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A Level OCR Geography: Complete Cheat Sheet

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1.1 Option B – Glaciated Landscapes

“Feeling a little like a drumlin today.”

Check out this interactive ARCGIS British ice map to see places in the UK which have been influenced by glacial activity, with drumlins, subglacial lineations, moraines and more!

Glaciers as Systems

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Photo from Simon Fitall

There are 3 main parts to any system: inputs, processes and outputs.

Glaciers are dynamic. Glaciated landscapes may be seen as a system with many interrelated components (stores), processes (cause/effect mechanisms), inputs and outputs. This forms an open system.

Glaciers themselves can be seen as systems as they have a TON of different inputs, outputs, flows (or transfers) and stores.

Useful key terms

The Glacial Budget and Mass Balance

A glacier forms when snowfall exceeds summer melt in an area, resulting in the accumulation of snow and ice year after year, typically in a hollow on a mountain with a northwest-southeast aspect in the northern hemisphere.

Over time, snow is compacted and turned into glacial ice, and when this is around 40m thick, the intense pressure causes it to begin flowing. The top of the glacier is white, but glacial ice at the base of the glacier is blue as oxygen has left the system.

Snowflakes -> Granular snow -> Névé -> Firn -> Glacial ice

Glacial ice has a density of 850kg/m3. It is rock hard, feels glassy and is almost translucent.

The glacier mass balance is the total sum of all the accumulation (snow, ice, freezing rain) and melt or ice loss (from calving icebergs, melting, sublimation) across the entire glacier, or amount of ablation.

Over a year, the graph of mass balance in a northern hemisphere glacier may look like this in a typical scenario:
Diagram of the Glacial Mass Balance in a glacier, oscillating between minimum and maximum glacier mass

An equilibrium is reached between accumulation and ablation are equal. This point may be reached between the accumulation extreme in winter and the ablation extreme in the summer season. In the image above, as the accumulation is equal to ablation, the glacier is not growing.

Layers of snow within the ice give evidence of the way that it has formed.

Types of glacier and movement

(Date studied: ~29/09/2022)

An ice sheet is a mass of snow and ice, greater than 50,000km2 with considerable thickness.
A piedmont glacier spreads out as a wide lobe as it enters a wider plain typically from a smaller valley
A valley glacier is one bound by valley walls, coming from a higher mountain region, from a plateau on an ice cap or an ice sheet.
An ice cap - a dome-shaped mass of glacial ice usually situated on a highland area and also covers >50,000km2.

Valley glaciers usually occur in high altitude locations, with high relief, have fast rates of flow at 20–200m/year (mostly warm-based) and have distinct areas of ablation and accumulation, descending from mountains.

Ice sheets, however, are large masses of snow and ice defined by being greater than 50,000 km² and are usually in locations of high/low latitude and have slow rates of movement and only around 5m/year (mostly cold-based). The base of the glacier is frozen to the bedrock and has a little precipitation but also lower temperatures so ablation levels are lower too.

Fundamentally, glaciers move because of gravity. The gradient influences the effect of gravity on glaciers. The thickness of the ice and the pressure exerted on the bedrock can also influence melting and movement. More accumulation also leads to more movement. When ice is solid and rigid, it breaks into crevasses (big gaps visible from the surface). Under pressure, ice will deform and behave like plastic (zone of Plastic Flow on the lower half of the glacier) making it move faster. Conversely, the rigid zone is on the top half of the glacier.

Cold-based (polar) glaciers:

Warm-based (alpine) glaciers:

Cold-based glaciers are unable to move by basal sliding as the basal temperature is below the pressure melting point. Instead, they move through internal deformation.

Ice at 0°C deforms 100 times faster than at -20°C. Thus, the movement within cold-based glaciers is limited by there being a lack of lubricant, and the cold temperatures inhibiting internal deformation to a very slow rate.

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Factors affecting the microclimate

The microclimate is a small region with its own distinct climatic characteristics, for example, one side of a mountain, or the north side of a valley. Generally, wider climate characteristics play a larger role in influencing the behaviour of glaciers, but glaciers are also affected by various lower-level and smaller-scale conditions.

Regional climate

The wind is a moving force and can carry out processes such as transportation, position and erosion. In the air, these are known as aeolian processes, and can contribute to shaping glaciated landscapes. It is more effective when acting upon fine materials, usually those previously deposited by ice or meltwater, such as smaller rocks, dirt and sand.

Temperature within the climate is another factor, as temperatures above 0°C will melt accumulated snow and ice, resulting in more outputs in the system. At higher altitudes, there are typically more prolonged periods of above-freezing temperatures, and melting, compared to in high latitude locations, where is below freezing most of the time, allowing for glaciers to thicken and expansive ice sheets to form. Precipitation is another climate factor, with its totals and patterns, both regionally and seasonally, in determining the mass balance of a glacier system, as it provides the main inputs to these glaciers as snowfall.

Geology

Lithology is the chemical composition and physical properties of rocks. Some types, like basalt, are very resistant to erosion and weathering, as they are comprised of densely packed interlocking crystals. Clay, on the other hand, is weak and does not have these strong bonds on the molecular level. The solubility of rocks like chalk can also be affected by acidity, making them prone to chemical weathering as seen, through carbonation.

Structure relates to the physical rock types, like faulting, bedding and jointing. These all have an impact on how permeable rocks are. Chalk, for example, is very porous, spaces between the particles within it on the molecular level allow water to percolate through. Some types of limestone, like carboniferous limestone, have many interconnected joints, giving it ‘secondary permeability’.

Primary permeability is when spaces (pores) absorb and retain water.

Latitude and Altitude

Beyond the Arctic and Antarctic circles, located at 66.5° north and south, the climate is very dry, with little seasonal variation. Being so dry and extremely cold, they are much different to more dynamic valley glaciers as they have higher precipitation levels, and more névé turns into firn. The dryness contributes to periglacial environments (see below for more about those!) while also turning the types of glaciers in these areas to more cold-based. This means that they flow much less quickly, and different types of movement occur.

Altitude also has a direct impact on the temperatures and development of valley glaciers. As temperatures typically decrease by 0.7oC every 100m of altitude gained, there are more likely to be valley glaciers in areas of high relief, as seen in the Alps and the Himalayas. These glaciers are still not as cold as cold-based glaciers, however.

How are glacial landscapes developed?

Glacial landforms are typically classified according to erosional and depositional processes. This development can be described as a series of interrelated processes.

Glacial erosional landforms

Corries

A corrie.
The processes occurring in a corrie.

A corrie is an armchair-shaped depression in a mountain. Also known as a cwm or cirque, they are formed from small hollows on the slopes of mountains where snow begins to accumulate, typically on the north-west to south-east facing slopes (or with an azimuth ranging from 300-140 degrees) on a mountain in the northern hemisphere.

This is due to its aspect, or the orientation of which a slope faces, with this specific aspect resulting in having less insolation. Greater amounts of irradiation add thermal energy to the system, resulting in ablation.

This virgin snow is known as névé, which becomes firn after one complete cycle without melting (i.e. surviving a summer ablation period; of 1 year).

This newly-formed hollow, deepened by nivation (e.g. freeze-thaw processes) from the ice, then begins to move because of gravity acting upon the ice mass. The ice freezes to the back wall, plucking material (debris), which is then washed out through a process known as rotational slipping. Over multiple years, the snow at the bottom is compressed into ice, and the material plucked or that has fallen into the bergschrund crevasse is used by the ice to abrade and further deepen the hollow. Comparatively, the ice at the front of the corrie may be much thinner and therefore has lower pressure and is less abrasive, creating a rock lip, supplemented by washed out moraine from previously plucked material.

When this ice melts or the area is deglaciated, a tarn (or corrie lake) is created, enclosed by the rock lip. Material may then continue to fall down from the back wall due to continued weathering, combined with aspect and steep relief, known as scree.

[editor tbd note: add image of Easedale Tarn morainic lip here later]

Arêtes

An arête is a knife-shaped, narrow ridge formed when two corries’ back walls continually erode back-to-back. Over time, these back walls meet, and a distinct ridge is formed.

A diagram of a mountain, which has had erosional processes acting upon it.
A diagram of a mountain, which has had erosional processes acting upon it.

Pyramidal peaks

A pyramidal peak is a high mountain whose surroundings have been eroded as corries. Three or more corries eroding back-to-back (similarly to how arêtes form) result in this sharp peak forming. There are typically distinct aretes visible all the way up to the peak, representing the boundary between corries.

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The Matterhorn in the European Alps. It is a great example of a pyramidal peak.

U-shaped valleys

Also known as a glacial trough, a U-shaped valley is formed as a result of strongly channelled ice, bulldozing its way through a valley. On the valley’s sides, plucking occurs, causing the sides to steepen. This rocky material is then dragged by the glacier, helping it to carve out more of the landscape.

The actual shape of most U-shaped valleys is parabolic.

Firstly, before a glacial period, a V-shaped valley exists, having moderately steep sides and a central river channel, with interlocking spurs being a distinct feature. During periods of glaciation, snow begins to accumulate in these valleys as they are often sheltered.


How a V-shaped valley is formed. Remember this from GCSE? (if not, recap yourself on the GCSE cheat sheet!

When an ice mass has formed in the valley or flowed from an upland area, freeze-thaw weathering begins to occur above the glacier line (where this ice mass is), causing the valley to steepen, in the same way as a corrie steepens its back wall. The glacier itself also causes plucking, mostly on the sides, as rocks are frozen and ripped as the glacier moves. Vertical abrasion also deepens the valley floor as subglacial material comes into contact with the bedrock.

Hanging valley

Hanging valleys with waterfalls and truncated spurs are a feature of the U-shaped valley landform. They are visible within this glacial trough, and form as a smaller glacier from another valley has created a U-shaped valley which then enters the larger valley. As the hanging valley’s glacier is smaller, it is less powerful, so it does not reach the base of the larger glacial trough valley.


Photo from Peter Hammer.

Water features

After deglaciation, there may be some (iconic) water features in these glacial troughs.

Ribbon lake

Glaciers erode the valley into the typical U-shape. These lakes are typically long, thin and deep as a result of compressing flow, as this ice is likely to have come from an area of high incline to a more expansive area. This means that the ice is more likely to move faster and pushed into a thinner area downstream, so is more likely to erode vertically rather than laterally. This depression (or rock basin) is then refilled with water after a glacier retreats. More detail over at Ullswater in the Lake District case study section.

Misfit stream

A ribbon lake as well as a misfit stream may also be present in the base of the newly-formed glacial trough valley after deglaciation.


Misfit stream: Photo from Mario Álvarez.

Roche moutonnées

A roche moutonnée is a more resistant rock in the path of a glacier. Light abrasion from the above subglacial material occurs on the upvalley (stoss) side, resulting in striations, grooves, and polishing from subglacial debris. There may also be pressure melting at a local scale on this side.

As this meltwater is forced up and over the roche moutonnée, mechanical plucking and freeze-thaw weathering occur. On the down-valley (lee) side, the pressure release results in refreezing into ice, while the glacier continues to move, thereby pulling away the rock and giving it a craggy appearance.

Roche moutonnées are generally concentrated in areas of competent bedrock, such as granitoids (Glasser, 2002) - this essentially means that rocks are somewhat resistant to deformation.

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Source: Québec government website

The word is French with “roche” meaning rock and “moutonée” meaning sheep.

More specifically, it was introduced by a French geologist called Horace-Bénédict de Saussure (1740-1799). The word is called like so due to its resemblance to the shape of a wig, worn by 18th-century French aristocrats which shaped their hair like a wave. Sheep fat was used to hold the wig in place, which explains the term moutonné (Benn and Evans, 2010). In Sweden, very large roches moutonnées are called flyggbergs, with some being up to 3 km long and 350 m wide (Rudberg, 1954; 1973; Iverson et al., 1995; Benn and Evans, 2010).

Ellipsoidal basins

These are no ordinary valley or alpine glacier erosional landform. These are huge areas formed by ice sheets such as the Laurentide Ice Sheet in North America. (more detail with the Minnesota Ice Sheet Case Study)

These huge ice sheets (more than 50,000km2) exert large amounts of pressure on the landscape as well as great erosional quarrying by subglacial material. Examples of this feature include Hudson Bay, and smaller ellipsoidal basins created the Great Lakes in North America.

