Question 1 of 8slope morphology data analysis
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A geographer carries out a field survey to compare slope profiles in two valleys, measuring the angle of each slope segment at several points down each valley. What instrument, used together with a tape measure or ranging poles, is used to measure the angle of each slope segment?
A field survey compared slope profiles in two valleys: a limestone valley where maximum slope angles ranged from 17 to 32 degrees with no concave sections recorded, and a clay valley where maximum slope angles ranged from only 2 to 9 degrees with 68% to 80% of each profile concave. What best explains why the limestone slopes are so much steeper than the clay slopes?
Which of the following correctly explains why water vapour condenses in the atmosphere?
In geomorphology, drainage pattern and drainage density describe different aspects of a river network. Which statement correctly distinguishes between them?
A drainage density study recorded that a sandstone area receiving 900 mm of annual rainfall had a drainage density of 2.5 km per km2, while a limestone area receiving the same 900 mm of annual rainfall had a much lower drainage density of only 1.5 km per km2. Despite receiving identical rainfall, why does the limestone area have a lower drainage density than the sandstone area?
A river that flows all year round, even during the dry season, because it is fed by groundwater baseflow, is best described as:
Two river basins receive exactly the same annual rainfall, yet one produces a much higher peak discharge after storms than the other. Which basin characteristic best explains this difference?
Which weathering process involves organic acids produced by plant roots and decomposing organic matter bonding with and removing metal ions from a mineral's structure?
Which weathering process is a chemical reaction in which hydrogen ions in water replace metal cations in a mineral such as feldspar, breaking it down into clay minerals and releasing soluble ions?
When surveying the vegetation of a small area (about 10 km²) to detect change over time, which of the following is a vegetation characteristic a surveyor would record at each sample point?
In a vegetation survey, what is the name for the diagram used to display the distribution and abundance of species along a transect, drawn as a series of stacked bars whose width represents percentage cover?
Which sampling method involves marking out a grid of sample plots spread across a study area and recording the vegetation within each plot, rather than recording along a single line?
The 'day model' of the atmosphere's energy budget includes incoming solar radiation, reflected shortwave radiation, absorbed shortwave radiation, outgoing longwave radiation, and net radiation. Which term describes the process where longwave radiation emitted by the Earth's surface is absorbed by the atmosphere and re-radiated back down, warming the lower atmosphere?
In the six-factor energy-budget model of the atmosphere, what term describes the shortwave radiation that is reflected back to space by clouds, the atmosphere and the Earth's surface, without being absorbed?
Continental interiors such as parts of Asia show strong negative temperature anomalies in January compared with the oceans. Which human activity is a way of raising local temperatures, as distinct from this large-scale continental cooling pattern?
What term describes river flow that moves in smooth, unmixed parallel layers, typical of very slow, shallow water?
Granite is an impermeable, crystalline igneous rock, while limestone is a permeable sedimentary rock composed largely of calcium carbonate. Why is limestone especially susceptible to chemical weathering?
In limestone regions, what term describes the exposed, flat limestone surface dissected by widened joints (grikes) into flat blocks (clints)?
A geographer wants to show the seasonal occurrence of rainfall at one weather station using its monthly rainfall records. What type of graph, plotting each month's rainfall total as a bar, is normally used to show this?
A geographer has annual rainfall totals for 20 weather stations scattered across a 1 000 km² area, plus a topographical map of the area. Which technique is most appropriate for showing how annual rainfall varies across the whole area?
A rainfall dispersion graph plots each year's total rainfall as a point against time for 30 years of records at a station. If the points are tightly clustered close to the long-term mean line, what does this indicate about the station's rainfall?
Which statement correctly distinguishes the greenhouse effect from global warming?
Urban areas are typically warmer than the surrounding rural areas, an effect known as the urban heat island. Which of the following is NOT a reason for this warming?
The Northeast and Southeast Trade wind air masses converge near the equator, producing rising, moist, unstable air, cumulonimbus development, and heavy convectional rainfall. What is this convergence zone called (give its full name or its common abbreviation)?
What term describes the rate at which the temperature of the surrounding, still air actually falls with height at a given time and place, as measured by a radiosonde?
What term describes the rate at which an unsaturated parcel of rising air cools due to expansion alone, averaging about 10 degrees Celsius per 1000 m?
In Fig. 3.1's nutrient cycle for cleared rainforest, the arrow from biomass (B) to litter (L) is much smaller than in an undisturbed forest, and the soil (S) store shows a large outflow with only a thin inflow from weathering. What does this indicate about the cleared area's nutrient cycle compared with the undisturbed forest?
