THE GEOGRAPHER ONLINE

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    • IB Geography Introduction
    • Part 1: Geographical Themes >
      • Option B: Oceans and coastal margins >
        • 1. Ocean–atmosphere interactions
        • 2. Interactions between oceans and coastal places
        • 3. Managing coastal margins
        • 4. Ocean management futures
      • Option D: Geophysical Hazards >
        • 1. Geophysical systems
        • 2. Geophysical hazard risks
        • 3. Hazard risk and vulnerability
        • 4. Future resilience and adaptation
    • Part 2: Core Units (SL&HL) >
      • Unit 1: Changing Population >
        • 1. Population and economic development patterns
        • 2. Changing Populations and Places
        • 3. Challenges and opportunities
      • Unit 2: Global climate—vulnerability and resilience >
        • 1. Causes of global climate change
        • 2. Consequences of global climate change
        • 3. Responding to global climate change
      • Unit 3: Global resource consumption and security >
        • 1: Global trends in consumption
        • 2: Impacts of changing trends in resource consumption
        • 3: Resource stewardship
    • Part 3: HL Core Extensions >
      • Unit 4: Power, places and networks >
        • 1. Global interactions and global power
      • Unit 5: Human development and diversity
      • Unit 6: Global risks and resilience
    • Internal Assessment
    • Why should I study IB Geography?
  • IB Geography (Old Syllabus)
    • IB Core >
      • 1. Populations in Transition
      • 2. Disparities in Wealth and Development
      • 3. Patterns in Environmental Quality and Sustainability
      • 4. Patterns in Resource Consumption
    • Part 1: Geographical Themes >
      • Oceans and their Coastal Margins
      • Hazards and disasters - risk assessment and response
      • Freshwater - issues and conflicts
      • Urban Environments
    • Global Interactions - HL >
      • Measuring Global Interactions
      • Changing Space - The Shrinking world
      • Economic Interactions and Flows
      • Environmental Change
      • Sociocultural Exchanges
      • Political Outcomes
      • Global Interactions at the Local Level
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      • Population Dynamics
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      • Urbanisation
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      • Plate Tectonics
      • Coasts
      • Rivers
      • Weather and Climate
      • Climate and Ecosystems
    • Theme 3: Economic development >
      • Development
      • Food Production
      • Industry
      • Energy
      • Tourism
      • Water
      • Environmental Risks of Economic development
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Oceans and their Coastal margins


Index

1. Introduction to Oceans
2. Oceans and Climate
3. The value of oceans
4. Coastal Margins
5. Geopolitics of Oceans
6. Coral Reefs and Mangroves

Introduction to Oceans

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Where are the world's Oceans?
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Oceans of the world
Currents of the world
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Warm Currents (red) Cold Currents (blue)
introduction_to_oceans_-_handout.docx
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Ocean Floor Morphology 

Go through the PowerPoint on the Structure of the Earth as a reminder of how plates move. You do not need to know this for the IB syllabus but it is important to have an understanding of how tectonics have influenced the sea floor.
The Structure of the Earth and Plate Tectonics from Steven Heath
plates.ppt
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Ocean floor morphology
oceanmorphology-110913233631-phpapp02.ppt
File Size: 8663 kb
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Oceanic Water

Averages
  • Temperature: Below 1000m there is a uniform average of 2°C
  • Salinity: 35 parts per thousand (ppt)

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Using the next three diagrams.
  • What pattern do they show?
  • Explain the relationships of Temperature and Salinity to Depth and Location.
  • How does this affect density?

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Ocean temperature related to depth - Thermocline
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Global ocean surface temperatures
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Global ocean salinity


Oceans and Climate

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The Oceanic Conveyor Belts
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Ocean conveyor belt
Stage 1:
Cold, salty, dense water sinks at the Earth's northern polar region and heads south along the western Atlantic basin.
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Stage 2: 
The current is "recharged" as it travels along the coast of Antarctica and picks up more cold, salty, dense water.
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Stage 3: 
The main current splits into two sections, one traveling northward into the Indian Ocean, while the other heads up into the western Pacific.
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Stage 4: 
The two branches of the current warm and rise as they travel northward, then loop back around southward and westward.
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Stage 5:
 The now-warmed surface waters continue circulating around the globe. They eventually return to the North Atlantic where the cycle begins again.
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3D perspective of the thermohaline flow
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Sea surface density (salinity)

Sea Currents (surface)
(www.noaa.gov/‎)
Coastal currents are affected by local winds. Surface ocean currents, which occur on the open ocean, are driven by a complex global wind system. 
If the Earth did not rotate and remained stationary, the atmosphere would circulate between the poles (high pressure areas) and the equator (a low pressure area) in a simple back-and-forth pattern. But because the Earth rotates, circulating air is deflected. Instead of circulating in a straight pattern, the air deflects toward the right in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere, resulting in curved paths. This deflection is called the Coriolis effect. It is named after the French mathematician Gaspard Gustave de Coriolis (1792-1843), who studied the transfer of energy in rotating systems like waterwheels. (Ross, 1995).

