Topic 3 of 6 · Form 3
Plate tectonics, rivers and coasts
Structure of the Earth; plate boundaries – constructive, destructive and conservative; earthquakes and volcanoes; why people live in hazardous areas; reducing the impact (prediction, preparation, building design).
Notes for this topic 1 file, in order
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Plate tectonics
Structure of the Earth; plate boundaries – constructive, destructive and conservative; earthquakes and volcanoes; why people live in hazardous areas; reducing the impact (prediction, preparation, building design).
Rivers
- Drainage basin features; processes: erosion (hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition, solution), transport (traction, saltation, suspension, solution), deposition.
- Landforms: V-shaped valleys, waterfalls and gorges (e.g. Victoria Falls), meanders, ox-bow lakes, floodplains, levées and deltas.
- Flooding: causes, impacts, and management (hard and soft engineering).
Coasts
- Processes: wave types (constructive, destructive), erosion, longshore drift, deposition.
- Landforms: headlands and bays, cliffs and wave-cut platforms, caves, arches, stacks, beaches, spits and bars.
- Coral reefs and mangroves: conditions, value and threats.
- Coastal management.
Exam tip: Explain landform formation as a sequence of processes, ideally with an annotated diagram.
Check yourself
- What type of plate boundary is found along the mid-Atlantic ridge?
- Name the process by which material moves along a coastline.
- Explain how a waterfall retreats upstream.
Show answers
- Constructive (divergent).
- Longshore drift.
- Soft rock beneath hard rock is eroded, forming an overhang that collapses; the process repeats, forming a gorge.
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