Natural hazards
Tectonic hazards, weather hazards and climate change - causes, effects, and responses, with contrasting case studies.
Learn
Natural hazards, explained point by point
Everything the GCSE specification expects you to be able to do, and how to actually do it - the same lesson a signed-in student studies from.
Explain plate tectonics and why people continue to live near hazards
Earthquakes and volcanoes cluster along plate margins - constructive (plates pulling apart), destructive (one sinking beneath another) and conservative (sliding past, like the San Andreas fault). People stay near them for solid reasons: fertile volcanic soils, geothermal energy, jobs, family ties, and the simple calculation that big events are rare. Being able to name the margin type AND the human reasons is what full answers do.
Compare the effects of and responses to earthquakes in a HIC and a LIC
This is a classic case-study comparison - say Chile 2010 (HIC) against Nepal 2015 (LIC). Similar magnitudes, very different outcomes: wealth buys earthquake-resistant buildings, trained emergency services and insurance, so HICs typically suffer fewer deaths but larger financial losses. Learn a few precise facts for each (deaths, costs, one primary and one secondary effect, one immediate and one long-term response) - specifics are what separate a case study from a guess.
Explain how tropical storms form, their effects, and how risks can be reduced
Tropical storms spin up over oceans warmer than 27°C, where rising moist air builds huge spiralling clouds around a calm eye - and they weaken over land as the energy supply cuts off. Effects come as wind, storm surge and flooding (Typhoon Haiyan 2013 is a strong example). Risk is cut by monitoring and prediction (satellites), planning (evacuation routes), and protection (storm shelters, sea walls) - organise answers around those headings.
Describe UK weather hazards and evidence that our weather is becoming more extreme
The UK gets its own hazards: storms, heavy rain and flooding (like the Somerset Levels floods of 2014), heatwaves and drought, and heavy snow. For an event, know the causes, the effects on people and the environment, and the management responses - for Somerset, dredging rivers and building up banks. The evidence for more extremes includes record temperatures and more frequent intense rainfall - be ready to quote an example.
Outline the evidence for climate change and its natural and human causes
The evidence stack: instrument records of rising global temperature, shrinking glaciers and sea ice, rising sea levels, and ice cores showing today's CO₂ is exceptional. Natural causes exist (volcanic eruptions, solar output, orbital changes) but the recent warming tracks human activity - burning fossil fuels, deforestation, agriculture. A strong answer distinguishes the two sets of causes and explains why scientists point to the human ones for the last century.
Explain how climate change can be managed - mitigation and adaptation
Mitigation tackles causes: renewable energy, carbon capture, planting trees, international agreements like Paris 2015. Adaptation adjusts to effects: drought-resistant crops, managing water supply, sea walls for rising seas. Exam questions often ask you to weigh them - the sharp point to make is that both are needed, because past emissions have locked in some warming whatever we do next.
Practice
Try a Natural hazards question
A GCSE-style original task from this topic. Sketch a quick plan of your own before you open what a strong answer covers.
Study Figure 1, which compares two earthquakes of similar magnitude (both measured around 7.0–7.8 on the moment magnitude scale) - Earthquake A in a lower-income country and Earthquake B in a higher-income country. Using Figure 1, describe the differences in the effects of the two earthquakes. [4 marks]
Show what a strong answer covers
The marking points an examiner looks for. Not a model answer - a checklist to plan against.
- AO4: correctly reads and states the contrast in deaths from the figure (about 8,900 in Earthquake A against about 60 in Earthquake B)
- AO4: correctly reads and states the contrast in buildings destroyed (about 600,000 against about 400)
- AO4: quantifies the difference, e.g. that deaths were roughly 148 times higher, or that A saw 1,500 times more buildings destroyed
- AO4: links the effects to a figure that explains them (much lower income and only 5% earthquake-resistant building in A), showing the data has been interpreted, not just copied