On top of the subglacial erosion which may have occurred, some of this large-scale erosional landscape’s formation is also due to isostatic lowering. This involves the sheer mass of the ice sheet, potentially several kilometres thick, exerting pressure on the lithosphere and effectively compressing it into being smaller.

After deglaciation, isostatic readjustment may occur, and these compressed, lowered areas may readjust and bounce back upwards, now being under no additional pressure.

[REVIEW] Editor tbd note: this must be fact checked and reviewed to ensure clarity and precision!

Glacial depositional landforms

Lodgement till is material deposited by advancing ice, due to pressure being exerted into existing valley material, and left behind as ice advances, such as the theory of depositional drumlins.
Ablation till is material deposited at the terminus by melting ice from stagnant, or retreating glaciers during a warm period or end of glaciation event. Most depositional landforms are this type.

It can be known whether sediment was deposited by water or ice. Ice-transported sediment is angular, not curved, as it has not been subject to erosional forces by the meltwater. The order of size of sediments can indicate this too, as water deposits sediment progressively due to reducing energy levels, while glaciers deposit material unsorted and ‘en masse’. Glaciers deposit till in mounds and ridges too, as, during ablation, this englacial and supraglacial material gets dropped on the bedrock below. This is distinct from the layered deposition (or strata) typically characterised by fluvioglacial processes.

A photo of a valley glacier, with an erratic, eskers and more landforms
There are a range of depositional landforms visible in this photograph. Can you identify them all?


A great diagram of all the different types of moraine.

Moraines

Moraines are ridges of soil, rocks and till which have been deposited by a glacial system. Strictly speaking, only the main three are on the OCR specification, but there’s no harm in being able to explain them all.

Medial moraines

Form in the centre of a glacial channel (typically when two glaciers merge - see the image above and you can see how the mountain in the middle is being carved out). Also may occur when their lateral moraines meet and combine into one.

Lateral moraines

Ridges which form on the sides (margins) of a glacial channel, and are the result of the accumulation of debris due to erosional processes.

End moraines

These mark a pause or halt of glacial retreat (e.g. when there are a couple of decades with little advance or retreat). These pauses typically are not very long so deposits reflect this, not being too large either (100m max)

Terminal moraine

A ridge, often characterised by being the largest and most prominent in the area, marking the maximum advance of a glacial period (glacial maximum), deposited at the snout of the glacier. Often crescent-shaped when observed from the cross profile.

Recessional moraines

A combination of the end and terminal moraines.

Erratics

They are randomly placed bits of rock and other debris which can be characterised by being of different geology compared to that of surrounding rocks, e.g. limestone in a valley mainly of basalt.

This can be seen in the Lake District where rocks belonging to the rock group Borrowdale Volcanics were found in an area dominated by limestone.
The Bowder Stone is another example being a 2,000-ton andesite lava boulder south of Keswick in the Lake District which most likely originated in Scotland.

Drumlins

Drumlins are unsorted mounds of streamlined till, commonly elongated parallel to the former direction of ice flow, composed of glacial debris.

It is not known exactly how drumlins are formed, but the most likely and agreed upon explanation for their formation is that the glacier becomes overloaded with till (loses competence), so begins to deposit this sediment due to the increased friction that the till brings (‘smearing’ the landscape). This sediment accumulates and quickly compounds, and other till that flows over the initial bump can become stuck, growing this mound of unsorted till. Over time, this grows, and when the glacier retreats, the distinct hill is revealed.

This is an example of lodgement till (not ablation till) as it is formed as the glacier is still advancing.

Others argue that they may have a bedrock core (hence rock-cored drumlins) and as material was obstructed, sediment began accumulating around this, much like in the way of a dune, and was streamlined in the same way as above.

Another argument to the formation of drumlins is that they occur when a glacier move over an area of existing glacial deposits. As the glacier moves over this existing till, the pressure of the overlying ice causes the till to be remoulded and changed into the characteristic shape of streamlined till that we know and love as a drumlin.

They typically occur in larger groups, or ‘swarms’. This is known as a ‘basket of eggs’ topography.

Drumlins can be up to 1,000m in length but are typically around 300-500m. They also improve revenue for farmers, as the topography allows them to have a larger farming area in the same sized plot of land. Their length-to-width ratio is typically between 1.8 and 4.1, and this may be an indication of past glacial velocities, with longer drumlins indicating a faster ice velocity due to the laminar flow of ice.

Drumlins are often found in conjunction with morainic landforms and other depositional features like eskers, kames and outwash plains.

I’d love to be like a drumlin one day, they’re just so chilled out and calming

Did you know that the ground between two drumlins is known as a dungeon?

Theory of depositional drumlin video

[tbd] Case study: Lake District

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A beautiful view towards Helvellyn from Blencathra.

[Dev Note] 02/02/2023: Just need to add examples from the essay as well as some research info.

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Glacial features of the Lake District, including subglacial lineations, meltwater channels, eskers, drumlins, moraines, glacially streamlined bedrock and more.

Glenridding Valley & Ullswater

Ice from Red Tarn at Helvellyn flowed northeast into Glenridding Valley. Joining up with another larger glacier, a glacial trough was created in present-day Ullswater. Likely exacerbated by compressing flow, where the ice mass moves slower, a long, thin, deep ribbon lake formed (as the flow made ice more likely to erode vertically).

This glacier would have continued flowing downstream towards modern-day Penrith, which is in a flat plains area, possibly resulting in the old Ullswater glacier becoming a Piedmont glacier when entering this more expansive, larger valley.

Inside modern-day Ullswater is a series of roche moutonnées such as Norfolk Island and Lingy Holm. The geology of roche moutonnées is characterised by being more resistant than other local rock types, possibly with increased jointing and bedding, resulting in striation lines with the freeze-thaw weathering being visible on the lee side still today on these rock islands.

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The Glenridding village has visible depositional till extending into Ullswater, visible from satellite imagery, easily proving that there was once glacial activity in the area.

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As you can see, there is material extending into Ullswater from the valley leading down from Helvellyn. This shows that there were substantial amounts of debris that were being deposited and moved along this glacial route.

A corrie, or cirque, is formed by snow falling and compacting in a hollow over many winters, typically on the northern side of mountains in the northern hemisphere due to the sheltered aspect, and cooler microclimate. Over time, snow accumulates, compacting the snow beneath it into ice due to the air inside being displaced. The back wall of the mountain, for example, Helvellyn in the Lake District, gets increasingly steep due to persistent freeze-thaw weathering and plucking of material, which then gets entered into the young glacier system as englacial material, or lands on the surface as supraglacial material.

At the same time, under its own weight, the ice at the base begins to rotate, known as rotational slipping, deepening the base through abrasion, with this abrasive material being finer sub-glacial debris. At Helvellyn, the bedrock type is known as the Borrowdale Volcanics, having formed 450 million years ago and moved from tectonic forces. Despite this relative strength due to its more joined and bedded geology, several corries have formed, and their contained glaciers have melted throughout the Pleistocene period. After the most recent glaciation period known as the Loch Lomond Stadial around 12,000 years ago, there exists a corrie containing Red Tarn on Helvellyn’s north-easterly side. These corries have eroded back to back, resulting in the formation of an arête, shaped like a knife, namely Striding Edge, and Swirrell Edge on the alternate side of this corrie. Furthermore, Red Tarn has a lip, helping to prevent water loss, as a result of rock and moraine deposits left by the glacier.

These examples clearly show the significant extent to which landforms in a valley glacier system are interrelated between different erosional landforms, from the initial snowflakes settling in a hollow to the creation of many other landforms during and after glaciation has occurred.

Ice Sheet Case Study: Minnesota

Laurentide Ice Sheet
The Laurentide Ice Sheet during various glacial stages

The Laurentide Ice Sheet was a huge ice sheet, up to 2 miles in height in some places, with cycles of growth and retreat several times over the Quaternary period, from over 2mya to… today!

The geology of Minnesota is varied. There are alternating bands of igneous and sedimentary rocks. In the north, a range of mountains several kilometers high was created by tectonic compression, made of strong metamorphic gneiss. In the Arrowhead region in the northeast, located near to Lake Superior, tectonic tilting has exposed weaker, lesser-jointed shale rocks.

Its last advance occurred between around 100kya and 20kya, where subglacial erosion carved out areas of North America, from the huge Hudson Bay to the hundreds of thousands of smaller lakes present in Minnesota and Canada, such as Mille Lacs Lake in an ellipsoidal basin. The mountains were eroded; now Eagle Mountain, the highest, is only 701m high. Part of Lake Superior and other Arrowhead region lakes were deeply eroded thans to their weaker geologies.

As it made its final retreat, meltwater was blocked by the ice and the large “Big Stone Moraine”, forming Glacial Lake Agassiz. It was larger than every Great Lake combined, covering around 300,000 square kilometres, around the same size as the present-day Black Sea. With continued ice ablation, a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred as the moraine was overtopped, around 11,000 years ago, resulting in large-scale erosion of an area 8km wide and 76m deep in Browns Valley, Minnesota. This old river is known as the Glacial River ‘Warren’, helping to carve out the modern Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, and the valley present today. With the water came deposition: large swathes of fertile silt and soil deposits have been left behind in the valley, likely from the Big Stone Moraine. It took around 2,000 years for the lake to fully drain, and it likely had a large impact on the climate, sea level and even early civilisation! [simplified]


The top left is the bed of Lake Agassiz, and the eroded area is visible too. North Minnesota.

If you’re interested, an interactive map of the glacial extent and lobes is available here, thanks to the brilliant geographers over at Royal Holloway.

Ice Lobes

There are three phases of the glaciation period you need to know, with four associated lobes. Lobes themselves form because ice wants to move under gravity, and with the Laurentide ice sheet at 2 miles high, the base of the ice sheet was under significant pressure. The thickness of the ice above, topography of the land and geology have an impact on how lobes form. In areas of lower resistance such as a valley, ice can be channeled and advance faster, forming the lobes.

Wadena Lobe

The Wadena Lobe was the first of the four main lobes that were on top of Minnesota. Arriving around 30kya, the lobe came in from the north to north-west and is characterised by the deposits it created, being from red sandstone, shale and limestone.

This deposition produced the Alexandra and Itasca moraines, forming the tilly Wadena Drumlin Field over the Wadena, Otter Tail and Todd counties, and its ground moraine reached just south of the present-day Twin Cities.

Rainy and Superior Lobes

The Rainy Lobe moved in from the north to northeast of Minnesota and deposited the St Croix moraine, made of greyish, brown greenstone around 20kya.

The Superior lobe came in from the northeast at the same time. Partially covering present-day Lake Superior, it deposited a series of basalt, red sandstone and greenstone till moraines extending southwards to the Twin Cities. Like Wadena, it too deposited drumlins.

Des Moines lobe

The Des Moines Lobe was active during the most recent glacial period (LGP), around 13kya. It moved in from the northwest, covering vast expanses of the west of the county from the most northerly point to the most southerly point. It deposited till that is tan to buff coloured and is clay-rich and calcareous due to its shale and limestone source in the northeast. In the southwest, the Prairie Coteau region has examples of terminal moraine, and outwash plains. Many of this lobe’s deposits are over 160 metres deep in the region.

Post-glacial modification

Isostatic readjustment occurs when these ice sheet glaciers retreat due to the land not being under pressure anymore. This land then typically rebounds upwards and elevations increase in the area where glaciers once lay. Fluvial activities continued to mould the landscape after full glacial retreat had occurred.

Glacio-fluvial landforms

(Date studied: 23/11/2022)

Glacio-fluvial means an environment shaped by glacial meltwater.
Geomorphic means changes (morph) to the land (geo).

Eskers

Eskers are long, sinuous (many curves and turns) ridges made from sand, gravel and other types of glacial till deposited on valley floors by glacial meltwater flowing through subglacial and englacial tunnels.

Eskers are “elongated ridges of glaciofluvial sediment deposited by subglacial meltwater pipes”.

These tunnels and channels over time become filled up with sediment. During deglaciation, this sediment is dropped onto the bedrock leaving stratified ridges, signifying that a glacial meltwater tunnel was somewhere above it. This could be either a kame (see below) or an esker.