Name the term for the sequence of distinct soil profiles that develops down a single hillslope on one parent material under one climate, the differences arising from slope position alone.
Fig. 1.1 plots world vegetation belts against annual precipitation and annual temperature. Tropical rainforest occupies the corner of the graph with annual temperature around 25 to 30 degrees Celsius and annual precipitation above 1000, while the grassland belts sit at a similar temperature but with precipitation only around 200 to 600. What does the graph therefore show separates tropical rainforest from tropical grassland?
Fig. 1.1 shows the tropical rainforest belt reaching the highest annual precipitation values on the graph, peaking above 2000. Which climatic mechanism accounts for that rainfall total?
The troposphere is heated mainly from below rather than directly by incoming solar radiation. What is the main reason temperature falls with increasing altitude within it?
What single greenhouse gas has risen from about 280 ppm before industrialisation to over 420 ppm today, mainly from the burning of fossil fuels?
What term describes the temperature to which air must be cooled, at constant pressure and moisture content, for it to become saturated and for condensation to begin?
The Bergeron-Findeisen process explains rain formation in cold clouds where supercooled water droplets and ice crystals coexist. What is the key physical fact that drives ice crystals to grow at the expense of the surrounding droplets?
In geography, what general term describes the area or extent over which a settlement, service, or facility (such as a competing mobile network provider) attracts customers and exerts an economic or social effect?
When constructing a proportional circle map to represent town or city populations, which quantity should be made directly proportional to population size, and how is this achieved?
In the dot method of representing rural population, where each dot represents a fixed number of people (for example, 1 dot = 2,000 people), why must this dot value be chosen carefully?
Which population-mapping technique shades administrative units (such as districts or provinces) according to population density, giving a map that is easy to read at a glance but risks masking variation within each unit and creating a false impression of uniform density across it?
What demographic term describes the difference between a population's birth rate and death rate, expressed as a rate of population growth that excludes migration?
Which of the following best defines mortality in population geography?
Which statement correctly distinguishes over-urbanisation from ordinary urbanisation?
How do subsistence and commercial farming typically interact with each other within the same agricultural economy?
During fieldwork on a factory's industrial system, the linkages between raw material inputs, production processes and outputs are best presented in a report using which type of diagram?
In presenting migration survey results, a map that uses arrows to show the origins and directions of people moving into a town is called a:
In the Demographic Transition Model, the stage characterised by high birth and death rates and consequently low natural increase, typical of isolated tribal societies, is Stage ______.
In the Demographic Transition Model, which stage is characterised by a still-high birth rate combined with a falling death rate, producing rapid natural increase?
In the Demographic Transition Model, which stage is characterised by both birth and death rates being low, resulting in a low rate of natural increase?
In the Demographic Transition Model, the stage in which the birth rate falls below the death rate, leading to population decline, is Stage ______.
Which of the following is identified as a cause of food surpluses in More Economically Developed Countries (MEDCs), rather than a cause of food shortages in Less Economically Developed Countries (LEDCs)?
Which factor influencing agricultural land use refers to farmers' access to irrigation, machinery and improved seed varieties, allowing more intensive and higher-yielding production?
Larger agricultural holdings tend to allow more extensive, mechanised production, whereas smaller holdings tend towards intensive, labour-based ______ use.
A model of industrial development traces the growth of an industrial region through four stages, from small-scale dispersed pre-factory production to eventual industrial decline. Which stage is characterised by the emergence of a factory system, with industrial towns beginning to develop and link along a transport corridor?
A researcher wants to show, on a single sketch map, the total volume and direction of rush-hour traffic flowing along several roads into a city centre. Which mapping technique should be used?
A study area is sampled using two different point-sampling techniques. In Technique A, points are selected at random locations across the whole area, giving every location an equal chance of selection. In Technique B, the area is first divided into two contrasting sub-zones using a boundary line, and points are then sampled unevenly within each sub-zone. What is Technique B called?
A survey area with two contrasting land-use zones is sampled by first dividing it into those zones and then sampling within each one (stratified sampling), rather than sampling the whole area at random. What is a genuine advantage of this approach?
Malthusian theory contrasts how population and food supply grow over time. If food supply grows arithmetically, increasing by a constant amount each period (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), how does Malthus argue population grows if unchecked?
In Malthusian theory, food supply is said to increase only at what type of rate, in contrast to population's geometric growth?
