What landforms result from weathering and erosion?

What land shapes, or landforms, can you see created as a result of:

a) weathering of rock in situ;
b) rivers, large or small;
c) marine processes.

For a) look at the mountains that surround us.
What is affecting their rate of erosion? In Hong Kong the mountains are mostly made of granite. How different do you expect the landforms to erode from say, limestone?

You might need to think about the mineral composition of the rock, and how that reacts to chemicals in the environment; what the grain size of the rock contributes to its weathering; whether the presence of fault lines or strata affects the rock's weakness.

Also consider the weather. Here it can be hot and humid for much of the year. How would you expect sandstone, for example, to weather in this climate, as opposed to a hot, dry desert, or a cold and wet climate?

For b) think about the action of the many rivers you have seen.
You have paddled in creeks, streams and rivers large and small. You have conducted river surveys, listened to talks about estuaries and walked with rangers describing ox-bow lakes and boggy clay pits.

Draw an imaginary river from youth to old age. Write captions to mark as many different landscape features that a visitor might see. Try to include, in your diagram,

For c) look at where the land meets the water. What's going on?
You might find geospeak useful: wave, corrasion, hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, corrosion.

Remember the many coastlines you have visited. Longshore drift on the east coast of England? Caves, stacks and Chesil beach on the south coast of England? Sand dunes at Worimi conservation land, New South Wales? Reefs and sea cliffs in Hong Kong?

For general research, try wikianswers. Youtube provides background videos. Slideshare may help if you poke about the options.

Can you tell me about weathering and erosion?

No, not wrinkles, sun damage and sand blasting on mama's face.

Find out about these three other forms of weathering:
1. physical or mechanical
2. chemical
3. biological

Some ideas here. You can click to find plenty of videos about erosion from the choices on the right-hand side.

Then can you tell me how a river erodes, transports, and deposits the material it's carrying?

And the sea. What role does that play in eroding coastlines? We've had a great experience already in finding out. I think fondly of Dunwich. And here:


Think of your many seaside experiences: Chesil beach, Ladram bay, North Norfolk marshland. Where else is in your experience?

What are the causes and effects of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?

For info, readings, videos and ideas on the causes and effects of earthquakes:
The geography site, explains tectonic earthquake and volcanic earthquake.
Earthquake effects covering 'shaking, landslides, liquefaction, and tsunamis'.
Youtube National Geographic.

For info, readings, videos and ideas on the causes and effects of volcanic eruptions:
Volcano world, showing current volcanic eruptions.
Youtube explanation.

For both:
Global change, with clickable maps to check where both earthquakes and volcanos are happening; the Mercalli intensity earthquake scale; and information on melt points of solid rock material.
Slideshare on living with earthquakes and volcanoes (remove the ad and click the up/down buttons to see the slideshow).

There is an overwhelming ton of stuff on earthquakes and volcanoes on the Internet. Find something you never knew before!

Plate tectonics

First step, read Undersea mountains march into the abyss; watch the video, and pick up what information you can about plate tectonics.

Look carefully at the map on this BBC page which shows you the plate margins. This will help answer one of the challenges: to describe the distribution of earthquakes, volcanoes, and fold mountains in relation to plate margins.

Useful site to find locations: Internet geography. Map to see worldwide distribution of plate boundaries, earthquakes and volcanoes here.

Environment & urbanisation

How do humans impact the environment? We could start here, with videos on stuff.

Take the footprint quiz. I think we live modestly in HK: no car, vegetarian, mama is cruel on the air con. But we run two fridges, buy milk from Australia, and travel by air to England, burning up the atmosphere as we go. What adjustments do you think we can make?

What can we do as citizens and consumers that put pressure on the manufacturers and producers? Is consumer pressure an effective way to tackle industrial waste problems, pollution, toxic runoff, resource depletion, landscape destruction, habitat loss?

Individual pressure is fine, but change also has to grow from institutions and communities. Not all is doom and gloom. There are projects which seek to create urban spaces that don't trash the environment. Find out about Eco Cities project; Sustainable cities; Transition network.

Let's spend some time this week reviewing the materials and making notes.

Be a planner

Okay, you are now in charge of planning an urban area.

Build a city from scratch.

What are you going to put in it? How are you going to avoid problems? Can you ensure that your plan copes with every challenge I'm going to throw at it, with all my questions about public services, transport, housing, employment, infrastructure, environment, building design and culture*?

Plan carefully! Take a moment to consider the favelas, shanty towns, tent cities, and squatter dwellings.

Let's go through this slideshow together about Kibera.

Now, here's the Dateline programme about those ghost towns in China.

