Hazardous earth

• Types of Rock


  • Igneous (Granite)
  • Metamorphic (Slate)
  • Sedimentary (Chalk and Clay)
• Glaciers


  • Very powerful, able to erode the landscape carving out U-shaped valleys
• Glacial effects on landscape

  1. Before glaciation - V shaped valleys, rounded hills

  2. During glaciation - Glacial processes begin to change the shape of the landscape

  3. After glaciation - U shaped valleys/glacial troughs, steep sided mountains
• V shaped valleys


  Form in the upper course of the river
• Glaciation process


  1. Ice age starts, glaciers form and slowly move down the valley

  2. Glaciers erode the valley, making it deeper and wider

  3. At the end of the ice age, glaciers retreat and disappear leaving a wide deep U shaped valley
• Glacial depositional processes


  • Moraines
  • Glacial meltwater - melting ice made rivers much bigger
  • Till - unsorted material deposited from the glacier
  • Hanging valleys - little valleys that drop into the main valley
• Types of weathering


  • Physical
  • Biological
  • Chemical
• Types of erosion


  • Hydraulic action
  • Abrasion
  • Attrition
  • Solution
• Types of transportation


  • Traction
  • Saltation
  • Suspension
  • Solution
• Extra key terms


  • Sediment load
  • Velocity
• There have been lots of glacial periods during the last 2.6 million years
• At its maximum, ice covered most of Scotland, Ireland and Wales and came as far south as the Bristol Channel
• In the UK, U shaped valleys have now become less steep and deep as a result of weathering and slope processes on the valley sides