The general consensus is that the deposition is caused when pressure is released at the glacier’s snout, so as the glacier retreats, the point of deposition retreats too. This can describe their beaded appearance (vary in height and width throughout) with the beads of greater size representing periods of relatively slow retreat, or halted ablation. Others may say that the larger beads are caused as a result of the greater load carried by the meltwater in the summer seasons.

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Here are 2 angles showing what they look like, in Svalbard.

The weight of the ice above the subglacial tunnels means that the water flowing within these subglacial tunnels is under extremely high pressure. When the ice melts, this pressure is released, so therefore dropping sediment.

Eskers are deposited unaffected by/ignorant of local topography, meaning that they can traverse over hills in the landscape.

The path taken by this pressurised meltwater is mostly controlled by the slope, size and direction of the ice surface rather than the bedrock. Because of this, eskers can be used to show the slope of the ice surface, as well as its extent! It also runs parallel to the direction of ice flow, running transverse to the glacial snout.


Topographic view of depositional landforms.

Eskers on paleo-ice-sheet beds are more abundant in areas of crystalline bedrock with thin coverings of surficial sediment than in areas of thick deformable sediment, because meltwater flowing at the bed is more likely to incise upwards into the ice to form an R-channel where the bed is hard; where the bed is deformable, meltwater is more likely to incise downwards.
You don’t need to remember that.

Examples
Many eskers are found in central Ireland, some are in Canada, as well as many in Iceland and Sweden.

Here is an example of an esker on Google Maps.

A meltwater stream is visible south of it, as well as another esker to the east.

Post-glacial climate change in Eskers
During periods of increasing global climatic temperatures, the rate of glacial ablation increases and results in more meltwater being produced. This means that there is more accumulation of sediment in proglacial areas and the length of these eskers is likely to increase or become more beaded with greater and more intense ablation periods. With faster glacial ablation, eskers will be exposed in greater number.

Kames and Kame Terraces

A kame is an irregularly shaped hill, hummock or mound made of stratified glacial till comprised of mainly sand and gravel.

There are two types of kame:

Delta kames

Delta kames can form in two main ways. Firstly, they can form due to the build-up of debris in englacial tunnels that emerge at the glacial terminus as a result of retreat. As a result, they lose their energy, and are forced to deposit their contained load.

Another way that they can be formed is when supraglacial streams meet ice-marginal lakes. These ice margin water bodies are largely static (just sit there tbh) so the sediment they carry loses energy and gets deposited in the lake, from where this supraglacial stream enters it, often leading to a tall accumulation.

Kame terraces

Kame terraces are ridges of material near or on the valley margin. They are largely comprised of ex-lateral moraine, which was transported into the ice marginal lake due to the supraglacial streams formed due to the warming of ice through friction with valley walls. As this is largely glacio-fluvial, unlike morainic deposits, these are somewhat sorted and stratified by the movement of water. When the glacier retreats, this sediment is dropped and collapses onto the bedrock floor.

Watch out! Many people say ‘kame’ when they mean ‘esker’! You need to know the differences between the two well. (main one is eskers are subglacial, kames are not)



This displays the distinction between kame and esker.

As climate change increases temperature levels, more meltwater is present, which transports and deposits sediment. This will result in a larger amount of all types of kame being more likely to form.
Here is an example of an esker on Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/cheatsheet-esker-link
A meltwater stream is visible south of it, as well as another esker to the east.

Essay example: influence of climate changes and geomorphic processes in their formation

Kames are mounds of sediment deposited by glacial meltwater or ice, found in areas where glacial ice melted and receded, leaving behind sediment deposits. The process of kame formation is complex and is a result of a variety of interrelated factors, including climate change and geomorphic processes.

Climate change is one of the most significant influences on the formation of kames. During the Pleistocene epoch, large areas of the northern hemisphere were covered in thick glaciers. As the climate warmed and the glaciers receded, large volumes of meltwater were released, carrying sediment with it. The sediment was deposited in stratified piles, forming these kames, visible in places in the UK such as the Scottish Highlands or the Lake District. This can be proven to be the result of a glacio-fluvial deposition as they are deposited in one go by melting ice, while previous meltwater surface streams moved the sediment into crevasses or glacial marginal lakes.

Geomorphic processes also play a role in the formation of kames. As the glacier erodes the landscape, valley sides’ sediment may fall onto the glacier, ranging from large boulders to sand grains. The size and shape of these kames vary depending on the type of sediment deposited, as well as the rate of erosion. In addition to erosion, other geomorphic processes can play a role in the formation of kames such as weathering. These processes such as frost-shattering and chemical weathering can break down sediment particles and form smaller particles that can be easily carried by wind or water. This can cause further accumulation of sediment in certain areas and contribute to the formation of kames. Lithification may also occur when the sediment is compacted and cemented together, forming a solid mass among the trapped sediment.

In conclusion, climate change and geomorphic processes are both important factors in the formation of kames. Climate change causes the glaciers to melt, releasing large volumes of sediment, which is then deposited in strata. Geomorphic processes, such as erosion, sedimentation, and lithification, also contribute to the formation of kames. Together, these two factors contribute significantly to the formation of kames, alongside many other factors like the topography, aspect and relief of the local region.

Proglacial lakes

Proglacial lakes form in front of glaciers, usually when meltwater streams become blocked by terminal moraines, glacial dams (trapped against a large ice sheet) or due to isostatic depression of the lithosphere into the weaker asthenosphere.

The meltwater, over time, accumulates in this area, unable to flow outwards. This is similar to how a traditional valley glacier system starts with the corrie melting and a tarn being left due to a terminal moraine blockage.

After a glaciation period, the climate typically warms up. Over time, if there is a large ice sheet blocking the water flow, this sheet will ablate, and the lake will either overflow or undermine the dam, causing a glacial lake outburst flood, or jökulhlaup.

Modern example: The Russell Fjord in Alaska is regularly blocked by the Hubbard Glacier, which can increase water levels in the fjord by up to 15m as it cannot empty out into Disenchantment Bay: Google Maps/3D Google Earth.

Outwash plains

Outwash plains are also known as sandurs. They are dominated by other landforms, including braided streams and kettles. They occur in front of melting glaciers, and are mostly flat and expansive areas. Meltwater traversing this terrain has little energy, and therefore little vertical erosional power and is more inclined to deposit material. As a result, these flat areas are created from stratified (strata; layered) sediment.

As the glacier moves over bedrock, plucking and abrasion (erosion) occurs resulting in silt and sediment being carried in this meltwater. Braided streams are dominant in outwash plains. These are very shallow streams and rivulets which carry and redeposit till due to the little energy in the system.

In summer months, there is typically higher glacial discharge and ablation, resulting in these tilly islets being destroyed by water, which has a little more energy due to increased velocity. This leads to more erosion, and these islets then go on to reform later. This makes the outwash plain have a distinct look. This can be described as dynamic.

The elevated level of erosion is typically closer to the glacial snout but then progressively loses energy.

In areas that were once glaciated, old outwash pains can be found by looking for sediment, with large angular rocks and boulders being present closer to the glacial mass and smaller, smoother rocks and sediment being further away from the glacier, similar to a typical river system aside from their origin. Outwash plains can extend for miles beyond the glacial margin (terminal moraine).

Braided streams

The general consensus is that braided rivers form instead of meandering rivers due to a higher sediment load, caused by discharge from ablation, as well as variable rates of flow.
At the end of a melting period, these lose water, lowering kinetic energy present in the system and therefore losing erosional power and increasing depositional power.

This results in material being deposited into the river channel, causing it to divide in two. Braiding itself develops when this ‘mid-channel bar’ grows downstream, as a result of more, finer material being added to the bar as discharge amounts continue to decrease. These bars, during times of exceptionally low discharge like in winter months, may become home to vegetation, becoming even more permanent. whereas unvegetated bars are less stable and often move with high discharge.

Many of these channels branch from other channels and merge to give it the ‘braided’ pattern. They are common in outwash plains due to the variable nature of ablation and meltwater amounts.


diagram of a braided stream

They are found in large quantities in south Iceland, for example.

Due to climate change, braided streams may dry up due to smaller amounts of ice present in these areas, after an initial increase in ablation due to temperature rise. This initial increased sediment load will progressively decrease as the ice mass decreases.

As a result, there can be expected to be more eroded streams, being deeper and wider, inside this outwash plain, followed then by the area becoming dry and tundra-like. Whilst vegetation thrives in outwash plains due to the rich minerals present in the glacial meltwater, this may also dry up in the future, becoming a barren, sandy and gravelly area with little life, or could be taken over and reclaimed by plants depending on resource availability.

enter image description here
Is that a braided stream AND a proglacial lake inside a valley glacier system?
Photo from Jonas Mendes.

Kettles

A kettle is a large depression in the ground formed by glacial deposition and is therefore a depositional landform. They create ‘dimples’ in the landscape around mountainous areas.

They are formed by large blocks of ice breaking from the main glacier. As the main glacier retreats, this ‘dead’ ice becomes stranded and, over time, becomes buried by sediment deposits as meltwater flows around it from the main glacier. Of course, this ice melts and its water evaporates, leaving behind a large depression, or kettle holes. Water can then fill these in again, or if not all water drains originally, resulting in kettle lakes.
enter image description here

Periglacial landforms

Periglacial landforms exist as a result of climate changes before and/or after glacial periods.

Periglaciation is concerned with the process and landforms attributed to the action of permafrost.

Being in a periglacial area means an area that is near to, or on the fringe of, glacial areas’ ice mass. This means that there is no physical glacier system present in the area, but it is still cold, relative to surrounding environments.

Permafrost

This is also part of the Earth’s cryosphere, as well as glaciers, ice sheets, and more!

Permafrost itself is comprised of:

There are 3 types of permafrost:

Patterned ground

This encapsulates sorted stone polygons, stone stripes, etc.

These landforms are facilitated by the process of frost heave. Stones within the ground and active layer have a lower specific heat capacity, allowing them to cool down and heat up faster than their surrounding soil. Due to the freezing conditions, water below the stones freezes as well, and also expanding by 9%, pushing the stones upwards. Over time and many years potentially, the stones are pushed to the surface, and to a larger extent, the frost heave sorts all fine and larger material too, creating a domed surface! How exciting.

Stones which are on top of this dome then fall down to undomed areas because of gravity. This is typically every 1 to 3 metres. These rows of stones can end up connecting and forming polygonal shapes.

On slopes, between 3 and 50 degrees, these polygons become warped and are known as elongated stone polygons, or garlands. On even steeper terrain these become stone stripes.

Blockfields

Lord help me if this comes up in the exam (I am not religious)

Blockfields are believed to be formed as a result of chemical and mechanical weathering below the active layer in periglacial regions such as plateaus or mountain tops, as these are typically glacial fringe regions rather than ice-covered areas.

Over time, these processes produce an uneven, angular & bouldery landscape which is only revealed after the permafrost layer melts away, forming ‘in situ’ (alternatively by rock glaciers - which are glaciers containing a large amount of frost-shattered rocks.). Blockfields potentially formed 23 million years ago during the Neogene epoch, when the climate was relatively warmer than today; higher amounts of chemical weathering then initiated the (very slow) process of eroding formed bedrock.

Resistant rock, or tor, may be more prominent in these blockfields as they are not as susceptible to denudation (erosional processes).

On slopes above a gradient of 25o, block streams/stripes are formed as gravitational forces will move this material down a slope.

Types of mass movement

Solifluction lobes

When the ground and soil on slopes is frozen during the winter, the soil particles are separated slightly and loosened by the ice which forms and expands by around 9% between these particles (frost heaving).

During the thawing of the active layer in the spring and summer months, water saturates the ground as it cannot drain easily (due to the impermeable, frozen permafrost below - it is forced to stay in the upper layer) or evaporate due to the cooler climate. Friction is reduced between these particles, which are already loose after the freezing months, as this water can lubricate them. As a result of this excessive lubrication, the soil moves downslope easily. (The extra mass from the water can also help with this.)

Soil/Frost Creep or Mass Wasting

This is a process which moves material down a slope by a few centimetres per year even on high gradients.
When the soil freezes, the particles within the slope are lifted vertically at a 90-degree angle to the slope. As the soil thaws and the particles settle, they end up slightly lower than their original position. This process is repeated over time, gradually causing the slope to shift downward.