City design from the air, here.

*I just want a jolly decent place to live where everyone is nice to each other and there is free ice cream every Wednesday.

How is land used? And why?

More about settlement. We'll tour! First, Hong Kong and our own home town. What's the same and different about these places? (There are similarities of land use, honest!)

Then let's think about other locations. At this point, the cities, towns, and rural areas in Brazil.

We'll do a lot of talk this week. Make sure you write ideas down for your notes.

Also, ask the IT Expert about More Economically Developed Countries and Less Economically Developed Countries. He will have a good line on those.

A geographer might describe urban and rural land use in terms of zones. Here are links to follow with breakfast this week (alongside Cake Lady's Danish pastries, mama's fruit salad, and Ritter's helpful contribution to your delicious, reward-in-advance, home-made pain au chocolat): Definitions, Diagrams, More diagrams, Slideshow.

Lots of interesting links too, on this page of OpenGecko.

A student looks at zones between the city centre and rural/urban fringe. You will need to pause the animation to read the screens.

Settlement: Urban and rural

We're living in quite a good location to compare urban and rural settlements.

All the islands of Hong Kong started off with much the same appearance less than two hundred years ago.

Look at the village we live in, compared to Hong Kong Central; can you think of reasons why one has expanded as it has, but the other location has experienced a much slower rate of development?

Let's talk that over, and make a visit to the Planning and Infrastructure gallery again.

If you'd like a capital cities quiz at this point, try yacapaca.

Population: collect your waffle basket*

Check you have something in your notes for the areas we've looked at; fill in missing gaps.

Other activities:

Ask questions and carry on reading. There's a ton of material out here thanks to the news that the world population is hitting 7 billion.

Try this migration quiz or this quiz on population distribution. (If your computer does not show either quiz, please tell me; we can find a computer that works for you.)

Here's a useful guide - Population Change Review - which quickly packs some of the ideas about population that we've talked about into a slideshow. You can control what you want to look at. Choose any one screen and we can talk some more.

Let's make a date for the waffles.

*Terms and conditions apply. Thanks, Shark!

Population: what affects who lives where?

Quick video on population density here!

Look about the town where we live. Where is most densely populated? Where are the areas where fewer people live? What's the difference between these places?

Read this page. Read, in particular the section Factors affecting population density. The table breaks down these factors into physical and human.

Draw a map to show all the factors you can identify from this extract, plus anything else you can think of that might affect where people move and live.

Add captions as you go. For example, you might draw a city and label the city with information, such as 'high density population results from stable government, trade, jobs, health services, good transport'. A desert area on your map might be labelled 'extremes of physical landscape or extremes of temperature result in low density population'. Yes, they would look pretty good!

Try this game. I have no idea what it's like!

Visit this article. Let's talk about the population age/sex pyramid in the UK and the costs/benefits of migrancy.

Population: what's an age/sex pyramid?

Easy. A graph that looks like a pyramid. Or sometimes not.

Watch this video.

It shows you about population pyramids for an MEDC and an LEDC.

An MEDC is a More Economically Developed Country and an LEDC is a Less Economically Developed Country.

This second video has a useful still of three 'pyramid' shapes side by side.

You could draw out an age/sex pyrmaid for many circumstances. Have a go at drawing out such a pyramid to represent the local home ed group, or better still, your clan of unicorns.

Population: can you describe the consequences of different patterns of population growth?

Walk about town. Do you see lots of children? Young women? Young men? Lots of middle-aged people? Elderly people? Who are the construction workers? Who are the nannies and childminders? Who seems to be wearing suits?

This week I'll read extracts from a government report about Hong Kong's populations. Where are you going? Come back! It's interesting! Honestly! And I have chocolate!

What would happen in the town where you live if there was a great growth of any one of those groups of people you saw? Or a great decline? What would happen if all the Filipinas left town?!

Make sure you get hold of daddy at some point and ask him about Demographic patterns. He's good at that stuff and can do the maths.

Population: Case study Hong Kong

Visit the Sha Tin Museum for the New Territories gallery.

Pay attention particularly to the last section about the development of the new towns. Make sure you play the game about building a city from scratch.

Take note as you visit any museum if they have references to population growth and migration.

There is an imaginary city game here. (It's a little less practical than having to consider what medical infrastructure you will need for the elderly.)

Population: what are the causes and consequences of under population and over population?

This question has two main parts.

First let's define overpopulation and underpopulation. Then ask yourself, what causes each of these states? And what is the result?

Create a table or a spider to organise all your ideas.

Go to YouTube and explore population videos. Not all the videos agree that there is a world problem at all.

