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GCSE Geography 03 — Hazardous Environments

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Topics include Risk, vulnerability, resilience, and disaster management, Tectonic theory and plate boundaries, Earthquakes: causes, effects, and management, Volcanoes: types, hazards, and responses, Monitoring, prediction, and planning for tectonic hazards, Tropical storms: formation, impacts, and management, Drought, desertification, and land degradation, and Climate change: causes, evidence, and impacts on hazards.

Geography EN
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Tectonic theory and plate boundaries

Plate tectonics explains why earthquakes and volcanoes cluster at plate boundaries. Different boundary types produce different hazards and landforms.

Key points

  • Earth’s lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates moving on the semi-molten asthenosphere.
  • Movement is driven by mantle convection plus ridge push and slab pull.
  • Divergent boundaries create new crust (mid-ocean ridges, rift valleys); volcanism is usually effusive.
  • Convergent boundaries involve subduction (oceanic under continental/oceanic) creating trenches, fold mountains and explosive volcanoes.
  • Transform boundaries involve plates sliding past: friction builds then releases as earthquakes.

Worked example

Question

Compare the hazards expected at a convergent subduction boundary and a transform boundary.

Solution

At a convergent subduction boundary, you expect both earthquakes and volcanic hazards. Subduction produces powerful earthquakes and explosive volcanoes, plus secondary hazards like tsunamis, ash fall and pyroclastic flows. At a transform boundary, plates slide past each other; there is no magma generation, so volcanoes are uncommon. The main hazard is earthquakes, which can trigger landslides and building collapse.

Common pitfalls

  • Saying volcanoes happen at all plate boundaries (transform boundaries usually lack volcanism).
  • Mixing up divergent and convergent boundary processes.
  • Thinking mantle convection alone explains all movement without ridge push/slab pull context.

Prerequisites

  • hz_risk_vulnerability
  • Prerequisite knowledge (auto-added).
Further resources