Pingos

Open vs closed-system pingo

Open system, hydraulic

These are also known as East Greenland-type pingos as they commonly occur there.

They form in areas of discontinuous permafrost, typically in the base of valleys. Groundwater collects in the bottom of the valley, and begins to freeze and expand under artesian pressure, creating an ice lens between the active layer and the discontinuous permafrost. This ice lens creates a dome, expanding the ground and active layer upwards.

Closed system, hydrostatic

These are also known as MacKensie-type pingos.

These pingos develop below lakes, due to the immediate water supply. Lake water enters the talik as it is trapped between the frozen surface above and permafrost advancing during cooler periods. The talik becomes saturated quickly and hydrostatic pressure compresses this as much as possible, forcing out any warmer air bubbles. Due to the persistence of permafrost, it forces this saturated talik to freeze, becoming an ice lens, and expanding upwards into the familiar dome we know, love and recognise as a pingo.

Bonus! The ice lens can collapse and leave a depression, typically a marshy area called an ognip, surrounded by ramparts.

Ice-wedge polygons

Soil cracks when cooled quickly, just like how mud cracks when dried.

In summer, this crack in the soil fills with meltwater. Over time as many freeze-thaw cycles occur, the ice is expanded by 9% each time. This eventually results in the formation of an ice wedge. Each time the water is refrozen into ice, pressure against the surrounding soil increases, causing it to be pushed upwards, contributing to the development of these polygonal features.

Summary: Soil cracks when cooled quickly. In summer the crack fills with meltwater, and as it refreezes many freeze-thaw events take place, expanding the ice by 9% each time. This eventually results in the formation of an ice wedge.

Human activities in Glacial and Periglacial Landscape Systems

4.a. Human activity causes change within periglacial landscape systems.
4.b. Human activity causes change within glaciated landscape systems.

Case study: Oil extraction in Alaska (Periglacial)

Part of Alaska is located within the Arctic Circle, at 66.5oN.
However, since 1968, vast amounts of oil reserves have been found offshore and within Alaska itself, including inside the ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and, more specifically, Area 1002 within it. An estimated 12 billion barrels of oil is located in this area alone, with half of it (~6bn) being available to extract using currently available techniques.

For the United States, this would provide a key resource for energy security, while at the same time reducing dependence on foreign, potentially malicious, entities, which may limit their supply, such as Russia. This weakness has been seen in Europe, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so now more than ever the US sees this as essential.
It imported 37% of its total oil consumption in 2016 (7,259,000 barrels per day).

Hydrological processes

Gravel extraction adds insult to injury. The loss of gravel from fluvial systems can change the composition of the river profile and exacerbate damages further downstream from the extraction site. Extracting gravel from a glacial outwash site has been proven to lower the groundwater levels by over a metre in a 2km radius as well.

Urban heat island effect

Barrow, Alaska is the northernmost settlement in the USA and the largest native community in the Arctic, with a population of 4600 in 2000, increasing from just 300 in 1900. Recent decades have seen an increase in mean annual and winter air temperature, with an earlier snowmelt in the village and a weaker snowmelt trend in the surrounding tundra.

The urban heat island (UHI) effect is a phenomenon where urban areas are significantly warmer than their rural surroundings due to activities by humans, like air conditioning, hot water pipes and road building.

A strong urban heat island (UHI) was found during winter, with the urban area averaging 2.2 °C warmer than the hinterland. There was a strong positive correlation between monthly UHI magnitude and natural gas production/use, ultimately resulting in a 9% reduction in accumulated freezing degree days in the urban area.

This excess heat is mostly generated from:

As a result of this input imbalance, permafrost can thaw, leading to changes in the landscape and the release of trapped carbon dioxide and methane, which can further contribute to climatic changes in these areas locally, as well as internationally, as permafrost contains 1.5 trillion metric tons of carbon (that’s 1,500 petagrams if you’re fancy like that - or double than what’s in the atmosphere today).

This thawing can furthermore lead to infrastructure damage, as roads and buildings can be damaged by the shifting of the ground due to solifluction.

Thermokarst

A landscape characterised by depressions due to the thawing of the ground ice which comprises the active layer and permafrost below. Visible in the Alaskan North Slope.

enter image description here

Case study: Kárahnúkar HEP Dam, Iceland

This dam (or, collection of three dams) was built in East Iceland on a large proglacial lake, sourced from one of the largest glaciers in Europe. It is actively retreating, so provides water to the dam which can then be used as hydroelectricity. The dam itself was finished in 2007 and is large enough to be seen from space.

The dam could provide enough energy for all Icelandic homes and small businesses, but instead, all energy provides the nearby aluminium smelter called Alcoa.

However, there has been widespread backlash over the project, as it flooded over 400,000 acres of unspoilt highland wilderness which was the second largest unspoiled area in Europe. In total, almost 750,000 acres of land was affected by the construction of the dam, which is around 3% of Iceland’s total land mass.

The dam was built as Alcoa produces 2% of the world’s aluminium supply, and global financial markets at the time of construction were expected to make a significant number of jobs, and this aluminium industry was expected to make up 10% of Iceland’s total GDP. This has not happened yet, and the price of aluminium had almost halved just two years after construction finished, and has not recovered to this level seldom for market bubbles seen with the Russian invasion, which stressed productions of almost all raw materials.

enter image description here

Glacial meltwater, or glacial milk, is released by the Vatnajökull glacier and flows into the lake blocked by the dam. This glacial meltwater is known to have a high concentration of sediment within it, and as such reduces the capacity of the dam over time. This is because the suspended sediment at the base of the water solidifies when deposited, as there is little kinetic energy at the bottom to keep suspended sediment floating. Over time, the base level of the lake increases, reducing overall water capacity, until this excess sediment is ‘purged’ by the dam management system, which may happen annually.

Here’s a video of sediment getting purged

Another one

That’s the end for glaciation! I hope you found it useful.

enter image description here
What if I told you about Paraglaciation and Paraperiglaciation as well?

[TBD] Disease Dilemmas

Last update: 15/01/2024 22:38
Word count: 4,807 (25,446 characters)

1. Global patterns of disease

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 1 - "What are the global patterns of disease and can factors be identified that determine these?"

All types of diseases can be categorised into distinct categories depending on how they spread, how frequently they spread, who they spread from and to, and how many people spread them.

Communicable diseases are diseases which spread from host to host through means such as direct contact, contact with contaminated material, through vectors or airborne particles. Broadly, these ones can spread.
Non-communicable diseases cannot be spread between people. These are a result of lifestyle choices and genetic factors

Infectious diseases are those which are spread by pathogens from any host to any host, with any form of contact.
Non-infectious diseases cannot be caused by pathogens between hosts.

Contagious diseases are those which spread between people through direct or indirect contact.
Non-contagious diseases cannot be transmitted from one person to another. However, they may include those transmitted through vectors.

For example:

In addition, diseases can diffuse in different ways

All of these are linked to Hargerstrand’s diffusion model.

Be careful when applying this to outbreaks like Covid where the model assumes that people will always want to travel and constant movement. Lockdowns can result in this model’s predictions being broken.

Different scales:

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 2 - "Is there a link between disease and levels of economic development?"

Patterns of diseases

Malaria

Malaria is an infectious, non-contagious disease. It is concentrated around the tropics, mostly in Africa, Central America and South/Southeast Asia - in other words, it is endemic to specific countries and epidemics can occur, but not pandemics. The Anopheles mosquito, which is the fector which transports the Plasmodium parasite, is most abundant in warm and humid environments, but not large urban areas.

Facts:

HIV/AIDS

This is an infectious, contagious disease.

Case study: River flooding, Bangladesh

Bangladesh, bordered by India and Myanmar (synoptic link to Global Migration) is a deltaic country, situated on the world’s largest river delta - the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta.

Flooding from this river is a significant part of the livelihoods of Bangladesh’s population. 60% live in rural areas, mostly in the primary (agricultural) sector; 80% of the land area benefits from the flooding extent. There are several hundred permanent waterways which move around a billion tonnes of fertile soil, fuelled by glacial ablation in the Himalayas (synoptic link to Glaciated Systems) where peak melting coincides with the monsoon season. On top of being low lying (the average elevation is just 9 metres; 10% is below sea level 2, which leads to over a third of the country’s land area regularly flooding in the monsoon season. 1

This isn’t all positive, however. In the short to medium term, climate change is exacerbating risks by increasing the volatility of glacial systems, increasing the magnitude of discharge and therefore magnitude of the flooding in these low-lying areas.


percentage-of-area-inundated-in-Bangladesh

In 2020, the monsoon rains were of unprecedented scale. In the first half of the monsoon season, 40% of the land was inundated. This led to an epidemic of various water-borne diseases, including hepatitis, diarrhoea, typhoid and cholera. Although only 83 people died, 1.3 million homes were damaged (and 3/4 of a million flooded), affecting 5.4 million people (1 in 35 people) 4. The amount of crops destroyed was over 150,000 hectares, 3 which has knock-on effects for future years: consecutive years with bad flooding can decrease communities’ resilience due to less stored money from agriculture, especially true as half of the Bangladeshi population live below the absolute poverty threshold and this can increase the susceptibility to disease outbreaks with a lack of nutrition and strength to be able to fight diseases like diarrhoea which is especially deadly for children under 5 years old. As an LIDC, this is especially true: the population pyramid is swayed in favour of younger ages (5% are under 5, compared to the average in ACs which is 6x fewer). This was seen in Bangladesh with these floods: the contamination of water supplies such as wells resulted in 4,500 people becoming ill with diarrhoea alone. On top of this, just under 2,000 schools and educational facilities were destroyed in the floods too.

Bangladesh, although has its problems, is improving too. The threat of more severe flooding in future years and stronger cyclones has prompted both the government and NGOs to intervene. Female education and nutrition has significantly improved, with an emphasis on breastfeeding which reduces the likelihood of deadly waterborne diseases like diarrhoea being introduced into vulnerable babies’ and children’s immune systems. The Government allocated 14,410 tons of rice to be given to those affected. Oral rehydration solution was given to treat those moderately dehydrated, with water purification tablets being used to treat water supplies in large population centres, significantly reducing the risk of waterborne illness contamination and subsequent infection.

Extra reading available: here

Disease vs Economic Development

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 2 - "Is there a link between disease and levels of economic development?"

Case study: Air pollution and cancer in India

India (Bharat), now the most populous country, is classified as an EDC with an HDI of 0.633 and a GNI of $7130 PPP. However, levels of air pollution in this expansive nation are… pretty bad. 21 of the 30 most polluted cities globally are in India. 99% of Indians breathe air with particulate matter above the WHO’s “safe” levels of PM 2.5 concentrations of less than ten micrograms/m3. With a population of 1.4 billion, half of them are expected to live for three fewer years because of this - and some urban residents in the capital (New) Delhi and other cities like Hyderabad and Gurugram are expected to live for 5 or even 10 or more years shorter!

Over the past 2 decades, fine particle concentration has increased by 69% across India, reducing the life expectancy by around 2.4 years nationally.

Air pollution here is largely caused by particulate matter (PM), like NO2, S02 and O3, emitted from vehicles, factories and coal-based factories. Biomass in rural areas also contributes to this: burning paraffin and animal excrement increases indoor air pollution so much that up to 1 million people die prematurely annually because of this. This is visible as photochemical smog - which can cause acid rain.

PM 2.5 are particulates smaller than 2.5 micrometres in size, which can penetrate and remain persistently in the lungs and interfere with DNA, causing mutations like cancer and increasing the probability of other non-communicable and chronic illnesses. Bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer, and CVDs (heart disease)

In many cities such as Bangalore, around 50% of children suffer from asthma. This is the highest worldwide.

In Delhi, PM 2.5s are at 24x the safe level - and increasing. A reduction to safe levels would benefit life expectancy more than eliminating unsafe water access and eliminating poverty, combined.

Air pollution is having a significant negative impact on India’s economic output and various social factors. There is an added burden on healthcare systems to accommodate for lung cancers and other cardiovascular, chronic illnesses when the country has not fully made it out of the Age of Receding Pandemics (Stage 2) of the epidemiological transition model. The particulate matter at such high levels has an impact on the brain, reducing its function by several percent and potentially reducing educational attainment and the chances of students contributing to the economy through high-skilled employment. Even if they do, the reduced life expectancy will shorten the times they will be able to work, earn, spend and reinvest in the economy.

