Glaciated Landscapes | OCR A-Level Geography (H481)

Glaciated Landscapes

267 questions
17 subtopics
Component 01: Physical systems, one landscape of three plus the compulsory life support systems
Component 01

Glaciated Landscapes is examined in Component 01, Physical systems.

It covers the glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputs, glacier mass balance and the equilibrium line, climate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciation, geology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapes, firn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheets, warm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movement, weathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environments, glacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rock, entrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sediment, corries, arêtes and pyramidal peaks, glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakes, moraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheets, characteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over time, glacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plains, permafrost, patterned ground and pingos, people in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarst and people in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley change.

Sample questions from Glaciated Landscapes

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

The glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputs

What is a store in a glaciated landscape system?

Show the answer
A place where matter or energy is held for a period of time, such as the glacier ice itself, a snowfield, a moraine or a proglacial lake.
Climate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciation

Why does the seasonal distribution of precipitation matter as much as the annual total?

Show the answer
Precipitation falling as winter snow adds to accumulation, while the same amount arriving as summer rain warms the surface and speeds up ablation.
Firn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheets

Why does dense glacier ice appear blue?

Show the answer
Bubble-free ice absorbs the longer red wavelengths of light and scatters the shorter blue wavelengths back to the observer.
Weathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environments

What is pressure release weathering?

Show the answer
When thick ice or overlying rock is removed, the reduction in pressure allows the rock beneath to expand and crack along joints running parallel to the surface.
Entrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sediment

Why is subglacially transported debris more rounded and scratched than supraglacial debris?

Show the answer
It is ground against the bed and against other clasts, which blunts the edges and cuts striations into the stones.
Glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakes

What is a misfit stream?

Show the answer
It is a stream far too small to have cut the valley it flows along, because that valley was carved by ice.
Characteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over time

Name three features of the Helvellyn area of the Lake District that show it was shaped by valley glaciers.

Show the answer
Red Tarn in its corrie, the arêtes of Striding Edge and Swirral Edge, and the trough now filled by Ullswater.
Permafrost, patterned ground and pingos

Why does the ground become waterlogged in summer even in a dry periglacial climate?

Show the answer
The frozen ground below the active layer is impermeable, so meltwater cannot drain downwards and saturates the thawed surface layer.

The 17 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputs	Recall questions on the glaciated landscape as an open system: its inputs of matter and energy, stores, flows and outputs, dynamic equilibrium, negative and positive feedback, albedo, and the glacial sediment budget with a worked storage calculation.	14
Glacier mass balance and the equilibrium line	Recall questions on glacier mass balance, accumulation, ablation and sublimation, the accumulation zone and equilibrium line, the seasonal balance of an Alpine glacier, water equivalent and net balance calculations, the accumulation area ratio, and why a snout advances or retreats only after a lag.	15
Climate, latitude and altitude as controls on glaciation	Recall questions on how precipitation, maritime and continental climates, latitude and altitude control glaciation, the dry interior of Antarctica, the environmental lapse rate with a worked calculation, the snow line on Kilimanjaro and in Norway, and why glaciers reach sea level in Greenland.	14
Geology, relief and aspect in glaciated landscapes	Recall questions on lithology and geological structure in glaciated landscapes, how jointing and weak or resistant rock bands shape erosion and troughs, the Skiddaw Slates and Borrowdale Volcanic rocks of the Lake District, and how relief and aspect decide where ice forms and why corries face north-east.	14
Firn, glacier ice, valley glaciers and ice sheets	Recall questions on how snow becomes firn and then glacier ice, the densities involved, why glacier ice looks blue, the role of meltwater, and valley glaciers, ice caps, piedmont glaciers and the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.	15
Warm-based and cold-based ice, and the mechanisms of glacier movement	Recall questions on warm-based and cold-based glaciers and the pressure melting point, basal sliding, regelation, enhanced basal creep and internal deformation, the velocity profile of a valley glacier, extending and compressing flow, crevasses, glacier surges and the effect of summer meltwater.	18
Weathering, mass movement and nivation in cold environments	Recall questions on frost shattering and freeze-thaw, blockfields, pressure release and chemical weathering in cold environments, scree slopes, rockfall after glacier retreat, solifluction and avalanches, and how nivation deepens a hollow into the first stage of a corrie.	15
Glacial erosion and the marks it leaves on rock	Recall questions on abrasion and plucking, rock flour and striations, reading ice direction from roches moutonnées, crag and tail, whalebacks, knock and lochan topography, erosion by subglacial meltwater, and why thicker ice erodes faster.	15
Entrainment, transport and deposition of glacial sediment	Recall questions on how glaciers entrain debris, supraglacial, englacial and subglacial debris, passive transport, lodgement and ablation till, telling till from glacio-fluvial deposits, summer sediment output, and fieldwork using till fabric analysis, clast roundness and the Mann-Whitney U test.	17
Corries, arêtes and pyramidal peaks	Recall questions on the shape and formation of corries, rotational slip, bergschrunds, rock lips and tarns such as Red Tarn on Helvellyn, arêtes such as Striding Edge, pyramidal peaks such as the Matterhorn, cols, and mapping corrie orientation with a chi-squared test.	17
Glacial troughs, hanging valleys and ribbon lakes	Recall questions on the U-shaped cross profile of a glacial trough, truncated spurs, hanging valleys and waterfalls, misfit streams, ribbon lakes and rock basins such as Wastwater, trough ends, rock steps, and fjords such as the Sognefjord.	15
Moraines, erratics, drumlins and till sheets	Recall questions on lateral, medial, terminal, recessional, push and ground moraines, erratics such as the Norber erratics and the Ailsa Craig microgranite, the shape, size and formation of drumlins and basket of eggs topography, and till sheets.	18
Characteristic glaciated landscapes and how they change over time	Recall questions on the landform assemblages of glaciated uplands and ice-sheet lowlands, the Helvellyn area of the Lake District, the Laurentide Ice Sheet with the Canadian Shield, Long Island and the Finger Lakes, change over seconds, seasons and millennia, varves, and Britain's relict glaciated landscape.	16
Glacio-fluvial landforms of deglaciation: kames, eskers and outwash plains	Recall questions on glacio-fluvial processes and deposits after the last glacial period, eskers, kames and kame terraces, outwash plains such as Skeiðarársandur in Iceland, jökulhlaups, kettle holes, and how these landforms are changing today.	16
Permafrost, patterned ground and pingos	Recall questions on periglacial environments, continuous, discontinuous and sporadic permafrost, the active layer, frost heave and patterned ground, ice wedges, open-system and closed-system pingos in the Mackenzie Delta, relict periglacial features in Britain, and the effects of present-day warming.	18
People in periglacial landscapes: resource extraction and thermokarst	Recall questions on resource extraction in periglacial regions, Prudhoe Bay and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, building on permafrost in Yakutsk, gravel pads and ice roads, how disturbance causes thermokarst, thaw lakes and drunken forests, the Batagaika crater, and the carbon released by thawing permafrost.	15
People in glaciated landscapes: dams, reservoirs and valley change	Recall questions on hydro-electric schemes in glacial troughs, the Grande Dixence dam in Switzerland, reservoir sedimentation, scour and bed armouring below dams, altered discharge regimes, and how ski pistes, snow-making, glacier retreat and tourist access around the Mer de Glace change mountain landscapes.	15

Glaciated Landscapes is 267 of the 3,740 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.