Glacial Systems and Landscapes | AQA A-Level Geography (7037)

Glacial Systems and Landscapes

227 questions
17 subtopics
Component 1 Section B: one landscape system of three
Component 1

Glaciers as mass budgets, the erosional and depositional landforms they leave, and the periglacial processes at their margins, followed by the fragility of cold environments under human and climatic pressure.

One of three landscape options in Section B of Component 1.

Sample questions from Glacial Systems and Landscapes

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Glaciers as Systems: Inputs, Stores and Flows

What is iceberg calving?

Show the answer
The breaking off of chunks of ice from the glacier terminus, typically into water, representing a loss of mass from the system.
Dynamic Equilibrium, Landforms and Landscapes

If a glacier's ablation consistently exceeds its accumulation, what would happen to its snout position and why?

Show the answer
The snout would retreat because more ice is being lost than gained, disrupting dynamic equilibrium.
The Distribution of Cold Environments

What determines the location of periglacial areas?

Show the answer
They occur at high latitudes or high elevations, in cold regions adjacent to or beyond glacial margins.
Corrie Formation

How does the steep backwall of a corrie become progressively steeper during glaciation?

Show the answer
Freeze-thaw weathering shatters rock above the glacier surface; loosened debris falls onto the ice, maintaining and steepening the backwall.
Roches Moutonnées, Drumlins and Erratics

How can the asymmetry of a roche moutonnée be used to reconstruct past glacial conditions?

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The smooth stoss side faces up-glacier and the rough lee side faces down-glacier, so the asymmetry indicates former ice flow direction.
Periglacial Landforms and Processes

How does an ice wedge grow over time?

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Annual repetition of cracking and refreezing widens the wedge incrementally over centuries.
The Fragility of Cold Environments

What is thermokarst, and why does vegetation removal in permafrost areas risk triggering it?

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Thermokarst is irregular, hummocky terrain formed by ground subsidence when ice-rich permafrost thaws. Removing vegetation exposes dark soil that absorbs more heat, accelerating thaw and causing irreversible collapse.
Fieldwork Skills in Glaciated Environments

How are statistical skills applied to data collected in glaciated environments?

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Testing relationships between variables (e.g. correlation, regression) and assessing the significance of observed patterns to determine whether results are likely due to chance.

The 17 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Glaciers as Systems: Inputs, Stores and Flows	Recall questions on glacial systems, their inputs of precipitation, rock debris, solar radiation and geothermal heat, outputs of meltwater, calving, deposition and sublimation, their energy, stores of ice, meltwater and debris, and flows of ice, meltwater and debris.	18
Ice-Albedo and Negative Feedback	Recall questions on positive feedback and each step of the ice-albedo loop, and on negative feedback in which retreating ice exposes ocean water, increasing precipitation and snow accumulation and so affecting glacier mass.	11
Dynamic Equilibrium, Landforms and Landscapes	Recall questions on dynamic equilibrium in a glacial system and what it means for the snout, on landforms, landscapes and how glaciated landscapes form, and on why glacial systems are open systems.	10
The Glacial Mass Budget and Ice Movement	Recall questions on the glacial mass budget, accumulation and ablation zones, the equilibrium line, positive, negative and balanced budgets, past ice advance and retreat, basal sliding and internal deformation, extending, compressing and rotational flow, and warm- and cold-based glaciers.	16
The Distribution of Cold Environments	Recall questions on the polar, alpine and periglacial settings of cold environments, their temperatures and seasonal variation, and on the extent of Pleistocene glaciation in Europe, North America and the British Isles compared with present-day cold environments.	15
Climate, Soils and Vegetation in Cold Environments	Recall questions on short growing seasons and precipitation, on thin, waterlogged, nutrient-poor soils and cryoturbation, on the non-vascular plants, lichens, dwarf shrubs and grass-like plants of the tundra, and on how slow decomposition links acidic soils and sparse vegetation.	14
Corrie Formation	Recall questions on nivation creating the initial hollow, the steepening of the backwall and the part rotational sliding plays.	8
Glacial Troughs and Hanging Valleys	Recall questions on how abrasion and plucking turn a river valley into a glacial trough, changing its planform and cross-profile, on hanging valleys formed by differential erosion by tributary glaciers, and on interlocking and truncated spurs.	10
Roches Moutonnées, Drumlins and Erratics	Recall questions on the stoss and lee sides of a roche moutonnée and what its asymmetry and surface features reveal about ice flow, on drumlins, their material, orientation, shape and groups, and on erratics as evidence of past ice movement.	12
Moraines, Till and Fluvioglacial Landforms	Recall questions on lateral, medial, terminal, recessional and ground moraines, till plains and till, and on meltwater channels, kames, kame terraces, eskers and outwash plains, and how fluvioglacial deposits differ from till.	16
Periglacial Landforms and Processes	Recall questions on how frost heave forms patterned ground, stone circles and stripes, on ice wedges, open- and closed-system pingos and blockfields, and on the active layer, permafrost and solifluction with its lobes and terracettes.	18
Thermokarst and Landform Distribution	Recall questions on what triggers thermokarst, its characteristic features and the feedback that speeds it up.	10
The Fragility of Cold Environments	Recall questions on slow biological processes, thin soils, short growing seasons and low species diversity as sources of fragility.	13
Impacts and Management of Cold Environments	Recall questions on pipelines and roads, glacier retreat, permafrost thaw, sea ice loss and coastal erosion, on management through protected areas, the Antarctic Treaty System, tourism controls, elevated pipelines and thermosyphons, and on future scenarios, indigenous involvement, mitigation, adaptation and resilience.	19
Fieldwork Skills in Glaciated Environments	Recall questions on the observation, measurement and geospatial mapping skills used in glaciated environments, on the data manipulation and statistical skills applied to field measurements from glacial and periglacial environments, and on how data collection differs between the two.	13
Glacial Case Study Requirements	Recall questions on what a local-scale UK glaciated environment case study must show about glacial processes, field data and landscape outcomes, and on how a contrasting glaciated landscape beyond the UK is used to evaluate human occupation, challenges, opportunities, resilience and mitigation.	13
Alaska as a contrasting glaciated landscape	Alaska as a glaciated landscape beyond the UK, where active glaciers and permafrost bring opportunities such as oil and tourism alongside challenges from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the Exxon Valdez spill, glacial outburst floods and thawing ground.	11

Glacial Systems and Landscapes is 227 of the 3,320 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.