Nearly 1.67 million deaths and an estimated loss of USD 28.8 billion worth of output were India’s prices for worsening air pollution in 2019. 1

Respiratory diseases are 1.7x higher in Delhi, with a 40% decrease in lung function because of air pollution. In addition, there are 20% more non-smoking-related lung cancer diagnoses each year, with a total of 1 in 68 males being diagnosed with lung cancer in one year alone.

Solutions

However, there is a silver lining to the smog cloud. Gujarat, a state in the west of the country, has set a legal limit on pollutant emissions for industrial plants. The government gives out a set amount of emission permits to companies, and should certain factories require more emissions, they must trade these permits to raise their emissions allowances. This financially incentivises businesses to invest in less emissive processing facilities, reducing air pollution, whilst providing a revenue stream for the local authority to tackle the effects of heightened levels of emissions, in addition to tackling a root cause of this through the trading permits.
Petrol and diesel subsidies have been scrapped in some areas (these fuels power large amounts - 1/3 - of electrical production) and further, 14 Indian cities are expanding the use of high-speed metro systems - encouraging clean, fast public transport which reduces traffic congestion.

In rural areas, zigzag brick kilns which reduce coal consumption by 80% have been fitted in various communities, despite slow progress. Burning stubble in fields - a huge smoke pollutant which wind frequently carries from rural to urban settlements, making up 17% of India’s emissions - is also in the process of having additional restrictions.

Despite all of these advances, the introduction of legislation like this has been slow and there are greater priorities for the moment such as increasing living standards across the country - 15% are still living in multidimensional poverty. There is currently no legislation controlling levels of nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide with vehicle emissions. Economic incentives to further grow the country’s economy may be hampered if legislation like this is forcefully enacted, therefore, the government is betting that allowing significant economic development now will allow them to put laws in place in the future as the country develops, without being of detriment to all citizens.

Further reading: Wikipedia

Global solutions to air problems

In 1997, there was the legally binding Kyoto Protocol. It created agreements on reducing carbon emissions around the world, such as by 2012 there will be 22% lower emissions. In comparison to 1990 in the EU, however, global carbon emissions increased by 65%! Despite this, the goal was achieved and even by 5% in the EU. This caused industries - directly or indirectly - to move and relocate away from the EU. Carbon trading systems were also considered too complex, would not help to reduce emissions, and only included those countries that had already been industrialised.

In 2015, this protocol was replaced by the Paris Climate Convention. It agreed to reduce CO2 emissions below 60% of 2010 levels by 2050 and to keep global temperature rises below 2° C in comparison to the 1900 average. Ideally, this was set to 1.5°, but this is considered too difficult.

Dealing with communicable and non-communicable diseases

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 3 - "How effectively are communicable and noncommunicable diseases dealt with?"

Case study: Malaria in Ethiopia (LIDC)

Malaria, one of the world’s most deadly diseases, is estimated to have killed around 5% of all humans who have ever lived [1]. It is a communicable, infectious but non-contagious disease. More specifically, female Anopheles mosquitoes inoculate the Plasmodium (primary P. vivax) parasite into humans - where it infects liver cells and then moves to red blood cells - with no other known hosts.

Sporozoites inoculated by the female Anopheles vector enters liver cells, rupturing and releasing mature merozoites which move into red blood cells.

200 million cases of malaria were reported in sub-Saharan Africa to the WHO. In Ethiopia, 3/4 of the land area is considered endemic, putting 2/3 of the population (60 million) at risk of contracting the disease, where around 5 million cases are reported, alongside 70,000 deaths, per year. Malaria can also be caught again, as it can take many reinfections to build up sufficient immunity to become protected against it. [2]

The epidemiology of malaria is unevenly distributed. Areas such as the Gambella province, situated to the west of the Ethiopian highland mountains (relief rainfall) is in a lowland area and malaria is endemic. This area, where humid and warm, >30 degrees conditions mix with stagnant water pools provides ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes (which require >20 degrees C). In the highlands, where altitudes reach over 4,000m are malaria-free thanks to their cooler temperatures. Addis Ababa, the capital, is in a malaria-free area; it is also the 5th highest elevation capital city in the world.
In addition, large-scale population migration occurs at the same time as the rainy season, which is also the season of peak malarial transmission. Many agricultural workers migrate temporarily from the malaria-free highlands to the lowlands. Farmers often sleep in airy barns and work into the night, when transmission is at its highest. Irrigation, in the Awash Valley and in Gambella, has exacerbated the risk of mosquitoes due to more stagnant water pools required to harvest the most common foods like rice.

Socio-economic impacts on Ethiopia

As with all communicable diseases, it is the poor who are the most susceptible and carry the burden of the disease. Malaria accounts for 40% of the national healthcare expenditure and 10% of hospital visits. The cyclical nature of the disease results in particularly bad epidemics every 5-8 years which have been seen to overwhelm health services. On top of this, tourism is stifled from the malaria warnings, despite being a beautiful country along the East African Rift.

The uneven epidemiology also affects food security, the environment and social factors. Addis Ababa is able to accommodate high population densities due to the relatively developed infrastructure and malaria-free state. As people understand the risks of malaria, many refuse to work in the lowlands and overexploit the already poorer quality farmland compared to the nutrient-rich lowlands. It is therefore not surprising to learn that, when harvests are particularly bad with droughts (short-medium term becoming worse due to climate change), the country is susceptible to damaging famines. Economic measures such as DALYs (Disability-adjusted life years) ) lost also show that malaria has a significant impact on the population: 30% of all life years lost are because of this, reducing economic output potential further.

Mitigation strategies and responses

There has been little medicinal development concerning anti-malarial treatments for over 50 years. Chloroquine, which raises the blood pH and therefore that of the parasite, killing it, is becoming increasingly resisted by the parasites and can be toxic for those who take it (socioeconomic impact too). As a result, the government and NGOs have been working together to mitigate the risk of this disease.

The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) has ‘invested’ half a billion dollars into antimalarial programs, such as providing around 50 million insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to residents, prioritising pregnant women and those under 5. Indoor residual spraying (IRS) has also been used extensively, in over 12 million homes and public places. Child death rates have fallen by over 35%, and 70% of homes now have protection from an ITN or through IRS. In total, the number of malaria-induced deaths has declined by 50% in just 15 years from the peak in 2004. These are some examples of indirect mitigation strategies.

The WHO’s Global Technical Strategy has also targeted Ethiopia as part of a push to eliminate Ethiopia worldwide by 2030, a strategy that worked for Smallpox during the 20th Century. It remains to be seen how growing resistance and increased incidence may have an effect on the longer-term outlook.

Case study: Cancer in the UK

Cancers are non-communicable, non-infectious and non-contagious diseases. One in two people in the UK are expected to suffer from cancer in their lifetimes. One in four people to die in England in 2021 were due to cancer.

Carcinogen: something likely to cause changes to a cell’s DNA. Too many DNA alterations may cause

Rates of cancer in the UK are not evenly distributed. The northeast has the highest rate of colon, lung and rectal cancer, as opposed to areas like London with the lowest rates of cancer in the country, where prostate cancer is highest.

Melanoma, a type of skin cancer, has the fewest cases in more deprived communities according to the Index of Multiple Deprivation compared to lesser deprived communities.
Lung cancer has significantly more (170%) cases in the 50% more deprived communities compared to the least deprived half.

There is a clear link between smoking and at least 15 different types of cancer. 7 in 10 lung cancer cases are caused by smoking; it is also the most common cause of cancer death in the UK

Socio-economic impacts on the UK

A thousand people get diagnosed with cancer in the UK every day. Thousands more get informed that someone they know has been diagnosed. 500 people die daily from cancers. Incidence, in areas dependent of deprivation status, is going to increase by over 40% by 2035 for half a million new cases annually.

The workforce is affected: 120,000 people below the age of 65 are diagnosed every year with cancer. They are likely to leave the labour force for many months at a time during treatment, and many may never return to work - some are too physically in pain or fatigued due to the secondary effects of chemotherapy, for example, to return. The UK has one of the highest rates of carers for those with cancer in the “western” world with over 1 million people caring for someone with a terminal condition, out of work or undergoing treatment. In addition to the 50,000+ working-age people who die to cancer each year, the economic losses of this quickly adds up into the tens of billions, with hundreds of thousands never able to work again.

Mitigation strategies and responses

Environmental factors can explain a large percentage (~ two-thirds) of cancer cases in ACs like the UK. Skin cancer melanoma is increasingly becoming a large risk as people ignore the risks of sunbathing, purchasing sunbeds and buying more accessible cheap holidays abroad - only 11% of people say they always use sunscreen in the UK ([2]). Social media, coupled with increasing wealth and accessibility of products, has idolised the view of a tanned look, whereas in reality unprotected exposure to significant UV rays invisibly damages and ruptures parts of the skin and can interfere with DNA, causing melanoma skin cancer, and reached the highest level in 2023; increasing almost a third in just a decade [1] for an average of 3% per year. To combat this, the Met Office now issue weather warnings and forecasts for UV levels, including for the most popular holiday destinations. The Sunbeds (Regulations) Act 2010 forbids the supply of tanning devices to those under 18. Finally, additional education in schools and publicity campaigns have also been increasingly employed by the government to warn the public about melanoma.

In addition, (international) charities and organisations have employed a range of measures to tackle cancer. Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK are some charities that both employ direct and indirect strategies. Firstly, Cancer Research UK invest large sums of their donations into various cancer drugs, and treatments such as immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The research done in these fields has resulted in many clinical trials which, if successful, can help to detect cancers early and therefore increase survivability. This charity also runs indirect strategies like campaigns to reduce smoking, where a 1% reduction in smoking can save more than 3,000 lives annually. With 150,000 children taking up smoking each year and many continuing for the rest of their lives, they also run educational awareness courses to discourage the uptaking of this habit.

Perhaps the most important organisation involving the mitigation of cancer in the UK is the NHS itself. “Stoptober” campaigns for smoking raise money and make people 5x more likely to permanently quit. £200 million investments are resulting in much faster diagnoses turnarounds - a target of 2 weeks from the GP to the hospital, and 2 months from the GP to treatments commencing. GP training and support have provided access to quicker diagnosis turnarounds, and this is supplemented by screening. Breast cancer screening every 3 years for women aged between 50 and 71, alongside cervical screening at similar intervals for women between 26 and 64 years to catch the most common cancers. Additionally, vaccinations like the Year 8 HPV vaccine have been promoted.

However, the UK NHS system is seen as a “postcode lottery”, not just for cancers but all types of chronic diseases. Covid-19 has amplified and shown the vulnerabilities in such a system, with over 300,000 being on the national cancer waiting list, with 3.1% of these waiting more than 3 months. This is after being diagnosed with cancer! Understandably, this shows that many people’s cancer can progress despite referrals quickly from GPs. due to a lack of hospital availability. For every 4 weeks’ delay in treatment, there is a 10% reduction in complete survival likelihood.

The UK government also employ many indirect strategies. Smoking was banned indoors in 2007, alongside a 2-year increase in legal age, and also picture warnings on smoking packaging - the first EU nation to do so, helping the “tobacco control plan”. “Sugar taxes” have also been introduced throughout the past decade to remove up to 40% of sugar from cereals, banning buy-one-get-one-free offers in supermarkets, and requiring the calorie count to be shown in restaurants. Finally, the 10-year cancer plan with state-of-the-art radiotherapy machines and record investment to reduce the effects of an ageing population. However the effectiveness of these remains limited - the purchase of sweets and unhealthy foods can still be undertaken, and the prevalence of smoking has not seen a substantial decrease since the Covid-19 pandemic, whilst the use of e-cigarettes has increased. Moreover, lack of access to these new technologies in northern areas of the country has been revealed, on top of complaints about “red tape” and additional beaurocracy from importing them.

smoking prevalence

Predicting and mitigating against diseases

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 4 - "How far can diseases be predicted and mitigated against?"

Case study: The Red Cross and cholera in Haiti

Haiti is known as “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere”. It has a GNI per capita of US $1665 PPP and poverty is around 60%. The Mw 7.0 quake in January 2010 killed around 10% of the population of the capital, Port-au-Prince. More than 90% of the population lived in slums and half had no access to toilets.

