Glaciated Landscapes and Change | Edexcel A-Level Geography (9GE0)
Glaciated Landscapes and Change
- 330 questions
- 24 subtopics
- Paper 1: one landscape system of two
- Paper 1 and Paper 3
Covers ice as a system and as a sculptor: where ice sits now and where it once reached, how a glacier gains and loses mass and how it moves, the landforms it erodes and deposits, and how people use and manage glaciated country..
It covers the cryosphere and the types of glacier, glacial chronology and the causes of climate change, evidence for Pleistocene ice extent, relict glacial landscapes, and polar against temperate glaciers, permafrost, nivation, frost heave and solifluction, ice wedges, patterned ground, pingos and loess, glacial mass balance and the ice-albedo feedback, accumulation and ablation processes, the equilibrium line and how glaciers move, what controls the rate of glacial movement, basal slip and internal deformation, what speeds a glacier up or slows it down, debris entrainment, transport and the scale of glacial landforms, glacial erosion, corries, aretes and pyramidal peaks, troughs, hanging valleys, ribbon lakes and roches moutonnees, moraines: lateral, medial, recessional and terminal, drumlins, till plains and the two kinds of till, erratics and reconstructing former ice movement, meltwater pathways, and analysing fluvioglacial sediment, fluvio-glacial (meltwater) landforms, the value of glaciated landscapes to people, natural hazards and human threats to glaciated landscapes, climate change and the players who manage these landscapes and management approaches, legislation and scale.
Sample questions from Glaciated Landscapes and Change
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The cryosphere and the types of glacier
How does the cryosphere affect atmospheric and oceanic circulation patterns?
Show the answer
Cold polar regions create temperature gradients that drive global wind systems and ocean currents, influencing heat distribution across the planet. -
Relict glacial landscapes, and polar against temperate glaciers
What do hanging valleys reveal about relict glacial landscapes?
Show the answer
These tributary valleys with floors elevated above the main valley indicate differential erosion by glaciers of different sizes during the Pleistocene. -
Glacial mass balance and the ice-albedo feedback
What is a positive mass balance and what effect does it have on a glacier?
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A positive mass balance occurs when accumulation exceeds ablation, causing the glacier to advance. -
What controls the rate of glacial movement
Why do larger glaciers with greater ice thickness tend to move faster?
Show the answer
Increased pressure at the base promotes pressure melting and basal slip, and greater weight drives internal deformation. -
Debris entrainment, transport and the scale of glacial landforms
What is subglacial load, and why is it important for erosion?
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Debris carried at the base of the glacier; dragged over the bed, it acts as the tools of abrasion and is itself ground down, producing fine rock flour. -
Moraines: lateral, medial, recessional and terminal
What weathering process loosens rock from valley sides to supply material for lateral moraines?
Show the answer
Freeze-thaw weathering loosens rock from the valley sides above the glacier. -
Meltwater pathways, and analysing fluvioglacial sediment
Where does supraglacial flow occur within a glacial system?
Show the answer
On the glacier surface. -
Natural hazards and human threats to glaciated landscapes
What threats does reservoir construction pose to glaciated landscapes?
Show the answer
It floods valleys, destroys habitats, alters natural drainage patterns, and changes sediment transport.
