Geography (KS3)
UK Key Stage 3 geography: locational knowledge, physical geography (tectonics, rivers, coasts, weather and climate, biomes, glaciation), human geography (population, settlement, development, resources, globalisation) and geographical skills.
Ämne: Geografi · Nivå: Högstadium (13–15) · 401 kort
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- There are seven continents: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania (Australasia) and South America.
- Asia is the largest continent by both land area and population.
- There are five oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern (Antarctic) and Arctic.
- The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest ocean on Earth.
- The Equator is an imaginary line at 0° latitude that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
- Lines of latitude run east-west and measure distance north or south of the Equator; lines of longitude run north-south and measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian.
- The Prime Meridian is the line at 0° longitude and passes through Greenwich, London.
- The Tropic of Cancer (about 23.5° N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (about 23.5° S) mark the limits of where the Sun can be directly overhead.
- The Arctic Circle (about 66.5° N) and the Antarctic Circle (about 66.5° S) mark the regions that experience the midnight sun and polar night.
- The International Date Line runs roughly along 180° longitude in the Pacific Ocean; crossing it changes the calendar date by one day.
- The UK uses Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) as its time zone reference, based on the Prime Meridian at Greenwich.
- Earth is divided into 24 time zones, each roughly 15° of longitude wide, because Earth rotates 360° in 24 hours.
- The United Kingdom is made up of four nations: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- The capital cities of the UK nations are London (England), Edinburgh (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales) and Belfast (Northern Ireland).
- Great Britain is the large island containing England, Scotland and Wales; the British Isles also includes Ireland and thousands of smaller islands.
- The longest river in the UK is the River Severn, which flows from Wales into the Bristol Channel.
- The highest mountain in the UK is Ben Nevis in Scotland, at 1,345 m.
- The Pennines are a range of hills often called the 'backbone of England', running down the north of the country.
- Major UK cities outside London include Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle and Bristol.
- The UK has a temperate maritime climate: mild, wet and changeable, strongly influenced by the surrounding sea and the North Atlantic Drift.
- Russia is the largest country in the world by land area, spanning both Europe and Asia.
- The two most populous countries in the world are India and China, each with over 1.4 billion people.
- The capital of France is Paris, the capital of Germany is Berlin, and the capital of Italy is Rome.
- The capital of the USA is Washington, D.C.; the capital of Japan is Tokyo; the capital of Australia is Canberra.
- The River Nile in Africa is generally regarded as the longest river in the world (about 6,650 km).
- The Amazon in South America is the largest river by volume of water and drains the world's biggest rainforest.
- Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the highest mountain above sea level, at about 8,849 m.
- The Sahara in northern Africa is the largest hot desert in the world.
- Earth has four main layers: the inner core, outer core, mantle and crust.
- The crust is broken into large pieces called tectonic plates that float and move on the semi-molten mantle below.
- There are two types of crust: thick but less dense continental crust, and thinner but denser oceanic crust.
- Convection currents in the mantle are the main driving force that moves tectonic plates.
- At a destructive (convergent) plate boundary, plates move towards each other and denser oceanic crust is subducted beneath continental crust.
- At a constructive (divergent) plate boundary, plates move apart and magma rises to form new crust, as at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
- At a conservative (transform) plate boundary, plates slide past each other, as at the San Andreas Fault in California.
- The Ring of Fire is a zone around the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's volcanoes and earthquakes occur, due to plate boundaries.
- A volcano is an opening in the Earth's crust through which magma, ash and gases erupt; magma is called lava once it reaches the surface.
- Composite (stratovolcano) volcanoes have steep sides and explosive eruptions; shield volcanoes have gentle slopes and runny, less explosive lava.
- A volcano is described as active if it has erupted recently or may erupt, dormant if it has not erupted for a long time, and extinct if it will not erupt again.
- An earthquake is a sudden shaking of the ground caused by the release of energy when tectonic plates move and rock breaks along a fault.
- The focus is the point underground where an earthquake starts; the epicentre is the point on the surface directly above the focus.
- Earthquake magnitude is measured using the moment magnitude scale (which has largely replaced the older Richter scale); each step up represents a large increase in energy.
- A tsunami is a series of large ocean waves usually caused by an underwater earthquake displacing a huge volume of water.
- Primary effects of an earthquake happen instantly (buildings collapse, people injured); secondary effects follow later (fires, disease, homelessness).
- There are three main types of rock: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic.
- Igneous rocks (e.g. granite, basalt) form when molten magma or lava cools and hardens into crystals.
- Sedimentary rocks (e.g. limestone, sandstone) form when layers of sediment are compacted and cemented together over time.
- Metamorphic rocks (e.g. marble, slate) form when existing rocks are changed by intense heat and pressure.
- Weathering is the breakdown of rock in place; erosion is the wearing away and transport of rock and soil by water, wind or ice.
- Freeze-thaw weathering happens when water enters cracks in rock, freezes and expands, and repeatedly widens the crack until the rock breaks.