Tectonic Processes and Hazards | Edexcel A-Level Geography (9GE0)

Tectonic Processes and Hazards

345 questions
24 subtopics
Paper 1: the compulsory physical topics
Paper 1 and Paper 3

Covers why the Earth's crust moves and what happens when it does: plate boundaries and the forces driving them, the hazards each produces, and why the same magnitude event kills thousands in one country and dozens in another..

It covers global distribution of tectonic hazards and plate boundary processes, the structure of the Earth and mantle convection, ridge push, slab pull and sea-floor spreading, destructive and constructive plate margins, collision and transform margins, magma composition and eruption style, the Benioff zone and earthquake magnitude, seismic waves and their effects, volcanic hazards and tsunamis, hazard, vulnerability, resilience and the risk equation, the Pressure and Release model, the impacts of tectonic hazards, measuring hazards, and the hazard profile, speed of onset, areal extent, duration and predictability, why impacts differ between countries, education, buildings, healthcare and income as factors in vulnerability, governance at local and national level, population density, isolation and urbanisation, how development level shapes disaster outcomes, trends in tectonic disasters, data reliability and sampling, mega-disasters and multiple-hazard zones, theoretical frameworks for prediction, impact and management, land-use zoning and hazard-resistant design and monitoring, prediction, preparedness and aid.

Sample questions from Tectonic Processes and Hazards

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

Global distribution of tectonic hazards and plate boundary processes

Explain how new oceanic crust is created at oceanic divergent boundaries.

Show the answer
Magma rises to fill the gap as plates separate, creating new oceanic crust through sea-floor spreading.
Destructive and constructive plate margins

What volcanic and mountain features form at oceanic-continental destructive margins?

Show the answer
Explosive volcanic arcs and fold mountains.
The Benioff zone and earthquake magnitude

How does accumulated stress affect earthquake magnitude?

Show the answer
Greater accumulated stress results in more energy released during rupture, producing larger magnitude earthquakes.
Hazard, vulnerability, resilience and the risk equation

What is resilience in relation to hazard events?

Show the answer
The ability of a community to absorb, recover from, and adapt to the effects of a hazard event.
Measuring hazards, and the hazard profile

What three criteria does the Volcanic Explosivity Index use to measure eruption magnitude?

Show the answer
Volume of ejected material, eruption cloud height and qualitative observations.
Education, buildings, healthcare and income as factors in vulnerability

Why do differences in structural resilience influence earthquake impacts?

Show the answer
Buildings with reinforced structures, flexible designs, and quality materials absorb seismic energy better, reducing collapse risk compared to rigid or poorly built structures.
How development level shapes disaster outcomes

How does rapid urbanisation in emerging countries increase tectonic hazard vulnerability?

Show the answer
Fast population growth in cities leads to expansion of informal settlements in hazardous locations before planning controls can be implemented.
Theoretical frameworks for prediction, impact and management

Define the recovery stage in hazard management.

Show the answer
Recovery involves returning the affected area to normality, including rebuilding infrastructure, restoring services, and economic rehabilitation.

The 24 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Global distribution of tectonic hazards and plate boundary processes	Recall questions on where earthquakes, eruptions and tsunamis cluster, the four kinds of plate boundary, and intra-plate activity at hot spots.	21
The structure of the Earth and mantle convection	Recall questions on the crust, mantle and core, and on the convection currents driven by heat from below.	8
Ridge push, slab pull and sea-floor spreading	Recall questions on the forces that move plates, sea-floor spreading, and the magnetic striping that provides the evidence.	15
Destructive and constructive plate margins	Recall questions on what happens where plates converge and diverge, and the landforms and eruption styles each produces.	12
Collision and transform margins	Recall questions on why fold mountains form where two continents meet, and why transform margins produce earthquakes but no volcanoes.	9
Magma composition and eruption style	Recall questions on how silica content, gas and temperature decide whether an eruption is effusive or explosive.	10
The Benioff zone and earthquake magnitude	Recall questions on the depth of earthquakes along a subducting slab, and on what makes a quake large.	13
Seismic waves and their effects	Recall questions on P, S and L waves, and on ground shaking, liquefaction and landslides.	13
Volcanic hazards and tsunamis	Recall questions on lava flows, pyroclastic flows, ash, gases, lahars and jokulhlaups, and on how a tsunami is generated.	14
Hazard, vulnerability, resilience and the risk equation	Recall questions on what turns a hazard into a disaster, and on the terms in the hazard risk equation.	9
The Pressure and Release model	Recall questions on root causes, dynamic pressures and unsafe conditions, and on what the model explains.	11
The impacts of tectonic hazards	Recall questions on the social, economic and environmental consequences, and on the secondary hazards that follow.	16
Measuring hazards, and the hazard profile	Recall questions on the Mercalli scale, moment magnitude and the Volcanic Explosivity Index, and on what a hazard profile shows.	14
Speed of onset, areal extent, duration and predictability	Recall questions on how earthquakes, eruptions and tsunamis compare on each of the profile criteria.	13
Why impacts differ between countries	Why death tolls and economic losses differ between developed, emerging and developing countries, the social and economic impacts of tectonic hazards, resilience and correlating magnitude with deaths and damage, and events such as Haiti 2010, Gorkha 2015, Christchurch 2011, Tōhoku 2011, Nevado del Ruiz, Eyjafjallajökull and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.	24
Education, buildings, healthcare and income as factors in vulnerability	How unequal access to education limits hazard awareness, preparedness and understanding of warnings, how building quality and informal settlements affect collapse, how medical response and healthcare shape resilience and recovery, and how low incomes, limited insurance and constrained recovery funding raise vulnerability to tectonic hazards.	12
Governance at local and national level	Recall questions on zoning, building codes, emergency services, legislation and national coordination.	8
Population density, isolation and urbanisation	Recall questions on how crowding, remoteness and city growth raise exposure and slow the response.	9
How development level shapes disaster outcomes	How building codes, warning systems, emergency response and preparedness lower death tolls in developed countries, why poverty raises them in developing countries, urbanisation, infrastructure lag and variable governance in emerging countries, physical factors such as depth, geology and coastal exposure, and comparisons of Haiti with Darfield, Christchurch, Nepal 2015, Sichuan 2008 and Japan 2011.	28
Trends in tectonic disasters, data reliability and sampling	Trends since 1960 in the number of tectonic disasters, people affected, deaths and economic losses, why underreporting, population density, urbanisation, wealth and reporting standards make the data hard to read, and random, systematic and stratified sampling, sample size and measurement error.	22
Mega-disasters and multiple-hazard zones	Tectonic mega-disasters such as the 2004 Asian tsunami, the global disruption from Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 and the Fukushima nuclear disaster after the 2011 Japanese tsunami, and multiple-hazard zones and linked hazards, with the earthquakes, typhoons, flooding and landslides of the Philippines as the example.	17
Theoretical frameworks for prediction, impact and management	Recall questions on the hazard management cycle and the Park model, and on what each is used to explain.	19
Land-use zoning and hazard-resistant design	Recall questions on planning controls, and on base isolation, cross-bracing, shear walls and diverting lava.	10
Monitoring, prediction, preparedness and aid	Recall questions on monitoring instruments, education and drills, short and long-term aid, insurance, NGOs and GIS.	18

Tectonic Processes and Hazards is 345 of the 3,433 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.