Global winds drag on the water’s surface, causing it to move and build up in the direction that the wind is blowing. And just as the Coriolis effect deflects winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere, it also results in the deflection of major surface ocean currents to the right in the Northern Hemisphere (in a clockwise spiral) and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere (in a counter-clockwise spiral). These major spirals of ocean-circling currents are called “gyres” and occur north and south of the equator. They do not occur at the equator, where the Coriolis effect is not present (Ross, 1995).

Ekman spiral
The Ekman spiral, named after Swedish scientist Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954) who first theorized it in 1902, is a consequence of the Coriolis effect. When surface water molecules move by the force of the wind, they, in turn, drag deeper layers of water molecules below them. Each layer of water molecules is moved by friction from the shallower layer, and each deeper layer moves more slowly than the layer above it, until the movement ceases at a depth of about 100 meters (330 feet). Like the surface water, however, the deeper water is deflected by the Coriolis effect—to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. As a result, each successively deeper layer of water moves more slowly to the right or left, creating a spiral effect. Because the deeper layers of water move more slowly than the shallower layers, they tend to “twist around” and flow opposite to the surface current.

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Atmospheric circulation without the Coriolis effect.
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Impact of the Coriolis effect.
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Ekman spiral

El Nino and La Nina
El Nino & La Nina from Steven Heath
el_nino.ppt
File Size: 1084 kb
File Type: ppt
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Examine the sea temperature anomalies on the following animation. How can we tell that there was an El Nino event. Recognize the evidence: NOAA sea temperatures Pacific

Case Study: 1997/1998 El Nino
Using the Geofactfile below explain what El Nino and La Nina is as well as identifying some of the impacts that it might have on the world. Make specific reference to precise events and areas (these will be needed in any essay).
61_ei_nino.pdf
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Carbon Dioxide 
The ocean dominates the earth's carbon cycle. Half the photosynthesis (primary productivity) on earth takes place in the sunlit layers of the ocean and the ocean absorbs half of all carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere.

The ocean is what we call a carbon sink - actually the largest carbon sink on earth! That means it stores carbon.

  • Oceans are 'soaking up less CO2'
  • National Geographic - Oceans Found to Absorb Half of All Man-Made Carbon Dioxide
How important are the oceans on regulating world carbon dioxide levels. 
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Ocean Carbon Cycle


The Value of Oceans

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Resource base
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The ocean is one of Earth's most valuable natural resources. It provides food in the form of fish and shellfish—about 200 billion pounds are caught each year. It's used for transportation—both travel and shipping. It provides a treasured source of recreation for humans. It is mined for minerals (salt, sand, gravel, and some manganese, copper, nickel, iron, and cobalt can be found in the deep sea) and drilled for crude oil.

The ocean plays a critical role in removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing oxygen. It regulates Earth's climate. The ocean is an increasingly important source of biomedical organisms with enormous potential for fighting disease. These are just a few examples of the importance of the ocean to life on land. 

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Task:
Using the website below and pages 142-144 in the Course Companion outline as a spider diagram on ExamTime or Popplet the ways that oceans can be used by people as a resource. 
  • Mining and raw material found in our oceans

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Info-graphic on our Oceans
Fishing
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    Create a reports on Over fishing:
  1. What is over fishing?
  2. Where is it occurring?
  3. Why is it a problem?
  4. What things can we do to prevent it? Identify and explain a variety of methods.
Use the diagrams, YouTubes and websites below to help.


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How overfishing impacts the ecosystem
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Global overfishing
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World fisheries and aquaculture production
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Areas most at risk of overfishing
  • DailyMail: Research identifies six fishing 'danger zones'... where conservation is outweighed by greed and short-term profit
  • WWF - Overfishing
  • See the Sea - Overfishing

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Success of marine conservation areas in increasing fish biomass

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Case Study: Conservation Policy: Sustainable Fishing

This case study can also be used for used for Core 3 Unit: Sustainability and the Environment
Environmental Sustainability - Canada Fisheries
File Size: 308 kb
File Type: docx
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IB Style Question:
"The fishing industry can never be sustainable". Discuss this statement [10]
Plan and prepare this for for a timed essay.
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Example available
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.