See how many different points of view, and different arguments you can find. For example, the Population 101 series starts from a different point of view to the one we normally see.

This document might also be helpful, remind me about the activities at the end to try.

Insight Zambia, BBC news video here.

You can see that population isn't just about graphs. It's politics, ecology, your rights, your responsibilities, the lives and decisions of other people and the flows and changes of social groups. Not much then, eh? Try an article by Jonathon Porritt.

What would you say in argument to a person who asserts that 'to have more than two children is irresponsible'?

Population: what are problems of population growth?

Walk through the area of town where lots of people live. What can you see? Walk through an area of town where few people live. What do you notice?

Find out what you can about Thomas Malthus. What do you read about him?

Watch some videos on YouTube explaining Malthus' ideas.

What problems can you think might occur, either when population growth is very rapid, or very slow?

Now imagine yourself 30 years into the future. You'll be aged over 40. Babies born in 2011 are now 30 years old. Are there enough jobs for you all? Who's supporting the elderly people (like me! I'll be 80!)? Are there enough babies being born to replace the oldies of us who are dying off? Does it matter?

Why might people need to project all these ideas anyway?

Population. What is it?

What do you understand by the word population?

Go for a walk in three different environments:

-across the fields or to the beach
-in a minor street or alley
-along a major high street route

As you walk, look at the different people you see; think about their homes, lifestyles and jobs. Where might they live? You could speculate whether they have a large family or a small one.

Write out as many interpretations of this word as you can think of. Can you find examples, figures, and references to support your ideas?

Other places to start beside your home town? Travel to Wiki or Simple Wiki.

The world population stands at 7 billion. (This must be estimated, right? Who counted? How did they do that?) Watch the BBC version of this moment here.

IGCSE Geography (0460) Past Paper Questions 2010

IGCSE Geography (0460) Past Paper Questions 2010

Theme 1

For an example of international migration which you have studied, explain why many people made the decision to migrate. You should name the countries between which people migrated and refer both to pull and to push factors.

Many settlements have grown into large urban areas. For a named example of a large urban area which you have studied, explain the reasons for its growth.

Name an example of a city or country to which large numbers of people have migrated from other countries. Describe the effects of international migration on your chosen city or country.

Many towns and cities are growing rapidly. With reference to a named urban area which you have studied, describe the problems in its rural-urban fringe which are being caused by its growth.

For a country which you have studied, explain why the rate of natural population growth is low.

In all towns and cities there have been changes in land use in recent years. These include the development of transport, areas of housing, industries, leisure and shopping facilities. Briefly describe one recent change in land use in or close to a town or city which you have studied. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of this change in land use for the people who live in the town or city.

The size and structure of the population in a country may change as a result of government policies. For a named country which you have studied, describe the policies which have been used by the government to influence rates of natural population growth.

For a named urban area which you have studied, describe the main features of its Central Business District (CBD).

Theme 2

Explain how one of the following has formed in a named area which you have studied: a spit; an area of coastal sand dunes. You should use labelled diagrams in your answer.

Describe the advantages and difficulties for people of living on a river delta. You should refer to a delta which you have studied.

Explain the causes of an earthquake which occurred in a named area which you have studied.

For a named tropical desert, explain how and why the natural environment is threatened by human activities.

Explain how and why a delta is formed. You should refer to an example you have studied and include labelled diagrams.

In many parts of the world the natural environment presents hazards to people. Choose an example of one of the following: a flood, a tropical storm, a drought. For a named area, describe the causes of the hazard which you have chosen.

Choose a named example of one of the following: an area of mountains, a fast-flowing river, a flood plain. Describe the ways in which your chosen type of natural environment can provide opportunities for the people who live there.

Theme 3

All farming systems have inputs, processes and outputs. Name an area where small-scale subsistence farming takes place. Describe the inputs,processes and outputs of this farming system.

Identify a form of energy and describe how its use threatens the natural environment in a named country or area which you have studied.

All farming systems have inputs, processes and outputs.Name an area where large-scale commercial farming takes place. Describe the inputs,processes and outputs of this farming system.

For a named area of tropical desert you have studied, explain why and how it is at risk from human activities.

Name an example of an area where manufacturing or processing industry has been located and explain the factors which have attracted this type of industry to the area.

For a named area which you have studied, explain why the tourist industry has developed there. You should refer to the area·s natural and built attractions.

Name an area where either manufacturing or processing industry is important and give an example of a type of industry (or factory) which you have studied in that area. Explain the reasons for its growth at that location.

Many areas have a shortage of water supplies. Describe the likely impacts of a water shortage on the people and development of a named area which you have studied.