Geography Paper 1 November 2023

1. AThe tropopause actively radiates additional heat downward into the upper troposphere, adding a second heat source above that would, if real, warm rather than cool the upper troposphere.
2. BThe surface absorbs most incoming solar radiation and re-radiates and conducts heat upward, so higher layers receive progressively less of that heat, and rising air also cools by adiabatic expansion.
3. CShort-wave insolation is absorbed almost entirely by the upper atmosphere before it reaches the surface.
4. DAir pressure increases steadily with height, which directly raises the air's temperature.

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1. AA global fall in sea level, since melting ice reduces the total volume of water in the oceans.
2. BNo measurable change in sea level, since ice melting and thermal expansion cancel each other out.
3. CGlobal sea level rise, threatening low-lying coastal cities and small island states.
4. DA localised rise in sea level only in polar regions, with no effect elsewhere.

1. AThey are effective only in cities with fewer than ten thousand vehicles registered.
2. BThese measures have been shown to have no effect on air quality anywhere they have been tried.
3. CThe cost of clean technology and the pace of poorly planned urban growth often outstrip what such measures can achieve, and enforcement of standards is often weak.
4. DThey only work in cities that have no industrial activity of any kind, which would rule out almost every major city where such air quality measures have actually been implemented.

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1. AStrong, gusty wind, which mixes the surface air and cools it evenly with height.
2. BContinuous heavy cloud cover, which blocks radiative heat loss from the ground and so should, if this option were correct, prevent rather than cause the temperature reversal shown in the figure.
3. CDaytime heating, since inversions can only form while the sun is above the horizon.
4. DCalm conditions, since wind would mix the cooled surface air away before the inversion could form.

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1. AThe inversion has no effect on smoke dispersal; the sideways spread is caused only by horizontal wind.
2. BThe inversion actively pulls smoke downward into the industrial area, concentrating it at ground level.
3. CThe inversion increases the rate at which smoke disperses vertically into the upper atmosphere, the opposite of the lid effect that Fig. 2.1 actually shows trapping the smoke close to the ground.
4. DThe inversion acts as a lid, physically preventing vertical mixing and trapping smoke and pollutants close to the ground.

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1. AThe outer residential area has more traffic and industrial activity than the CBD at night.
2. BThe CBD has the least vegetation and the greatest concentration of heat-retaining building materials, which absorb daytime heat and release it slowly through the night.
3. CThe CBD is located at a higher altitude than the outer residential area, which raises its temperature.
4. DThe CBD receives more direct sunlight at midnight than the outer residential area, an explanation that cannot apply after dark when no part of the city receives any sunlight at all.

1. AUrban areas generally have higher relative humidity than rural areas because of their extensive vegetation.
2. BUrban areas generally have lower surface relative humidity, since impermeable surfaces shed rainfall as runoff rather than allowing evaporation from soil and plants.
3. CUrban areas always receive less total precipitation than rural areas because of the heat island effect.
4. DUrban and rural wind speeds are always identical because buildings have no effect on airflow, overlooking the sheltering and street-canyon acceleration effects tall buildings are known to produce.

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1. AImpermeable urban surfaces prevent infiltration and route rainfall rapidly into storm drains and channels.
2. BUrban rainfall totals are always much higher than rural rainfall totals for the same storm.
3. CUrban rivers have larger natural floodplains that quickly absorb excess water.
4. DUrban areas have deeper soils that store far more water than rural soils, which would, if true, give urban catchments a longer lag time rather than the short one actually observed.

1. AFloodplain land is naturally the part of the valley the river spreads across during high discharge, so settling there places people directly in the water's path.
2. BFloodplains are always located at the highest elevation in a drainage basin, far from any river channel.
3. CBuilding on a floodplain physically prevents any river from ever flooding again, treating construction as if it could alter the river's discharge rather than simply placing property in the water's path.
4. DFloodplain soils are so infertile that no agriculture or settlement has ever been attracted to them.

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1. AA tree-like, branching network joining the main river at irregular, acute angles.
2. BA perfectly straight single channel with no tributaries at all.
3. CParallel main channels joined by short tributaries at right angles, like a garden trellis.
4. DStreams converging from all directions toward a single central point or lake.

1. AMain (consequent) streams flow parallel to one another along the valleys, and short tributary (subsequent) streams join them at approximately right angles.
2. BMain and tributary streams are always identical in size, discharge and length, which would make the very idea of classifying streams by order or naming a 'main' channel meaningless.
3. CTributary streams flow in the opposite direction to the main streams at all times.
4. DAll streams in the pattern radiate outward in a straight line from a single central peak.

1. AIt permanently eliminates all future flood risk anywhere in the drainage basin.
2. BIt has no measurable effect on the speed or volume of water moving through a channel.
3. CIt only affects water quality, not the speed or volume of flow, ignoring the direct hydraulic effect that straightening and deepening a channel has on velocity.
4. DIt speeds the passage of floodwater downstream, sometimes intensifying flooding further down the basin.

