overtime got crushed and compacted together
• Calcium carbonate crystallised these forming fossils
• Later other rock was deposited on top
• The more resistant rock was more resistant to erosion therefore forming higher peaks

Question 6

How has glaciation shaped the UK’s landscape?

Answer 6

• Rivers flowed through creating V shaped valleys
• ice age bought huge glaciers
• these glaciers altered these river channels deepening them forming U shaped valleys

Question 7

How have tectonic processes shaped the UK’s landscape?

Answer 7

• The plate which the Uk sits in shifted away from the tropics
• convection currents beneath the plate uplifted rocks from below the sea becoming land
• during uplift some rocks snapped and moved along fault lines which form a steel edge called à scarp where uplift raised some parts more than others