The 24 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| The cryosphere and the types of glacier | What the cryosphere is and how it regulates albedo, sea level, freshwater storage and atmospheric and oceanic circulation, and ice sheets, ice caps, cirque and valley glaciers, ice fields, polar and temperate glaciers, and the present-day Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. | 14 |
| Glacial chronology and the causes of climate change | Glacials, interglacials, stadials and interstadials, the lengthening Pleistocene cycles, the Anglian and Devensian glaciations and the Loch Lomond Stadial, the Holocene, the Little Ice Age and the Anthropocene, and the Milankovitch, solar, atmospheric and volcanic causes of climate change. | 15 |
| Evidence for Pleistocene ice extent | Recall questions on erratics, striations, moraines, drumlins and till as records of how far the ice reached. | 8 |
| Relict glacial landscapes, and polar against temperate glaciers | Recall questions on the landforms left behind in Britain, and on what separates a polar from a temperate glacier. | 13 |
| Permafrost, nivation, frost heave and solifluction | Recall questions on continuous, discontinuous and sporadic permafrost, the active layer, and the periglacial processes at work. | 21 |
| Ice wedges, patterned ground, pingos and loess | Recall questions on how each periglacial landform develops and where it is found. | 11 |
| Glacial mass balance and the ice-albedo feedback | Recall questions on what mass balance measures, and on the feedback loops that amplify or dampen change. | 10 |
| Accumulation and ablation processes | Recall questions on snowfall, avalanche and wind deposition against melting, sublimation, evaporation and calving. | 14 |
| The equilibrium line and how glaciers move | Recall questions on the equilibrium line altitude, the accumulation and ablation zones, and basal slip against internal deformation. | 14 |
| What controls the rate of glacial movement | How altitude, basal temperature, gradient, lithology, ice thickness and mass balance control the rate of glacial movement, positive and negative feedback in glacier flow, extending and compressing flow, calculating mass balance and the equilibrium line, and using GIS to map glacier zones and assess glacier health. | 14 |
| Basal slip and internal deformation | Recall questions on regelation creep, the role of meltwater, and how ice crystals deform under pressure. | 9 |
| What speeds a glacier up or slows it down | Recall questions on the positive and negative feedback loops governing the rate of flow. | 18 |
| Debris entrainment, transport and the scale of glacial landforms | How glaciers entrain debris, supraglacial, englacial and subglacial load, why glacial deposits are unsorted, macro, meso and micro-scale landforms, and the landforms of the sub-glacial, ice-marginal, proglacial and periglacial process environments. | 14 |
| Glacial erosion, corries, aretes and pyramidal peaks | Recall questions on abrasion, plucking and rotational slip, and on how each upland landform is cut. | 13 |
| Troughs, hanging valleys, ribbon lakes and roches moutonnees | Recall questions on how a U-shaped valley and its associated landforms are produced. | 11 |
| Moraines: lateral, medial, recessional and terminal | Recall questions on where the debris in each moraine comes from and what its position records. | 11 |
| Drumlins, till plains and the two kinds of till | Drumlin shape, stoss and lee ends and formation, till plains, how lodgement and ablation till are deposited and how they differ in consolidation and clast orientation, and drumlin morphometry and orientation surveys compared statistically between locations. | 15 |
| Erratics and reconstructing former ice movement | Recall questions on using erratics, crag and tail, drumlin orientation and till fabric to work out where the ice came from. | 22 |
| Meltwater pathways, and analysing fluvioglacial sediment | Supraglacial, englacial and sub-glacial meltwater pathways, how glacial and fluvioglacial deposits are told apart using central tendency and the Student t-test on clast size, shape and sorting, and what imbrication in outwash reveals about former meltwater flow. | 18 |
| Fluvio-glacial (meltwater) landforms | Outwash plains, eskers, kames, kame terraces, kettle holes, proglacial lakes and meltwater channels, and how sorting, stratification and clast shape distinguish fluvioglacial from glacial deposits. | 14 |
| The value of glaciated landscapes to people | Recall questions on the environmental, cultural and economic value of these landscapes, and on farming, mining, energy, tourism and forestry. | 14 |
| Natural hazards and human threats to glaciated landscapes | Recall questions on avalanches and outburst floods, and on tourism, reservoirs, urbanisation, trampling and deforestation. | 10 |
| Climate change and the players who manage these landscapes | Recall questions on what a changing mass balance does downstream, and on conservationists, government and NGOs as players. | 16 |
| Management approaches, legislation and scale | Legislative frameworks and the management of glaciated landscapes at local, national and global scales, with Yosemite Valley as the example, why climate change makes management harder and the future uncertain, mitigation against adaptation, and comparing average rates of glacier retreat around the world. | 11 |
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.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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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.
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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.
Nearby topics
Edexcel A-Level Geography Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 3,433 questions with their answers.