1. AThe bare surface causes a permanent increase in soil organic matter, worsening desertification.
2. BThe bare surface raises albedo, reducing surface heating and the convective uplift needed for rainfall.
3. CThe bare surface absorbs far more heat than vegetated ground, directly increasing local rainfall.
4. DThe bare surface has no effect on either albedo or local rainfall patterns, treating vegetation loss as if it changed nothing about how much solar radiation the ground reflects.

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1. AIt raises humus content, improving soil structure and water retention where organic matter is naturally scarce.
2. BIt replaces the need for any water input, making irrigation unnecessary.
3. CIt permanently removes all soluble salts from the soil, directly preventing salinisation.
4. DIt has no effect on soil structure, only on the soil's mineral colour, overlooking the way added organic matter physically binds particles into crumbs and improves water retention.

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1. APhotosynthesis
2. BDenitrification
3. CNitrogen fixation
4. DDecomposition of dead organic matter by soil bacteria and fungi, releasing nutrients back into the soil rather than fixing new nitrogen from the atmosphere.

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1. ARespiration
2. BPhotosynthesis
3. CDecomposition of dead organic matter by soil bacteria and fungi, releasing nutrients back into the soil rather than fixing new nitrogen from the atmosphere.
4. DCombustion

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1. AIt only removes a carbon sink; cleared vegetation itself never releases any stored carbon.
2. BIt only releases stored carbon; the remaining land continues to absorb carbon dioxide exactly as before.
3. CIt has no effect on either the release or the absorption of carbon dioxide, treating forest clearance as if the vegetation removed played no part in either process.
4. DIt releases the carbon stored in cleared vegetation and removes a sink that would otherwise absorb further atmospheric carbon dioxide.

1. ALandscape lowering requires no weathering of any kind, only direct river erosion of solid bedrock.
2. BLandscape lowering occurs through the parallel retreat of steep scarps at a constant angle, leaving an expanding pediment.
3. CLandscapes can only be lowered through glacial erosion, regardless of climate, which would leave no explanation at all for the pediplains and etchplains typical of warm, ice-free regions.
4. DDeep chemical weathering rots bedrock in place below the surface, and a later change in climate or base level strips away the resulting regolith, exposing the weathering front as the new surface.

1. AVegetation entirely blocks rainwater from reaching the soil, preventing any weathering at all.
2. BRoots and decaying litter add organic acid and carbon dioxide to soil water, intensifying chemical attack on minerals, while roots also physically wedge open joints.
3. CVegetation cools the ground so much that all chemical reactions are slowed to a near stop.
4. DVegetation has no effect on weathering; only climate and rock type matter, overlooking the organic acid, carbon dioxide and root wedging that living cover is known to add to the weathering process.

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1. AJoints prevent water from penetrating the rock at all, slowing weathering, the reverse of their actual role as the main pathway by which water reaches into a rock mass.
2. BJoint spacing has no measurable effect on the rate or depth of weathering.
3. CJoints provide pathways through which water and air can penetrate the rock, exposing a far larger surface area to weathering agents.
4. DJointed rock is always chemically different from massive rock of the same mineral composition.

1. AThey attract tourism and hold cultural or religious significance, generating income and value for local communities.
2. BThey provide no economic or cultural value of any kind to nearby communities, overlooking the tourism income and religious significance that landmarks such as Domboshava and the Matobo Hills are known to generate.
3. CThey actively prevent all forms of agriculture within several kilometres of their location.
4. DThey are used exclusively as sites for large-scale industrial mining operations.

1. AContinental crust is always thinner than oceanic crust, making it easier to subduct.
2. BOceanic crust is geologically far older than continental crust in every case.
3. COceanic crust is denser than continental crust, so it can sink into the mantle at destructive margins, while lighter continental crust resists subduction.
4. DThere is no real density difference between oceanic and continental crust, which would leave no reason why one type of crust, rather than the other, is the one repeatedly subducted at destructive margins.

1. ANo landform develops at all, since two continental plates simply pass by one another without interacting.
2. BA deep ocean trench forms, exactly as at an oceanic-continental boundary, with abundant volcanic activity.
3. CVery high fold mountains form as both plates' sediments are compressed and thrust upward; little volcanism occurs because there is no subducted slab to generate magma.
4. DA chain of volcanic islands forms, identical to an oceanic-oceanic convergent boundary, ignoring the fact that continental crust cannot be subducted to generate the same kind of magma supply.

1. AMass movement only ever occurs on slopes that have had no human interference of any kind.
2. BNatural extreme rainfall can trigger mass movement on slopes whose stability has already been reduced by human activity such as deforestation and settlement.
3. CHuman activity is completely irrelevant to mass movement; only natural rainfall matters in every case.
4. DCyclones can never trigger landslides; only earthquakes are capable of doing so, a claim the Chimanimani disaster itself directly contradicts.