Nepalese aid workers stationed along Mirebalais, in the Artibonite river valley, are believed to have brought the disease, 9 months after the quake hit the island nation. 820,000 cholera cases were counted within 4 years, with around half a million hospitalisations - 82 hospitals had been damaged or destroyed during the quake.

The British Red Cross targeted the outbreak with its own response programme between 2010 and 2012. 10 days after the outbreak began, MSF found that the largest camp in P-a-P had no access to chlorinated drinking water, and the Red Cross were able to deliver clean water to 300,000 cap dwellers in the capital. On top of this, as cholera is water-borne, they built 1300 latrines, serving almost 200 people each. They also directly treated over 20,000 cholera cases in treatment units across Haiti, provided medical supplies to hospitals in the Artibonite Valley and also indirectly combatted the disease through educational measures, teching how to avoid infection and the symptoms.

Coupled with other aid workers like Cuban doctors who treated more than 75,000 cholera cases, it may have been a much greater success than it was. Weak governance contributed to the poor treatment of cholera in Haiti. There were over 10,000 NGOs but no effective management strategy and as a result, the easily-treated cholera was responsible for 10,000 deaths. [1]. Basic functionality and sanitation was not put in place across the country.

Further reading: [www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Can diseases ever be fully eradicated?

Specification Content for Disease Dilemmas Key Idea 5 - "Can diseases ever be fully eradicated?"

Case study: the rosy periwinkle

enter image description here

Plants have been used for a long time as medicines to cure diseases, from old herbal remedies in prehistory to the medieval Doctrine of Signatures.

The rosy periwinkle (or rosy p) leaves contain 70 alkaloids with significant medicinal value. Vincristine and vinblastine were preciously undiscovered by science. Vincristine is being used in childhood leukaemia: since 1970, survival rates have increased from 10% to 90%. Vinblastine can help testicular cancer, Hodgekin’s lymphoma and more. Furthermore, other alkaloids can be used to treat some cancers too. This has been unable to be synthesised synthetically through scientific means.

In Madagascar, where it is native, and in some areas of India and central Asia, huge land areas are being used to farm this plant. For Eli Lilly, its developer, sales equate to hundreds of millions of dollars from healthcare services around the world.

However, it is patented by Eli Lilly, which makes it illegal for others to sexually reproduce, import or export the plant. As a result, it maintains a monopoly over the periwinkle market and can effectively charge the prices they decide to use it. Furthermore, this also allows them to get away with biopiracy, as under 5% of the money is given back to the indigenous farmers. Economic growth is limited due to export restrictions under Lily which can exacerbate poverty in a region, as workers are effectively being exploited for transnationals’ gain.

Although it has come under scrutiny from some EU regulators, this practice largely goes unnoticed, as pharmaceutical companies have leverage and spend billions on discovering new drugs.

Biopiracy further reading: here

Case study: GSK (formerly GlaxoSmithKline)

GSK is part of the transnational pharmaceutical industry, which is a for-profit industry.

Historically, GSK has been (and may still be) overcharging governments and individuals for drugs, making abnormally high profits on lifesaving therapeutics. Its former employees have been criminally prosecuted on two continents, and have also been accused of lobbying governments and international organisations, with the use of bribing medical experts in favour of them. In addition, they have been seen to prioritise the R&D of drugs that require long repeated prescriptions and less those which are not as profitable like those needed for tropical diseases.

Despite these criticisms, GSK is able to deliver almost a billion vaccine doses and billions of medicine packs and healthcare products every year. 100,000 people globally are directly employed by them in tertiary and quaternary sector jobs, improving local economies in their 36 countries of manufacturing.

Some of GSK’s breakthroughs and patents include the first malaria candidate vaccine and ongoing Nobel Prize-winning discoveries for malarial drugs. They also provide medication for type 2 diabetes and discovered the first oncology drug for leukaemia. On top of this, they are one of the only pharmaceuticals to be actively researching new candidate drugs for the WHO’s top 3 global priority diseases. Patents in medicine last for no longer than 20 years and gives GSK the ability to invest greater amounts in new medicines. They currently hold almost 10,000 patents, largely in HIV medication, cancer treatments, cardiovascular disease and Covid-19.

As GSK had an operating profit of £6.433 billion in 2022, they are able to afford to provide LIDCs and EDCs drugs and medicines at significant discounts: 80% of the 800mn vaccine doses given were to these countries in 2014. In addition, they do not enforce historic patents or file new medicinal patents in LIDCs, allowing companies to manufacture versions of their medicines in these countries. FInally, their code of practice now involves capping the prices of patented drugs in LIDCs, many of which cannot manufacture their own pharmaceuticals, to 25% of the UK price and only allowing a 5% return on each product sold - the remaining 20% of its profits are invested into the developing country where it is sold.

Mini case study: Guinea worm in Ghana

The Guinea worm eradication programme and the Ghana Red Cross women’s program partnered and women, who are typically the ones to source water for families, were taught about the benefits of filtering water to avoid contamination. Women were also responsible for reporting and monitoring all cases of the worm back to the WHO.

Note: Although not a case study, grassroots strategies should also be recapped (guinea worm)

[TBD] 2.2.2 Global Systems – Migration

Page 30 in the OCR A Level Geography H481 Specification or search for: ‘Global Systems: Option B – Global Migration’

A migrant, according to the UN definition, is someone living outside their country of origin for a period of at least a year.

Interdependence is the interrelationships between ACs, EDCs and LIDCs through trade, foreign aid and migration

Globalisation is the growing integration and interdependence between peoples’ lives economically, politically and environmentally.

Economic migrants are those who migrate just for monetary gain, and no other reasons.

Monetary remittances include money sent from economic migrants back to their home country and their family. This is significant for a variety of reasons; firstly, the stability of incomes in LIDCs, which are typically where large numbers of economic migrants emigrate from are improved. In addition, money increasingly is worth more for LIDCs - seen in Haiti where 37% of its GDP is from migrants sending home money.

Migration on a global scale is significant. In 2020, there were 291 million people living outside their country of origin. Furthermore, of these, 73% were economic migrants, showing just how key money is to fuelling global flows of people and ideas.

Global migration involves dynamic flows of people between countries, regions and continents

[tbd] Consequences of migration

When I say “consequences”, this includes both positive and negative factors. For example, migration creates both stability whilst also may increase inequalities.

Positives of migration

Broadly, the positives of migration can be split into three distinct characteristics. This includes stability, growth and investment.

Stability

Intra-regional migration

Intraregional migration is migration that occurs within a region, for example, the European Union. Prior to Brexit, there was a large bilateral corridor between the UK and Poland; this is categorised as being intra-regional.

[TBD] 2.1 – Changing Spaces; Making Places

What’s in a place?

1.a. Places are multi-faceted, shaped by shifting flows and connections which change over time.

Content:

Case studies of two contrasting place profiles at a local scale, including:

A place can be described as a location created by human experiences.
A space, on the other hand, has no added social connections or added perceived values.

For example, a car parking space at a shopping market has no value to you. It’s just a one time location which you leave your car at. However, a parking place at your work may have your name on it, it may be valued by yourself and there may be some memories associated with it, such as tripping over or talking to someone there.

One person’s place may be another’s space.

Places can have different connections and perceptions. These are also likely to change over time. For example, 10 Downing Street may be perceived by characteristics, such as being a centre for political power, socioeconomic decisions or even for Larry the Cat who’s there. It also has many factors which determine how people perceive it, such as the current political affiliation or recent decisions made by the people inside.

Place Identity is a combination of many characteristics that comprise a place. These factors include:

Places are multi-faceted, shaped by shifting flows and connections which change over time. This can be seen with Canary Wharf, which is now a hub for businesses, bing banks, trade and commerce. It was part of the London Docklands, which became gentrified after the decline of the shipment industry. Flats were demolished and rebranded from old, contaminated stockhouses to new entrepreneurial small businesses and now high-rise, technologically advanced buildings coupled with bars, cafés and waterside views, giving it a sense of identity. To the people who work there or go there regularly, this is a place, not just a space.

Case study: Place Profile - Mancroft Ward, Norwich

A ward is an administrative region of a city or borough, electing its own councillor.

Physical Geography

Norwich is located on the River Wensum, flowing through the city. It is surrounded by many rivers and tributaries like the Yare and Waverley. These rivers have played an important role in the development of the region and city, both for industry and for transport. The geology is mostly composed of sandstone and chalk, used historically in the buildings, being durable. This style has been seen in the castle, while flints are used in many of the churches.

Political

Norwich is governed by Norwich City Council. The city has 39 city councillors, with 13 electoral wards, each having three councillors who undertake casework for constituents, making council policies, budgeting and service delivery. The county council runs education services as well as social care and transport.

Bonus info: the Russell Street Community Area Residents Association is a group of people within the Mancroft Ward who discuss local issues such as litter, tackling homelessness and lonliness, meeting monthly, and using platforms like Facebook to communicate to make the area more pleasant to live in.

May 2022 Council Election Results. Turnout 35.3%

Candidate Name Political Party Votes Elected
Carrington Jess Labour and Co-operative Party 691
Dean Gordon Richard Liberal Democrats 55
Gwynn Iain Michael Morgan The Conservative Party Candidate 243
Osborn Jamie The Green Party 1,606 X

enter image description here
Mancroft is part of Norwich South for general elections. In 2019, it was one of two districts to vote Labour in the East

Built Environment

Mancroft is home to a variety of architectural styles and ages, ranging from the 15th century to the modern day. Examples of 15th century buildings include the Guildhall, whilst 19th century developments include the Royal Arcade. The skyline is generally low-rise. The

The ward also contains two modern, innovative shopping centre developments, Chantry Place and Castle Quarter. Furthermore, The Forum is a modern development in amongst the 499 listed buildings. Very diverse, e.g. Norwich Market with various stalls from tearooms, army equipment, Italian street food to Indian scents and spices - reflecting the diversity of the ward (and city as a whole!) and demands for these foods. The ward’s population density at is also 10 times the UK average, having approximately 5,000 homes.

History

The ward itself is named after St Peter Mancroft alongside the parish church. There are two cathedrals and a castle in the city, one of which is in the ward, which itself is very rare across the UK. The name originated from the Latin term “Magna Crofta”, or “Great Field”. It used to be the second largest and most important city in England before industrialisation occurred. There was a strong trade bond with the Netherlands through the River Wensum, which extends out into the North Sea that allowed for easy boat transport. To this day, some of the city’s walls which surround this area are still in good shape thanks to their listed status such as Cow Tower and Black Tower.

Demography

2021 population:

Least religious city in the UK! with 57.8% saying they have no religious affiliation! Christianity is still the second most popular, and Islam is third at 33.5% and 3.5% respectively.

Source 1

Socio-economic

Mancroft is categorised as a built-up area alongside most of Norwich by the ONS. Large amounts of flats, apartments in a close proximity suggests that there are many employers and jobs available within the region and city, so employees can easily access these facilities.
11% of the ward are retired and therefore less economically active. There are also 866 students and the most will be paying rent and working, contributing to local economy. There are 5353 economically active people, while there are 2466 economically inactive residents.

Furthermore, the average income is £32,000, showing that there are many professional jobs being occupied. This means that there is a reasonable amount of disposable income for residents to spend on facilities and more recreational activities, such as supporting local cafes which tend to be at a higher price.

The majority of homes have 3-4 rooms, (not just bedrooms), suggesting that the majority of people in the area are either single or in a relationship without children. There are 5708 homes in total, with 3188 people living alone. This data implies that there are many workers living in smaller, urban dwellings. When families are formed, they then go on to move away from the inner city area and potentially to more suburban areas outside of Mancroft.

These statistics reflect the average “life progression”, with people working in inner city jobs or are students during thier early 20s due to work facilities available, nightclubs and nightlife (being more ‘adventurous’), but then settle in a more comfortable job and have families, moving to more remove areas with a larger house to take care of children.

Summary:
Overall, Mancroft is a built-up area with a high population density, suggesting that it contains a large amount of flats and buildings in close proximity. The population is diverse, with 11.07% of the ward being retired, 866 students, 5,353 economically active people aged between 16 and 74, and 2,466 people economically inactive. The majority of homes have 3 or 4 rooms, with an average of 2.51 people per household, suggesting that the area is mainly occupied by single people or very small families. This data implies that Mancroft is a roughly working to lower middle-class area (also inferred by its political affiliation) with many workers living in smaller houses, and families would then go on to move away from this area in the city centre with increased affluency and more likely to be middle-class.

