Cambridge IGCSE Geography: The Natural Environment — Practice Questions (0460)

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, in the style and at the standard of the examination. They are not reproduced past-paper questions — Cambridge International holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Theme 2 revision notes

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Section A

1. Name the three types of plate boundary, and state what happens at each. [3]

2. Define “epicentre” and “focus” as used to describe an earthquake. [2]

3. Name two instruments used to collect weather data, and state what each measures. [2]

Section B

4. Study the description: “A river erodes a wide bend in its course. Over time, the neck of the bend narrows until the river cuts through it directly, leaving the old bend isolated as a separate, curved body of water.”

(a) Identify the landform being described. [1] (b) Explain the process by which this landform forms, referring to erosion and deposition. [4]

5. A country lies along a destructive plate boundary, where one tectonic plate is being subducted beneath another.

(a) Explain why this location is associated with both frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity. [4] (b) Discuss why living in this location presents both hazards and opportunities, rather than hazards alone. [4]

6. Explain why a hot desert climate has a large diurnal (day-to-night) temperature range compared with an equatorial climate, referring to at least one climatic factor. [3]

7. A stretch of coastline shows a headland with caves, an arch, and an isolated rock stack a short distance offshore.

(a) Explain the sequence of erosion that produces a stack from an original headland. [4] (b) Name the erosive process primarily responsible, and identify the agent of erosion. [2]

8. Explain why deforestation of a tropical rainforest has effects that extend beyond the local area where the forest is cleared. [3]

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Answers

1. Constructive/divergent — plates move apart [1]. Destructive/convergent — plates move together, often producing subduction of one plate beneath another [1]. Conservative — plates slide past each other without significant creation or destruction of crust [1].

2. The epicentre is the point on the Earth’s surface directly above where the earthquake originates [1]. The focus is the actual point underground where the earthquake originates [1].

3. Any two of: rain gauge (measures rainfall), maximum-minimum thermometer (measures highest and lowest temperature), wet-and-dry bulb thermometer (measures humidity), anemometer (measures wind speed), wind vane (measures wind direction), barometer (measures air pressure), sunshine recorder (measures hours of sunshine) [2].

4. (a) An oxbow lake [1]. (b) As a river flows around a wide bend (meander), erosion is concentrated on the outer bank where the current is fastest, while deposition occurs on the inner bank where the current is slower [1–2]. Over time, continued erosion narrows the neck of land between the two sides of the bend, until during a period of high flow the river cuts directly through the neck, taking the shorter, straighter course [1]. Deposition then seals off the old, curved section of the channel, isolating it as a separate body of water — the oxbow lake [1].

5. (a) At a destructive boundary, one plate is forced (subducted) beneath the other [1]. This subduction generates significant friction and stress, which is released as earthquakes [1], while the subducted plate melts as it descends into the mantle, and the resulting magma rises to the surface, producing volcanic activity [1–2]. (b) Hazards include the direct risk to life and property from earthquakes and volcanic eruptions [1–2]. Opportunities include fertile volcanic soils that support productive agriculture, geothermal energy potential, and tourism drawn to volcanic landscapes [1–2] — a complete answer must cover both sides, since a one-sided answer describing hazards or opportunities alone does not meet what this sub-topic explicitly requires.

6. Hot deserts typically have very low humidity and little cloud cover, so heat escapes rapidly from the ground at night with little atmospheric moisture to trap it, producing a large diurnal temperature range [1–2]. Equatorial climates have consistently high humidity and persistent cloud cover from frequent convectional rainfall, which traps heat at night and keeps the temperature range between day and night much smaller [1].

7. (a) Waves erode weaknesses in a headland, such as joints or cracks, widening them into caves on either side [1]. Continued erosion eventually breaks through the headland where two caves meet, forming an arch [1]. Further erosion widens the arch until its roof can no longer support itself and collapses, leaving an isolated pillar of rock — a stack — separated from the headland [1–2]. (b) The process is erosion (specifically hydraulic action and abrasion) [1]; the agent is the sea (wave action) [1].

8. Locally, deforestation removes habitats and increases soil erosion once the protective canopy and root systems are gone [1]. Beyond the local area, large-scale deforestation reduces the volume of carbon dioxide absorbed by the forest and can release stored carbon when vegetation is burned or decays, contributing to global climate change [1–2]; rainforests also influence regional and global rainfall patterns through the water they release into the atmosphere, so large-scale clearance can disrupt rainfall well beyond the immediate area cleared [1].

A note on case-study preparation

None of the questions above require a specific named case study, since a genuine case study needs to be prepared from real, verified sources rather than invented for a practice set. When revising the required case studies for this theme (one earthquake, one volcano, a river, a coastline, a rainforest area and a desert area), practise answering the same style of question above using your own chosen, real example in place of the generic scenario described — the process explanation stays the same, but a strong answer adds the location, date, scale and named management response your own case study supplies.