Pollution in our oceans
Pollution in the Oceans from Steven Heath
pollution_in_the_oceans.ppt
File Size: 2614 kb
File Type: ppt
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    Radioactive Waste
    Case Study: Fukushima 

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Examples available
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Satellite image of Fukushima radiation
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Major fishing areas contaminated after Fukushima

Waste - Plastic
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Visit the Greenpeace website to explore how the "Eastern Garbage Patch" operates.


Toxic Pollution
http://see-the-sea.org/topics/pollution/toxic/ToxPol.htm#eutrophication
http://www.seaweb.org/resources/briefings/toxic.php
Mercury Pollution 
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The Pollutants Entering the Oceans

Oil Pollution 
Oil spills from Steven Heath
oil_spills.ppt
File Size: 1425 kb
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Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Overview Presentation from geographyalltheway.com
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Create a set of case study notes on the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill.
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Examples available


Coastal Margins

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This section of the unit is extremely important for your Internal Assessment. 
Pay extra attention to the coastal processes, features and management strategies.
How do waves interact with the coast?
Examine:
  • What are waves?
  • What factors affect them?
  • How do they interact with the coast?

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Coastal Landforms
Use the IGCSE page for all coastal landforms
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Example of depth change near a headland
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Wave refraction
Coastal Processes and Landforms - Revision
File Size: 7389 kb
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Examine how cliff structure impacts cliff retreat and coastal landforms

sand_dunes.ppt
File Size: 878 kb
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Explain the concept of advancing and retreating coasts.
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Click on the image on the left to access an animation of how sea level change will impact Europe.
Sea level change from Steven Heath
sea-level-change-as1866.ppt
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Management Strategies
Coastal Conflicts - Overview
File Size: 1821 kb
File Type: ppt
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Case Study: Holderness Coast
Using the following documents create an A3 case study report on the management of the Holderness Coast
Holderness Coastline - Management from Steven Heath
holderness_ks4_presentation.ppt
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File Type: ppt
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outline_map_of_holderness_coast.docx
File Size: 18 kb
File Type: docx
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a141_hodderness.pdf
File Size: 1004 kb
File Type: pdf
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Geopolitics of Oceans

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Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ)
A maritime zone adjacent to the territorial sea that may not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural resources, both living and nonliving, of the seabed, subsoil, and the subjacent waters and, with regard to other activities, for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone (e.g., the production of energy from the water, currents, and winds).
EEZ and Conflict (Wikipedia links)
The exact extent of exclusive economic zones is a common source of conflicts between states over marine waters.
  • One well-known example of such dispute was the Cod Wars between the United Kingdom and Iceland.
  • Norway and Russia dispute both territorial sea and EEZ with regard to the Svalbard archipelago as it affects Russia's EEZ due to its unique treaty status. A treaty was agreed in principle in April 2010 between the two states and subsequently ratified, resolving this demarcation dispute.[7] The agreement was signed in Murmansk on September 15, 2010.[8]
  • The dispute over Rockall is mainly due to its effect on EEZ, not on its resources or strategic benefits.
  • The South China Sea (and the Spratly Islands) is the site of an ongoing dispute between several neighboring nations.
  • Croatia's ZERP (Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone) in the Adriatic Sea caused friction with Italy and Slovenia, and caused problems during Croatia's accession to the European Union.
  • A wedge-shaped section of the Beaufort Sea is disputed between Canada and the United States, as the area reportedly contains substantial oil reserves.
  • France claims a portion of Canada's EEZ for Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon based on a new definition of the continental shelf and EEZ between the two countries. Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon is entirely surrounded by Canada's EEZ.
  • Mauritius claims EEZ for Tromelin from France and EEZ for British Indian Ocean Territory from the UK.
  • Northern Cyprus claims a portion of Cyprus' EEZ overlaps with that of Northern Cyprus in the south/southeastern part of the Cyprus island.[9]
  • Cyprus claims a portion of Turkey's EEZ overlaps with its own EEZ.[10]
  • Lebanon claims that the agreement between Cyprus and Israel overlapped its own EEZ.
Regions where a permanent ice shelf extends beyond the coastline are also a source of potential dispute.[11]


Extended Reading
  • Political Geography of the Oceans


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EEZ Conflicts: Case Studies

You will need to research a particular resource found in the oceans and how different countries have come into conflict over this resource. I would strongly suggest looking at Fossil fuels as this is not only one of the most sought after resources but has many  examples of conflicts. 

Possible regions that you could look at:
  • South China seas conflict (use this as your main example)
  • Senkaku islands dispute
  • The Barents Sea Conflict

IB Essay Questions:
“With reference to a named resource examine the extent to which countries disagree over geopolitical boundaries in the world’s oceans” 
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Overview of South China Sea

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Coral Reefs and Mangroves

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Divide the class into two groups (one to look at Coral Reefs and the other to look at Mangrove Forests). Each group is to create a Presentation outlining:
  1. What are Mangrove Forests or Coral Reefs?
  2. Where do they occur? (Describe their distribution)
  3. What conditions do they require to form?
  4. How are they important to the environment?
  5. What is their economic value (both to the country they are located in and internationally)
  6. How and why are they being damaged?
  7. What impact is this damage having on the economy and environment?
  8. How can we protect them? 
  9. How successful has this been?

