Topic 4 coastal changes and conflict Flashcards
What are the main ways the tectonic activity has shaped the UK’s landscape?
Plate movements
Plate collisions
Active volcanos
What type of rock was formed by magma cooling on the earth’s surface?
Igneous
Charactaeistics of slate:
- Slate is hard and resistant
- formed from heating of shale
- impermeable
- metamorphic rock
(but, because it forms in layers, it can easily be split into thin slabs.)
Characteistics of schist
- very resistant
- impemeable
- metamorphic rock
Schist is made up of bigger crystals and also splits easily into small flakes.
What do slate and schist together commonly form for a landscape?
These rocks often form upland landscapes with waterlogged and acidic soils because of their resistance and impermeability.
Characteristics of chalk:
- harder than clay(medium resistance)
- forms slopes in UK low lands
- cliffs in UK coastline
- permeable (water flows through it)
- younger form of limestone
- sedimentary rock
Charactaeisitics of clay:
- forms wide and flat valleys because it is easily eroded
- sedimentary rock
- not resistant
-lots of water features in clay landscape rock is IMPERMABLE and so water flows to the surface.
Caracteristics of carboniferous limestone:
- heavily affected by carbonation weathering (occurs in joins and causes arches and caves, caverns)
- sedimentary rock
- permeable
- permeable: dry valleys resurgent rivers(i think it means underwater)
-less resistant than igneous rocks but more resistant than other sedimentary rocks.
Characteristics of granite:
- hard and resistant-forms upland landscapes
- unevenly spread joints
- fewer joints-slowed erosion areas can end up sticking out as tors
Moorlands are created on top of granite because it is impermeable.(moorlands-large areas of waterlogged and acidic soil.)
-impermeable
When did an ice sheet most recently cover much of the UK?
About 20,000 years ago.
What did Plate collisons do to the UK landscape?
Mountains were formed by rocks folding and uplifting due to plate collisions
- collisions also generated intense heat and pressure which
- led to the formation of hard metamorphic rocks
(in northern Scotland and Northern Ireland.)
What did active volcanos do to the UK landscape?
- active volcanos erupted magma onto the landscape, cooled and formed igneous rock(granite)
(UK was much closer to a plate margin 520 million years ago.)
What did Plate movements do to the UK landscape?
Remember:345-280 million years ago, the UK was in the tropics.
What rock does volcanos form?
Igneous rock
What rock did plate collisions create?
Metamorphic
How long ago were volcanos erupting magma that is now the land that makes up the UK?
520 million years ago
Which of the following would NOT be found in a chalk landscape?
Cliff
Tor
escarpment (steep slope)
Tor(exposed rock of broken blocks)
Where was britian 345-280 million years ago?
In the tropics
Dueing the tropics where did carbonifeous limestone form?
The warm and shallow seas
Characteristics of granite:
- very resistant
- impermeable
- forms upland landscapes
- lots of unevenly spread joints
- often topped by moorland
What is moorland?
A habitat found in upland areas.
-low growing vegitation and acidic soils
Types of weathering processes:
Mechanical
Chemical
Biological
Examples of slope processes?
Mass movement
- soil creep.
- landslide
What are climatological processes?
The climate affects how physical processes happen.
Eg. Freeze thaw weathering is more likely if tempratures regualy fluctuate above and below 0 degrees C