Geography summer exam, year 7

Hurst. Good luck!

Drainage basin

An area of land drained by the river

Three courses of a river

Upper, middle, and lower

Three river processes

Erosion, transportation and deposition

Erosion

Erosion is the weathering away of a stone or rock over time

Hydraulic action

River wears away the river bank from underneath

Attrition

Rocks being carried by the river smash together and break into smaller particles

Abrasion

Rocks carried along by the river wear down the river bed and banks

Solution

Smaller particles are dissolved into the river

Transportation

When the river moves sediment from the source to the mouth. The more energy the river has, the bigger rocks it can carry. But when the energy levels are low it can only transport small particles.

Deposition

When a river loses energy, it will drop of some of the material it is carrying.

Upper course features

V-shaped valley, waterfalls and gorges

V-shaped valleys

Steep-sided valleys formed by vertical erosion in a river's upper course.

Waterfall

Formed as a river flows over harder rock layer overlaying a softer rock. The softer rock erodes, undercutting the harder rock, eventually collapsing into the plunge pool to create a waterfall.

Gorge

Eventually as the waterfall retreats upstream, a gorge is formed downstream.

Middle course features

Meanders and ox-bow lakes

Meander

A bend in a river's course, formed through erosion on the outer bank and deposition on the inner bank.

Ox-bow Lake

Ox-bow lakes originate from meanders. The edge of the meander's neck is slowly eroded as the river flows. During floods, the river takes the quickest route and cuts through the neck, creating a new, shorter path and cutting off the meander. This cutoff forms the ox-bow lake.

Lower course features

Flood plans and deltas

Floodplains

An flat area on the edge of a river that gets flooded

Deltas

Landforms created by deposition of sediment where a river flows into an ocean or lake. They are typically triangular or fan-shaped.

Natural causes of flooding

Heavy rainfall, Snow melting, impermeable, steep slopes in drainage basin

Human courses of flooding

Deforestation, urbanisation, farming land

Settlement

A place where people live and work

Settlement location factors

1. Hilltop sites easier to defend

2. Close to stone and wood to build with

3. Flat land to build on

4. Near farming land for food

5. Above flood levels

6. Near a water supply

Functions of a settlement

1. Port

2. Industrial

3. Market town

4. Holiday resort

Describe

Say what you see. Say what the main characteristics are

Explain

Give reasons. Say why something is the way it is.

Evaluate

Make a judgement

Discuss

Give both sides of the argument

Compare

Say what the similarities and differences are

Suggest

Give possible reasons for something happening.

Outline

Give the main points

Choropleth maps

They use shades of the same colour to show the distribution of data.

Top of an OS map

Always north

Line graphs

They are used to show continuous changes over time.

Bar charts

They are used to compare different categories. The bars must be separated by gaps because the categories are unconnected.

Combined graphs

Sometimes, graphs may be combined if they are showing related but different data. For example, a bar chart and a line graph are used for hydrographs (rivers) and climate graphs.