HAZARDOUS EARTH 33 MARKER PLANS
Predictions for questions that haven't come up for A level:
“Sea floor spreading provides the most compelling evidence for continental drift and plate
tectonics” To what extent do you agree?
1. Agree: Sea floor spreading - most compelling in relation to age of sea rocks
2. Disagree: Paleomagnetism - symmetrical bands = reliable and measurable - regularity -
ability to calculate movements and see how long term plate tectonics have changed
3. Agree: Continental fit is less compelling (Wegener’s theory) - South America and Africa look
like they used to fit together - idea of continents fitting together is supported by the
Appalachian mountains matching the structure of the Caledonian mountains in northern
Europe
4. Agree: Fossil evidence - compelling but not as much as sea floor spreading - Mesosuras
fossils found in both South America and Africa - suggests were once sharing climate but
species became differentiated though speciation - southern continents were once joined in a
supercontinent called Gondwana - only past tectonic movements
5. Disagree: Global pattern of seismic activity - frequency of events - evidence plates are
continually moving - whereas polarity flips every 400,000 years (so unaware of subtle
movements) !!!!!
OR: discovery that asthenosphere is semi-molten with convection currents operating to move
overlying rigid crust and lithosphere
“Tectonic hazards have a much larger influence in the long term rather than the short term”. To
what extent do you agree?
1. Agree - economic costs, decreased country stability - national level - Montserrat - 50% of
GDP lost - dependency
2. Disagree - intense devastating impacts - deaths - Japan and Nepal - immediate
3. Disagree - greater spatial scale in short term - E15 eruption - 1000 flights cancelled - Europe
lost $2.6 billion of GDP - economic cost - global travel resumed after a week
4. Agree - Fukushima disaster - political fallout years later with China and New Zealand,
radioactive waste will take 40 years to clean up
Also environmental… earth knocked off the axis by 10-25cm, 400 km of coastline dropped
by 0.6 m - long term implications for ecosystems and world
5. Depends on economic development as short term was more significant for Japan - tsunami
devastation - ability to cope in long term whereas Nepal - took longer - Park model illustrates
this
Predictions for questions that haven't come up for A level:
“Sea floor spreading provides the most compelling evidence for continental drift and plate
tectonics” To what extent do you agree?
1. Agree: Sea floor spreading - most compelling in relation to age of sea rocks
2. Disagree: Paleomagnetism - symmetrical bands = reliable and measurable - regularity -
ability to calculate movements and see how long term plate tectonics have changed
3. Agree: Continental fit is less compelling (Wegener’s theory) - South America and Africa look
like they used to fit together - idea of continents fitting together is supported by the
Appalachian mountains matching the structure of the Caledonian mountains in northern
Europe
4. Agree: Fossil evidence - compelling but not as much as sea floor spreading - Mesosuras
fossils found in both South America and Africa - suggests were once sharing climate but
species became differentiated though speciation - southern continents were once joined in a
supercontinent called Gondwana - only past tectonic movements
5. Disagree: Global pattern of seismic activity - frequency of events - evidence plates are
continually moving - whereas polarity flips every 400,000 years (so unaware of subtle
movements) !!!!!
OR: discovery that asthenosphere is semi-molten with convection currents operating to move
overlying rigid crust and lithosphere
“Tectonic hazards have a much larger influence in the long term rather than the short term”. To
what extent do you agree?
1. Agree - economic costs, decreased country stability - national level - Montserrat - 50% of
GDP lost - dependency
2. Disagree - intense devastating impacts - deaths - Japan and Nepal - immediate
3. Disagree - greater spatial scale in short term - E15 eruption - 1000 flights cancelled - Europe
lost $2.6 billion of GDP - economic cost - global travel resumed after a week
4. Agree - Fukushima disaster - political fallout years later with China and New Zealand,
radioactive waste will take 40 years to clean up
Also environmental… earth knocked off the axis by 10-25cm, 400 km of coastline dropped
by 0.6 m - long term implications for ecosystems and world
5. Depends on economic development as short term was more significant for Japan - tsunami
devastation - ability to cope in long term whereas Nepal - took longer - Park model illustrates
this