Case study: Place Profile - Sheringham North Ward, North Norfolk

Physical Geography

Sheringham is situated on the North Norfolk coast. One of the highest points in Norfolk is located in western Sheringham, known as the “Beeston Bump” locally. It is 73 metres high and is made up of old glacial moraines dating from the end of the Pleistocene epoch eround 11 to 13,000 years ago, when northern advancing glaciers retreated. It is made out of sand, gravel and stones.

For this reason, and the proximity to the coast, it was used to protect the homes behind it, being less prone to erosion from the sea due to the increased mass to erode. There also used to be two villages behind this bump, which have now merged into one larger conurbation. (It used to be two roughly symmetrical hills that has now merged into one, just like the conurbation!).

The coastal cliffs in the area are made of sedimentary rocks such as chalk, clay and flint, which have provided the region with building materials and is why there are many small cottages or other buildings in the area made of flint.

There’s also a lot of prominent erosional processes and westwards longshore drift, resulting in sandy beaches and the necessity of groynes on the beach to maintain this sand.

Political

Sheringham is part of North Norfolk in general elections. In the 2019 general election, 58.6% of the vote was Conservative (up from the UK average of 43.6%) , which was a gain of 16.9% of the vote since the previous year’s election.

The Labour Party made up just 7.7% (compared to 32.1% in the UK) and the Lib Dems made up the second largest party at 30.3%, with a respective decline of 2.2% and 18.1%. 58.9% of North Norfolk, which included Sheringham, voted to leave the European Union in 2016. The MP, Duncan Baker, was a member of the UKIP party before the Brexit campaign.

Built Env

Flint is the most common and naturally abundant material in Norfolk, particularly for the building of cottages. This is especially pronounced in coastal areas such as in Sheringham North Ward. It is also an iconic material for tourism, as well as typically costing more to use than bricks and also looking good on postcards!

History

It was ‘created’ in 1086. The land was owned by William d’Ecouis. The Domesday entry lists public land, slaves, farm animals, churches and more in modern-day Sheringham.

In the late 1800s it was a major crab and lobster fishing centre and supplied London markets using new railway routes brought about from industrialisation from the 200+ fishing boats and companies which regularly went out from the port at this time. Many large business owners who had lots of money to spend, especially during the industrialisation period, bought large mansions or constructed their own buildings in the area, which created a snowball effect with other businessmen

It continued to be popular for particularly more wealthy and affluent people as holidays throughout the 20th century. From the 1950s and up onwards it has continued to attract elderly people for retirement due to its peaceful and serene atmosphere as well as having good coastal views and sufficient amenities.

Demography

In Sheringham North, the population in 2021 during the last census was 2,470. 98.1% of the population were white British. There were only four black residents.

The highest population age distribution bracket was between the 70 and 79 years age range with 464 people. Furthermore, 39.4% of the entire population are aged above 65. Just over half, at 50.8%, are between 15 and 64 years old. Of this total, 95% come from the UK.

The population has actually decreased from 3002 in 2011.

Socio-economic

In Sheringham North, there are 622 households with one person with a serious health condition, meaning that they cannot work. There are 64.7% of men who are economically active, compared to 59.6% of women economically active, meaning that 35 and 40% of them are inactive in the economy, respectively. 29.66% of people are managers, directors or senior officials and in professional occupations.

This shows that there may be an upcoming problem for the council and town planners as these older people continue to age, more accessible features will have to be put in place to support them.

Average costs for a terraced house are £223,500 to £312,500. For a semi-detached house, this is £250,000 to £364,500. A detached house costs typically over over £400,000.

Comparisons

Sheringham has a much older demographic with an average age of 51 years compared to 37 in Mancroft. This may result in more services like bingos and buses, with less schooling in Sheringham. Sheringham may also be less reluctant to change, not only because of the older population who are typically less accepting of new ideas and visions, but the people living there may spend more time retired compared to the lower, younger, more accepting population like students who may only spend 2-3 years in the area, who may be less inclined to travel further away to places such as Cromer to get their shopping done as they do not have as much time as the older, retired population.

[Dev Note 3/6/23] Possibly add more comparistions and their impacts on place identity here.

Shifting flows of money, investment and ideas on place identity

Norwich first started as a Saxon marketplace in the 800s and 900s, exporting wool. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was England’s second largest city.

During the Industrial Revolution, there was a large amount of rural to urban migration who powered new industries such as the mustard and chocolate factories.

It became a centre for textiles and shoemaking until the early 1900s. The ex-largest insurance company, Aviva, or Norwich Union, was established in the 16th century and then proceeded to go global.

It was relatively isolated until the railway arrived in 1846. It was faster to go to Amsterdam by boat than travel to London.

Since then, it has had a complete revolution. Norwich is now the eighth most prosperous shopping location in the UK, with old-fashioned industrial buildings and factories being redeveloped and gentrified into new places such as Riverside, Castle Quarter, and Chantry Place.

There has been a constant flow of students and academics in the area, fuelled by the UEA, which has close connections to world-renowned Cambridge Universities. The UEA also houses the John Innes Centre, which has provided global breakthroughs in the fields of biology and sciences, and Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, equally as significant. This has transformed the economy into a quaternary knowledge economy, supporting high-tech and scientific quaternary sector jobs, comparing to around 250 years ago, when it was just primary and secondary sector hub, involving large amounts of manufacturing and farm labour.

Norwich is a commuter town too, with people coming into work from surrounding villages, and good transport links with goods moved into Norfolk via the M11 and A14. This has continued to attract investment by transnational corporations.

Shifting flows of people

At the heart of it, people are what turn a space into a multifaceted place. The exact stage in people’s lives determines and influence where people live. For example, the location and housing tenureand house type, and by extent, the place profile.

The local availability of a resource or natural advantage can encourage the growth of a settlement and mould its identity by fuelling industry. If these resources run out or global shift occurs for a particular product, technology typically takes over the natural advantage and the place profile can and often change. In Norwich for example it has become cheaper and easier to manufacture goods like shoes and chocolate overseas and import it thanks to globalisation leading to the replacement of local resources. Ocean going ships have grown significantly in size and can no longer fit up the River Yare so the riverside docklands fell into decline, much like the London Docklands.

How do we understand place?

a) People see, experience and understand place in different ways, this can also change over time.
b) Places are represented through a variety of contrasting formal and informal agencies.

Content A:

Content B:

Place Perception: Uluru and Jerusalem

Emotional attachment: The Kurds and Kurdistan

Globalisation and our sense of place

Economic change and patterns of social inequality

3.a. The distribution of resources, wealth and opportunities are not evenly spread within and between places.
3.b. Processes of economic change can create opportunities for some while creating and exacerbating social inequality for others.
3.c. Social inequality impacts people and places in different ways.

[TBD] Measuring Social Inequality

Book reference: pages 158-162

The Gini coefficient is used to measure the inequality of income and thereby deprivation within countries. Here is the UK stats on the ONS website.

Players that impact on economic change

Who are the players that influence economic change in places?
4.a. Places are influenced by a range of players operating at different scales.

Placemaking processes

Specification content:
5. How are places created through placemaking processes?
5.a. Place is produced in a variety of ways at different scales.

5.b. The placemaking process of rebranding constructs a different place meaning through reimaging and regeneration.

5.c. Making a successful place requires planning and design.

[tbd] Rebranding

There are 5 main ways to rebrand an area:

end of paper 2

[tbd] Hazardous Earth

3-marker limitation questions

To answer these questions, firstly understand what the question is asking. For example:

“Identify three limitations of Fig. 5 (graph) as a source of information about earthquakes occurring in Iran.”

This is effectively asking about how well it is a source of information about earthquakes. Therefore your answer must be about earthquake information and that’s it. Therefore, you should consider the properties of earthquakes, their effects, responses and more. For example, does the figure:

Theory of Plate Tectonics

The theory of plate tectonics is closely linked with Alfred Wegener’s theory of continental drift, a theory completed in 1912 but rejected by scientific communities.

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Reasons for plate movement

Paleomagnetism

Paleo (fossilised) magnetism is the record of historic magnetic changes as the Earth’s polarity changes (known as geomagnetic reversals), with recent polarity inverses occurring every 200 to 300 thousand years. When oceanographers mapped seabeds during WW2, magnetic flips were observed on either side of divergent boundaries and seafloor spreading centres. This is because when magma is erupted, it has high iron content. These iron particles within the erupted lava then cool quickly as a result of the water, solidifying the surrounding lava and preserving a record of the magnetic direction the iron was pointing in. There is a mirror image of the polarity inversals on either side of the plate boundary.

Glacial deposits

Evidence from previous glacial periods when the Pangea supercontinent existed reinforced the idea that at one point, land masses were connected. Striations, lines in rocks carved by glaciers moving other rocks over them, have been found by glaciologists in central India, Africa and even in the Amazon Rainforest.

enter image description here
Striations and spherical laval bombs visible in a roche moutonnée near Easedale Tarn, Lake District. Credit: me

Apparent fit of the continents

He noticed that the continents looked just like pieces of a broken puzzle…

Geologic sequences


*A slightly exaggerated visualisation of the present-day positions of the Appalachian Mountain range. Thanks to Dark North (u/dxrknxrth) and this Reddit post!

Fossil evidence

enter image description here

Plate Boundaries

A plate boundary is where two plates meet. This is not the same as there being two plate boundaries! There is only one boundary and two plates.

Divergent plate boundaries

At a divergent plate boundary, two plates move apart from each other. Depending on the rate of movement and type of and density of the lithospheric crust, different landforms can be found

Oceanic-oceanic boundary

At a mid-oceanic ridge, molten magma rises towards the Earth’s surface, thanks to hot magma plumes within the mantle, originating from the lower mantle. As magma rises - caused by the force of the mantle plume - and enters the asthenosphere, it loses pressure and cools down. The lithospheric rocks above are pushed upwards by force, fracturing the lithosphere and penetrating through the crust. Accompanied by ridge push, at these ridges, thermal expansion from the presence of magma causes the surrounding rocks to… expand. Over time, vast chains of underwater mountains up to 3km tall and 60,000km in total length have formed.
At these oceanic ridge crests, landforms which are likely to be visible include black smokers (hydrothermal vents) where seawater meets the hot magma, as well as pillow lavas, which are mainly basaltic. These rocks once cooled can be used to indicate the upwards orientation at the time of eruption.

Variations in seafloor spreading velocity result in lateral transform faults, which appear as zig-zags on topographic ocean maps. Due to the accumulating pressure and tension as these masses move, small earthquakes will likely occur due to the releasing of kinetic energy. (There is little volcanic activity along transform faults.)

A transform fault is only the lateral part of the zig-zag, between ocean ridge crests.

Continental-continental

In locations where two continental plates meet (such as the East African Rift: Nubial <–> Somali), the mantle plume is not as strong, if any at all. As a result, rift valleys are created and are visible on land (such as in Iceland). These form as the plates, being pulled away from each other due to convection currents fuelling slab pull, resulting in the land at the boundary sinking: there is nothing below supporting it. Volcanic fissures also may open up for a time if there is land movement and a magma chamber beneath, which look like lines of magma erupting over a landscape. Shield volcanoes erupt viscous lava and are less active compared to composite volcanoes and calderas.

Rift valleys can also be found where spreading is occurring at a slower rate, such as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (North American <–> Eurasian) on land such as Iceland.

Convergent plate boundaries

Conservative plate boundaries

Typically continental plates move past in a strike-slip shearing motion.

No crust destroyed, no magma created, no volcanoes
However there are very big earthquake potenial
(explain from memory)

Conservative boundaries are also referred to as transform plate boundaries (wording in the USA only)

Volcanoes

The chemistry of an eruption

The nature of a volcanic eruption is shaped by a range of factors. For example, the viscosity, or the ‘stickiness’ of magma. The viscosity measures the resistance to flow an, in the case of volcanic activity, the more viscous it is, the more explosively the eruption may be.

