1,743 exam-style questions with answers and explanations, organised by the official syllabus. Try the samples below, then practise the full bank free.
In a steep upland reach of the River Tees in northern England, turbulent flow forces water and compressed air into joints in the resistant dolerite, and the repeated pressure prises whole blocks out of the bed. Which erosional process is described?
Answer: Hydraulic action
Hydraulic action is the mechanical force of water and trapped air alone; abrasion needs sediment as a tool, attrition only wears down the load itself, and dolerite, unlike limestone, is effectively insoluble on the timescale of channel erosion, so solution removes a negligible amount here.
During a strong El Nino event the trade winds over the tropical Pacific weaken and warm surface water spreads eastwards towards the coast of Peru. Which change to the coastal ocean off Peru follows most directly?
Answer: The thermocline deepens and nutrient-rich upwelling is suppressed
Upwelling only delivers nutrients if the cold, nutrient-rich layer lies close to the surface; with the thermocline pushed down, the weakened trades drive less upwelling and what still rises is warm, nutrient-poor water from the deepened mixed layer.
Northern Chile's Atacama Desert lies directly on the Pacific coast, yet many of its weather stations record no measurable rain in most years. Which combination of controls best explains this extreme aridity?
Answer: Subsiding subtropical air, a cold offshore current and the Andean rain shadow
Air that rises at the ITCZ subsides at about 30 degrees S, warming and drying, while the cold Humboldt Current chills the lowest air so that moisture is lost as coastal fog rather than rain. The Andes block moist air arriving from the east, so all three controls act in the same direction.
Along the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, earthquake foci are almost all shallower than 15 km, fissures open repeatedly and fluid basaltic lava erupts from them. Which plate boundary type is described?
Answer: A divergent boundary, where new oceanic crust is formed
Fluid, low-silica basalt escaping through fissures together with only shallow foci is the signature of crustal extension; a subduction margin would add a deepening band of foci and viscous, silica-rich magma.
A resident of Lyon, France travels to Marseille and stays four nights with relatives, paying nothing for accommodation. Under the UNWTO definition used in IB Geography, how is this trip classified?
Answer: Domestic tourism
Under UNWTO definitions a visitor who travels outside the usual environment and stays at least one night is a tourist; paying for accommodation is irrelevant and visiting friends and relatives counts as a tourism purpose like any other, so a stay that never leaves France is domestic rather than international tourism.
India's national dietary energy supply is above average requirements, yet the National Family Health Survey of 2019-21 found that about 57 % of women aged 15-49 were anaemic, and many low-income diets rest on refined cereals and cooking oil. Which term describes this nutritional situation most precisely?
Answer: Malnutrition caused by poor dietary quality
Malnutrition covers any imbalance of energy or nutrients, including micronutrient deficiency such as iron. Undernourishment refers only to insufficient dietary energy, which is not what these households lack - which is why a national calorie figure can look adequate while anaemia stays common.
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