Points 4-9 should also include a case study example/s

You will also need to create a Case Study hand out of no more than 2 pages long.

Coral Reefs
Coral Island in the Maldives
Coral Reef
Coral around the world
Major coral threats
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coral_reefs_information_pack.doc
File Size: 183 kb
File Type: doc
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Mangrove Forests
Global distribution of Mangroves
Mangroves at risk
Mangroves
Environmental importance of Mangroves
Honduras 1987 Mangroves
Honduras 2011 Mangroves
UNEP -Mangrove forest cover fading fast

www.thegeographeronline.net
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The Geographer Online is an educational website aimed at providing geography teaching resources for all levels. 
Created and Developed by: Steven Heath

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  • Home
    • How to make a website: Tools and experiences
    • Maps and Regions
    • Travel Photographs and Videos
    • Live: Global Hazards and Disasters
    • Geography in the news
    • The Big Geography Challenge
  • New IB Geography 2017 onwards
    • IB Geography Introduction
    • Part 1: Geographical Themes >
      • Option B: Oceans and coastal margins >
        • 1. Ocean–atmosphere interactions
        • 2. Interactions between oceans and coastal places
        • 3. Managing coastal margins
        • 4. Ocean management futures
      • Option D: Geophysical Hazards >
        • 1. Geophysical systems
        • 2. Geophysical hazard risks
        • 3. Hazard risk and vulnerability
        • 4. Future resilience and adaptation
    • Part 2: Core Units (SL&HL) >
      • Unit 1: Changing Population >
        • 1. Population and economic development patterns
        • 2. Changing Populations and Places
        • 3. Challenges and opportunities
      • Unit 2: Global climate—vulnerability and resilience >
        • 1. Causes of global climate change
        • 2. Consequences of global climate change
        • 3. Responding to global climate change
      • Unit 3: Global resource consumption and security >
        • 1: Global trends in consumption
        • 2: Impacts of changing trends in resource consumption
        • 3: Resource stewardship
    • Part 3: HL Core Extensions >
      • Unit 4: Power, places and networks >
        • 1. Global interactions and global power
      • Unit 5: Human development and diversity
      • Unit 6: Global risks and resilience
    • Internal Assessment
    • Why should I study IB Geography?
  • IB Geography (Old Syllabus)
    • IB Core >
      • 1. Populations in Transition
      • 2. Disparities in Wealth and Development
      • 3. Patterns in Environmental Quality and Sustainability
      • 4. Patterns in Resource Consumption
    • Part 1: Geographical Themes >
      • Oceans and their Coastal Margins
      • Hazards and disasters - risk assessment and response
      • Freshwater - issues and conflicts
      • Urban Environments
    • Global Interactions - HL >
      • Measuring Global Interactions
      • Changing Space - The Shrinking world
      • Economic Interactions and Flows
      • Environmental Change
      • Sociocultural Exchanges
      • Political Outcomes
      • Global Interactions at the Local Level
    • IB Guidance >
      • Syllabus Guidance
      • IB Examination Guidance
    • Extended Essay
  • IGCSE Geography
    • Theme 1: Population and settlement >
      • Population Dynamics
      • Migration
      • Settlements
      • Urban Settlements
      • Urbanisation
    • Theme 2: The natural environment >
      • Plate Tectonics
      • Coasts
      • Rivers
      • Weather and Climate
      • Climate and Ecosystems
    • Theme 3: Economic development >
      • Development
      • Food Production
      • Industry
      • Energy
      • Tourism
      • Water
      • Environmental Risks of Economic development
    • GCSE Key Terms
    • GCSE Coursework
    • Alternative to Coursework
    • IGCSE Geography Examination Advice
    • IGCSE Revision Games
  • Key Stage 3
    • Year 6 >
      • My Place
      • Rivers
      • Brazil
    • Year 7 >
      • Maps and the world
      • Rocky Landscapes
      • Settlement
      • Weather & Climate
    • Year 8 >
      • Maps Introduction
      • Plate Tectonics
      • Economic Activity
      • Biomes
    • Year 9 >
      • Map Skills - review
      • Development
      • Coasts
      • Tourism
      • Paradise lost - Tourism in Thailand
  • AS Level Geography
    • World at Risk
    • Crowded Coasts
  • Geography Skills
  • Donations & Contact
  • YouTube Channel
  • Essential computer programs