REVISION GUIDANCE DOCUMENT FOR THE DECEMBER TRIAL

TRIAL OUTLINE

The trial will last 70 minutes. The maximum mark for the trial is 50 (therefore spend 1 minute and 10
seconds per question)

Answer all questions. You be asked various low tariff questions worth either 1, 2 or 4 marks and a
series of higher tariff questions worth 6 or 9 marks.

The 9 mark questions will ask you to either:

- Assess (make an informed judgement)
- Evaluate (weigh up the pros and cons making a judgement from available evidence
and create a balanced argument)
- Discuss (present key points about different ideas or pros and cons of an idea)
- Justify (support a case with evidence and solid facts)
- Consider to what extent (judge the importance or success of a strategy, scheme etc.)

Geographical skills are embedded throughout, you will need to know how to:
- Use and interpret ground, aerial and satellite photographs (what does this picture show)
- Use and interpret OS maps at a range of scales, including 1:50 000 and 1:25 000
- Understand distance and direction being able to measure straight line distance.
- Use and understand four- and six-figure grid references.
- Identify basic landscape features and describe their characteristics from map evidence.

Trials are very important. You must plan your revision and review the material you have
studied in detail. Case study cards as well as revision notes are effective ways to revise.
Speak to your subject Beak for further guidance on how best to prepare. The topics are listed
below)

For Quizlet links, click here for the geography department's general page.

Natural Hazards
 Definition of a natural hazard.
o A Natural Hazard (for example an earthquake or volcanic eruption) that
threatens people or has the potential to cause danger, damage or destruction.
o Examples of Natural Hazards include tornados, volcanic activity, earthquakes
and pathogens
o A Natural Disaster is a sudden calamitous event causing serious disruption to
a community, exceeding the aforementioned community’s ability to cope
using it’s own resources. It is also declared if over 10 people have been killed;
100 people have been affected; the sending of a request for foreign aid or a
declaration of a state of emergency.
o Case Studies of Natural Disasters are not needed.
o Hazard Risk can be calculated with the following equation: hazard risk =
hazard * vulnerability. Hazard is defined by the magnitude or size of a
disaster (and also the chance of survival) and vulnerability is defined by
population density and infrastructure to deal with it.
  Types of natural hazard.
o A Tornado, hurricane or typhoon is a ‘rapidly rotating column of air’ (for
example 1900 Galveston costing 124 billion dollars or Hurricane Katrina in
Louisiana)
o Volcanic activity are eruptions, lava flows or volcanic explosions (2010
Eyjafjallajökull when 5 lava fountains opened)
o Earthquakes are sudden violent shakes in the earth (for example the San
Francisco Earthquake in 1906 which affected seismograms in Germany)
o Droughts are a lack of rain or available water for an area
o Flooding is the abundance of water in any given area
o Mass movement is when rocks or water fall due to gravity re-shaping the land
(for example the Mumbai landslides killing 78 in 2000)
o Biological Pathogens are when natural (not man made) disease sweep the
earth (for example the Ebola West African Crisis)
o Space Weather includes meteor showers and asteroids (for example when
the 1921 Geomagnetic space storm hit and telegraph systems were
damaged)
Tectonic Hazards
 Global distribution of earthquakes and their relationship to plate margins.
o The earth is made up of the crust (5km thick under ocean and solid), Mantle
(2900km thick and semisolid), Outer Core (2300km thick and liquid) and inner
core (1200km thick and made up of iron and nickel which are solid)
o The vast majority of the world’s earthquakes occur in the ‘ring of fire’, an area
between Asia and the Americas in the Pacific Ocean
o Almost all of them occur on plate boundaries however there are other tectonic
events caused by hot spots (where intense radioactivity causes a rupture in
plates) or the G.Foulger theory of Plate Weakness (where plates are weaker
in some areas as a result of being stretched)
 Physical processes taking place at different types of plate margin (constructive,
destructive and conservative) that lead to earthquakes.
o Constructive plate margins are when two opposite plates move away from
each other creating a volcanic vent. They move away due to convection
currents underneath the crust. One example is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where
the Eurasian Plate moves away from the North American Plate at a rate of
4cm per year. Iceland is where this goes above sea level. These form
volcanoes with a high viscosity (lava flow)
o Destructive plate margins are where two plates collide and one gets
subducted. Due to the oceanic plate being denser, it will always be subducted
at what we call the subduction zone, where it would be melted by high
pressures, increasing friction and heat. Some material may rise through
cracks and cause Volcanos (composite meaning solids are released). One
example of this is the Andes with the Nazca and South American plates