In cities in developing countries, in-migration is heavily concentrated in the 20 to 34 age group, with far fewer child and elderly migrants than the city's total resident population pyramid shows. Which explanation best accounts for this age pattern among migrants?
Name the term for the variety of living organisms present in an area, counted at the level of genes within a species, species within a community, and ecosystems across a landscape.
Which of the following is a major cause of air pollution in Zimbabwe?
Sulphur and nitrogen oxides released by burning fossil fuels combine with atmospheric moisture to form a weak acid that then falls as precipitation. Which effect of air pollution does this describe?
On Fig. 3.1, the Sahara region carries almost no population dots. What best explains this?
Name the term for materials that can be broken down naturally by micro-organisms such as bacteria and fungi into harmless natural products over time, such as food waste and paper.
Which Zimbabwean law requires an Environmental Impact Assessment before a major development project may proceed?
Many boreholes drilled under rural water programmes fall back into disrepair after a few years. What is the main reason for this?
On Fig. 4.1, the arrows converging on South Africa are by far the thickest on the map. What best explains this?
Classify the data 'male, female' into the appropriate measurement scale.
Classify the data 'primary, secondary, tertiary' into the appropriate measurement scale.
Classify the data '20 degrees C, 23 degrees C, 32 degrees C' into the appropriate measurement scale.
At a private clinic patients arrive at an average rate of 5 per hour, and arrivals follow a Poisson distribution. Calculate the probability that exactly 2 patients arrive in a given hour, correct to 4 decimal places.
At a private clinic patients arrive at an average rate of 5 per hour, following a Poisson distribution. Calculate the probability that at most 3 patients arrive in a given hour, correct to 4 decimal places.
Patients arrive at a clinic at an average rate of 5 per hour, following a Poisson distribution. Calculate the probability that not more than 1 patient arrives in a given two-hour interval, correct to 5 decimal places.
A chi-square test of independence is performed on a contingency table with 2 rows (males, females) and 3 columns (age 20-30, 31-40, 41-50). State the number of degrees of freedom.
A chi-square test on cholera cases by age and sex at Musiso Mission hospital gives a test statistic of about 0.08 with 2 degrees of freedom, against a 5 per cent critical value of 5.991. What is the correct conclusion?
Give one recognised index of spatial autocorrelation used in geographical analysis.
Why does spatial autocorrelation matter when a geographer applies classical statistical tests to spatial data?
The Masembura 1:50 000 extract shows steep sided hill masses rising to trigonometrical stations at 1315.8 m and 1317.2 m, standing well above a gently undulating plateau surface cut across the same granite. What is the most likely explanation for these hills?
The Masembura extract shows streams rising in wide, flat, marshy headwater depressions on the plateau surface, which are seasonally waterlogged and lie where the water table intersects a low gradient surface. Give the local Zimbabwean name for this landform.
The drainage on the Masembura extract forms a branching, tree-like pattern with tributaries joining at acute angles across the whole sheet. Name this pattern and state what it indicates about the underlying rock.
The Masembura extract shows individual homestead symbols scattered singly across Masembura Communal Land and Msana Communal Land, rather than grouped into villages. What is this settlement type called, and what best explains it?
In QGIS, the operation of assigning real world coordinates to a scanned map image by matching identified points on the image to known ground coordinates is required before any measurement can be taken from it. Name this operation.
Six ground control points spread across the Esigodini sheet, from easting 699000 to 706000 and northing 7751000 to 7756000, are entered before georeferencing. Why are several well spread points used rather than two close together?
Drainage density is calculated from the total length of all streams within a grid square and the area of that square. On a 1:50 000 sheet a 1 km grid square has an area of 1 square kilometre. If the total stream length measured within one such square is 3.6 km, calculate the drainage density and give its units.
The Esigodini sheet shows shallow open valleys, few perennial channels and long stretches of higher ground with almost no channels at all, giving a low to moderate drainage density. What best explains this?
Fig. 5.1 shows temperature in City X as roughly concentric closed isotherms falling outward from a hot central core, with the isotherms bending outward along the line of the river. What is this pattern, and why is the core hottest?
On Fig. 5.1 the isotherms bend outward where the river crosses the city, marking a tongue of cooler air along the channel. Why is the river corridor cooler than the built up area around it?
Define rainfall variability as the term is used in the study of climate.
You are asked to show Zimbabwe's mean annual rainfall variations from normal for 1910 to 2000 on one diagram. Which technique is appropriate, and how is it constructed?
Which is a genuine disadvantage of using a departure from the mean bar graph to show ninety years of rainfall?