Summary
Summary of GCSE Geography
A Full set of notes covering all the key components of the GCSE Geography course.
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Global hazards:Coriolis effect:
Places near the equator will spin faster than the places near the poles. Because
of this, when storms are created, they are pulled slightly left or right. This is
why storms spin. They will spin anticlockwise in the North and clockwise in the
South - they have a lower pressure.
Hadley cell:
The largest cells extend from the equator to
between 30 and 40 degrees north and south.
They are called Hadley cells after the English
meteorologist George Hadley.
Ferrel cell:
In the ferrel cells, air converges at low altitudes
to ascend along the boundaries between cool
polar air and the warm subtropical air that
generally occurs between 60 and 70 degrees
north and south. This often occurs at the latitude of the UK which gives us our
unsettled weather.
Polar cell:
The smallest and weakest cells are the polar
cells which extend from between 60 and 70
degrees north and south to the poles. Air in
these cells sinks over the highest latitudes and
flows out toward the lower latitudes at the
surface.
Precipitation:
Warm air rises, as it rises it condenses in the
cold air and turns into rain
Convectional- air pulls and water creates
clouds. ( normal rain ).
Relief- warm air meets cool air. Warm air rises
above cool air. High land goes up- gets colder, heavier condenses to make rain.
Frontal- mountain winds rise, cold air from above, they mix adding extra rain to
the hot cloud.
Coldest place on earth:
Antarctica is the coldest place with surface areas dropping as low as 89.2
degrees. The temperatures are so low because the solar rays are less intense.
Types of wind:
Trade winds- between Hp and Lp.
Katabatic winds- air flowing down a hill.
Jet streams- high in the atmosphere.
Temperate - mid latitudes north and south meet ferrel and polar cells come
together.
,Tropical- belt of low pressure, heavy rainfall and thunderstorms.
Subtropical- desert , at 30 degrees north and south of the equator.
Polar- highest latitude, coldest place dry icy winds by the spin of the earth.
Drought- a period where there is much less precipitation over a specific time
than usual for an area, leading to water shortages.
Tropical storm- a powerful, rotating storm
in the tropics. They are known as
typhoons in the east, cyclones in the
south and hurricanes in the west.
Formation of a tropical storm:
Sea temperature of 27 degrees or higher,
Water evaporates and air becomes warm
and damp,
Warm air rises creating a low pressure,
Rising air spirals due to the spinning earth,
Rising air condenses and forms huge clouds and spreads out,
More air gets sucked in to replace the rising air,
Gains speed,
Winds get stronger and a tropical depression forms,
When the wind reaches speeds of 38mph it is a tropical storm.
If a tropical storm hits there will be, destruction to
property, communication and transport. Storm
surges, landslides, flash floods and businesses like
fishing, tourism and shipping will be affected.
La Niña - La Niña is when the normal conditions
become more extreme. Trade winds blow to the
west more strongly, and more cold water rises in the
eastern Pacific. It causes more heavy rainfall and
floods in the west, and less rainfall and droughts in
the east. These events happen every 2-7 years.
El Niño - In an El Niño event, pressure rises the
western pacific and falls in the east. This causes the
trade winds (which normally blow from east to west)
to weaken or reverse direction. The sinking air in the
high pressure area er the western pacific leads to
unusually dry weather. This can cause drought in Australia. The rising air in the
low pressure area over the eastern Pacific leads to unusually wet weather. This
can cause serious floods in South America (ie Peru).
Case study- Australias big dry
Case study- Boscastle flash floods
There was a flash flood on August 16th 2004 because the huge clouds rained
and ran down the sides of The Valley, and created 6 inches of rain combined
with winds and the rising tide it as inevitable. Physical causes, small drainage
basin, steep valley sides, low drainage density and it is at the confluence of
Jordan and Vallency. Human causes, Jordan passes through 100m underground
, culvert, building on the flood plain, bridges, clearing vegetation from The
Valley.
Short term- houses destroyed, sewage pipes burst, cars swept out to sea.
Long term- 25 million pounds lost, jobs lost, insurance premiums increased.
Lithosphere (crust):
The layer that we live on. It’s the thinnest layer,
and is divided into large chunks called tectonic
plates. The plates are made up of two different
types of crust, continental and oceanic. The
continental crust is thick and light because it is
made up of rocks with low densities. The oceanic
crust is the opposite.
Mantle:
It makes up nearly 80% of the earths volume. It
is divided into two layers, upper and lower, and
the heat within these layers drives convection
currents. The upper park of this section is called
semisolid rock called magma.
Outer core:
The liquid metal swirls around, it includes a current that generates the earths
magnetic field. It is 2400km. It is made of liquid iron and nickel. Heat powers
the convection currents in the mantle.
Inner core:
It is 1200km thick, and is made of solid iron and nickel that are under so much
pressure they cannot melt. It is the hottest part of the earth reaching 4000-
4700 degrees.
Convection currents:
He heat from the outer core rises up toward the crust. When it gets to the
crust, it will cool and turns back to a liquid and it all happens again.
Continental drift is the suggestion by Alfred Wegener that all of the continents
had originally been joined together as one landmass,
after which they separated and slowly drifted along the
ocean floors to their current location.
Destructive (convergent):
Two plates push together or converge and when they
do, land is destroyed. Denser (oceanic) plates will sink
below the less dense continental plates. As the denser
plates sink into the mantle it
rubs and causes friction, which melts the plates and
creates magma. This can lead to volcanic eruptions
as the magma reaches the surface. Earthquakes are
also caused by stress. Ie Philippine (oceanic) and
Eurasian (continental).
Constructive (divergent):
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