o Collision plate margins are when two similarly dense plates move towards
each other and ascend into fold mountains and cause earthquakes due to
friction. One example of this is the Himalayas between the Indo-Australian
plate and the Eurasian plate. These are rich in raw materials
 o Conservative plate margins are when the two plates move side by side at
different speeds. There are no volcanic eruptions however earthquakes occur
due to friction. One example of this is the Pacific Boundary between the
Pacific Oceanic Plate and the North American Continental Plate containing
big cities like L.A
 Reasons why people continue to live in areas at risk from a tectonic hazard.
o People carry on living in volcanic areas because they can generate
geothermal energy (for example at Dalvik since 1969), tourism and farming.
These areas also have high amounts of rich materials and aesthetic
landscapes
 How monitoring, prediction, protection and planning can reduce the risks from a
tectonic hazard.
o Monitoring is maintaining regular surveillance over areas of seismic
importance (can be done using Seismic Gap theory or Satellites)
o Prediction is forecasting when and where a future earthquake will happen
(can be done using Seismometers, tilt meters, earthquake lights, radon gas
and animal behaviour)
o Protection is building to an appropriate standard and using designs which will
stand movement
o Planning is educating the population on reducing the impact and increasing
risk of survival
 REVISION CHECKLIST – SHELL TRIAL NOVEMBER 2017

How is your revision of each topic going? Tick below for each Tick
topic when
complete
 Really well, I feel very confident on this Action
to
take

 Ok, I’ve done some revision but could do more

to feel confident

 Not so well, I’ve tried to revise but have lots of

questions, or I have not revised this yet   

1. NATURAL HAZARDS

I can define the term ‘natural hazard’. !

I know the 6 categories natural hazards fall into, !

and can give an example of each (geophysical,
meteorological, hydrological, climatological,
biological, extra terrestrial)

I can define the term ‘hazard risk’. !

I can explain the 7 factors that affect hazard risk !

(level of economic development, magnitude of
hazard, frequency of hazard, population density,
size of population, rock type, relief of the land)

2. TECTONIC HAZARDS

I know what is meant by the term ‘tectonic !

hazard’.
I know the structure of the earth (crust, mantle, !
outer core, inner core) including thickness,
whether it is solid or liquid, and what it is
composed of.

I can explain plate tectonic theory. !

I can describe and explain the

global distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes
and their relationship to plate margins.

I know the difference between constructive,

destructive, collision and conservative plate
margins, and for each can:

 Name an example

 Draw a labelled diagram

 Explain physical processes taking place that

lead to tectonic hazards (earthquakes and
volcanoes)

I know how earthquakes are measured:

 Magnitude – Richter scale

 Intensity of effects – Mercalli scale

I can define the terms ‘primary effects’ and

‘secondary effects’ of a tectonic hazard
(earthquake) and give examples.

I can define the terms ‘immediate response’ and

‘long-term response’ to a tectonic hazard
(earthquake) and give examples.

I can use named examples to show how the

effects and responses to a tectonic hazard
(earthquake) vary between two areas
of contrasting levels of wealth (Chile earthquake
2010 and Nepal earthquake 2015).

3. GEOGRAPHICAL SKILLS
I can read 4 and 6 figure grid references. (p.327 in
AQA Textbook)

I can read compass points. (p.329 in AQA

Textbook)

I can measure distance (straight-line) on maps

using a scale. (p.328 in AQA Textbook)
I can identify and describe landscape and relief
features on a map e.g. using contour lines. (p.329
in AQA Textbook)