Additionally, the gas inside the magma chamber drives the flow of the magma through the mantle and crust. Gas can build up within the magma chamber, forcing the magma to be quickly discharged and causing a more explosive eruption. Other factors can include the pipe’s shape. The length and diameter of it can cause differing explosion types, with typically short, narrow pipes creating greater explosions.

Magma is made of molten rock crystals which grow as the liquid inside cools down. Gas bubbles can make this more porous, viscosity and chemistry of the melt and temperature can change the characteristics of magma. The chemistry of magma refers to the polymerisation state of the liquid. Remember GCSE chemistry? Polymers are long chains of molecules; if these contain silica and oxygen inside, it become more viscous. Acidic, rhyolitic lava is characteristic of this chemistry, from typically converging boundaries.

Alkaline and H2O molecules break up these polymers into smaller, simple molecules which flow more easily and are typically basaltic.

To simplify the remembrance of the formation and type of magma, have a look at this table and see if you notice a pattern.

Explosive eruptions Effusive eruptions
Typically forms at converging boundaries Typically forms at diverging boundaries or hotspots
Formed as a result of subduction Formed from a deep mantle plume, or from ridge pull
Temperatures cooler, at around 750 Hot temperatures at 1000+ degrees
Sticky, viscous magma Runny, low viscosity magma
Acidic Less acidic
Cannot travel far, builds up a distinctive cone around a volcano Travels far and fairly flat, a ‘shield’ shape. You may not know it is a volcano at all.
Rhyolitic magma Basaltic magma
Distinct central vent and perhaps several side vents Fissure eruptions common
Less unpredictable but infrequent More unpredictable, but more frequent
Recurrence intervals can range from several years to several thousand+ years Recurrence intervals are very frequent, even once per day
Examples include Mt Pinatubo, Mt. St. Helens, Examples include Iceland, Hawaii

Intrusive volcanicity

Hotspot volcanoes

Yellowstone supervolcano

Stratovolcanoes

Cone-shaped formed by explosive extrusive volcanicity. Due to high viscosity, typically near a converging boundary, caused by long-length silica-rich acidic polymers due to the mixture of hot asthenospheric material and subducted plate debris which contains H2O, gases and other material from the ocean floor. This results in more gases developing, rising upwards and mixed in viscous, relatively cool (~600-800 degrees C) rhyolitic magma chambers. The explosive eruptions occur when the magma pushed by gases reaches the surface. The high viscosity causes the lava to not travel long distances. Over time, ash and lava will solidify in strata, building up around the central volcanic funnel causing the characteristic dome shape.

Shield Volcanoes

Effusive, basaltic eruption causes these as low-length polymerisation of the lava allows for higher temperatures (>1000degrees) and less viscosity, enabling long-distance transport after the initial extrusion.

East African Rift Valley

The African Plate is splitting in two! Land is dropping down due to ridge push and convection. There are also volcanic mountains

Volcano Case Studies

Case study: Eyjafjallajökull, Iceland

Iceland, in 2010, had a HDI of 0.92 and a GNI per capita of US$36,270 PPP, with a life expectancy of 82.

Eyjafjallajokull is a stratovolcano covered in glacial ice. Volcanic events starting in March 2010 began effusively, with characteristic basaltic andesitic lava. This attracted some tourists to the area, and ash reached no more than 4km in the atmosphere - a VEI 2 eruption.

In April 2010, the second, most significant explosive eruption occurred, peaking at a VEI of 4. This was particularly damaging for many reasons. It was directly below the very stable jet stream, pushing wind towards the UK and Europe. The eruption took place under 200m of glacial ice, with much of the meltwater flowing back into the caldera increasing the explosivity with high gases and increased pressure. This also caused glass-rich ash to be formed quickly which was injected into the troposphere at above 10km in altitude, which moved its way along Western and Central Europe.

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Impacts on people

Many farm crops and roads were washed away from glacial jökulhlaups, and fish exports from the Icelandic offshore fishing industry were halted due to the ash. Around 800 nearby residents were evacuated from large trucks and members of the fire brigade. Because of good infrastructure, warning systems and education, there were no direct deaths from the eruption.

On the continent, over 100,000 flights were cancelled, affecting 7 million passengers exacerbated by the Easter school holiday season. It is estimated that the GDP loss of the entire EU from this was $2.6bn with airlines losing $1.7bn. This had a knock-on effect for those reliant on the tourism industry, which is highly volatile and depends on revenue during these periods. London lost over £102mn and some companies were never able to recover from this. On top of 400,000 Britons stranded globally due to the three major London airports being closed - almost 1% of the population - this was particularly damaging.

Just-in-time manufacturing and trade as a result of globalisation such as the transport of Kenyan flowers cost the horticultural industry around $3mn per day, with 5 thousand flower and vegetable farmers who rely on a source of stable income in LIDCs being temporarily laid off. (97% of flowers are delivered to Europe, which is difficult when the whole airspace is closed!)

“Volcano tourism” has increased sharply since the eruption, with people going to visit the geological landforms and effusive activity like lava streams across the country. Tourist levels were 43% above forecast levels, with almost 80,000 additional visits. These people spend an average of ~$2000 each, generating significant revenue for the country.

“The increase in Icelandic tourism was far greater than the previous decline caused by the natural disaster and greatly exceeded forecasts.” [1]. This clearly shows how it can be a benefit to countries which can successfully mitigate against vulnerability, losses and the event itself.

How to pronounce

Case study: Volcan del Fuego, Guatemala

Guatemala is an LIDC in Central America with an HDI of 0.627 and GNI/capital of $8,500 PPP.

The eruption in 2018 was Guatemala’s deadliest event since 1902. It killed over 200 people with a VEI 3-4 plume reaching 15.2km. There was no hazard plan, and despite being one of the most active volcanoes along the Pacific Ring of Fire, it seems that people did not fully understand the risks. Bodies in 6 destroyed villages were found not far from homes, corroborating with video footage of people simply staring at the ash cloud and oncoming pyroclastic flows. Coupled with the fact that there was no evacuation alert issued, this shows that the infrastructure and investment were simply inadequate in the region.

Efforts to evacuate the area were rendered difficult due to inaccurate data involving road access, population size and population locations in proximity to the volcano’s flanks prone to pyroclastic flows. The Guatemalan Mountain Rescue Brigade were already searching for a missing person when explosive activity increased, and were able to help a significant but unknown number of people in surrounding villages to evacuate, emphasising the need for well-trained and experienced individuals for mitigation of vulnerability. Mitigation of losses could have been better but was not totally inadequate: firefighters were immediately deployed to the area with the aim of recovering trapped people and bodies, however, the heat and nature of the pyroclastics simply incinerated many buildings. 6,000 people were eventually evacuated as lava flows continued into the night and temporary shelters were provisioned with priority given to women and children, showing that there was at least some emergency provisioning.

Case study: Mount Nyiragongo, DRC, May 2021

Mountain Nyiragongo is situated on a continental divergent plate boundary, resulting in effusive eruptions. The world’s largest lava lake is situated in the volcano, which is a cinter cone, and it began to grow and show increased activity. However, the Goma Volcano Observatory was unable to successfully pay for Internet connections to remotely monitor the volcanic activity on instruments, or staff fuel to take measurements due to a withdrawal of World Bank funding due to allegations of government corruption one year prior. Goma is the provincial capital city of 2,000,000 inhabitants around 15 kilometres to the South.

As a result, only one warning was issued for an imminent eruption a fortnight preceding the May eruption. Three vents opened on the cinder cone’s flanks, which flowed towards Goma at a rate of around 1 kilometre per hour, allowing around 20 hours for people to escape. Around 30 two people died, mostly used to asphyxiation - the invisible, toxic CO2 gathers in low-lying areas. Whilst there was an evacuation warning of 400,000 people as a result of the city evacuation plan and a third of the population moved quickly, 2000 homes were destroyed and 17 villages were ruined.

However, this LIDC eruption was much better handled compared to the eruption in 2002, where 10x more people died and 13% of the city was destroyed, rendering 120,000 homeless. People in Goma were evidently more prepared this time, showing how far a small warning system and prior community knowledge can help mitigate vulnerability.

Case study: Mount Merapi, Indonesia

Indonesia is an EDC with an HDI of 0.705 and GNI per capita of $4,580 in 2022. It is in a very unstable tectonic region, with the Sunda Trench being the subduction zone between the Indo-Australian plate to the south and east, and the continental Eurasian plate to the north. There are 130 active volcanoes in Indonesia and, as a result, 70% of the 273 million inhabitants live within 100km of an active volcano - within range of damaging distances to historic VEI 6 and 7 eruptions of Tambora and Krakatau. 8.6 million are within 10km of these volcanoes - the range of a pyroclastic flow.

Quick facts:

50,000 people are living on Mt. Merapi’s slopes, within the most dangerous hazard Zone 3. This is primarily due to the agricultural benefits of volcano flanks:

Mitigation strategies have been partially successful. The local Javanese government compensated many thousands of farmers with plots of land elsewhere to discourage the continued inhabitation of the flanks.

Indonesia has very well-prepared, experienced and equipped emergency services. In addition, there is a constant clearance of flood and river channels to reduce the impact of lahars, which were seen, especially due to the Equatorial nature of the country, and pyroclastic flows might have on the population, of which there were over a dozen during Mount Merapi’s eruption in 2010. In addition, local governments have been able to provide hundreds of thousands of people with emergency shelters, some of which end up becoming permanent settlements, which are much futher away from the volcano itself, mitigating vulnerabilities further. However, despite this apparent organisation, the shelters are also prone to disease outbreaks. The “mass exodus” of people who the shelters have been occupied by have historically has involved many children becoming severely injured and separated from their parents and their families. Despite allegations of corruption, local governments’ responses during national disasters remain excellent, including aid delivery from both internal and external means.

Despite the local government’s demonstration of regularly clearing valleys from debris, there can be no replacement for ensuring that people are moved away from the stratovolcano’s flanks and provided access to another area - something which has been done for those in zone 3. However, for an EDC with some of the fastest-growing populations and high population densities supporting 1,000/km2 even in remote areas of Java, a balance seems to have been struck by successfully modifying the vulnerability to a large extent whilst not investing huge amount of money to save less and less residents who do simply do not wish to move.

Strategies to manage volcanic hazards

Mitigating against events

Humans cannot stop volcanic hazards

Mitigating against vulnerability

Modifying loss

[tbd] Earth’s Life Support Systems

This information will be coming soon! Message me if you want it early

Another physical geography section, this may be the most widely studied topic across the UK, along with the costs and rivers unit.

Water

Water is a fundamental part of life on Earth. Without it, we may not exist. This is so much so that liquid water is believed to be one of the key ingredience for life, alongside chemistry and energy. Water allows elements to become more complex, sustaining multicellular organisms’ growth and complexity.

Water makes up 70% of the human body, and up to 99% in some species of flora and fauna. Water vapour is also the most potent greenhouse gas, beating methane and CO2. Long-wave solar radiation is absorbed by these water particles, increasing global mean temperatures by 15 degrees C. Oceans also contribute to this temperature modification: it takes about 4x more energy to warm water than it does to heat air. In this sense, oceans act as both a carbon and energy sink, with gradual releases of this over time. In addition to this, clouds reflect ~21% of all incoming solar radiation, and these are again made of water droplets and ice crystals. White land, such as the glacial ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland also reflect back hige wuantities of solar energy.

The Hydrological Cycle

NEA stuff

Spearman’s Rank

In the first sheet, in cell E5, you write:
=RANK.AVG(C5,$C$5:$C$24,0)
This compares the value of the cell in C5 to those in cells 5 to 24.
You then go to the bottom right of the cell and drag the dot to cell E24
This will copy that earlier formula to give the results for each row. This is because we need the results in an ordered format.
Repeat this for the Cancer rate column (so =RANK.AVG(D5,$D$5:$D$24,0)) in column F

Finally, in any other cell, we can use the cool excel CORREL function to just work it out
=CORREL(E5:E24,F5:F24)
This gets the spearman’s correlation for the two sets of data

Footnotes

(Disclaimer) AI-assisted writing

ChatGPT or any other text-based generative transformer model was not used to directly write the content here. It’s good for clarification of certain topics (and I’ve used it for that), but don’t get used to it otherwise you’ll lose your creativity.

To add later:

Development of Dubai time-lapse [interactive]

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