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Year 8 - Geography

Living close to volcanoes

Tectonic hazards: Why is Earth restless?

Unit Summary

This unit teaches pupils about the physical processes that lead to tectonic hazards and investigates the geographical pattern of hazards across the world. Pupils will also learn how tectonic hazards affect people in different places and how people seek to manage hazards.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain why people live near volcanoes and how to prepare for and respond to eruptions.

Key Notes

  • One in twenty people lives close to an active volcano due to their fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy.
  • There are risks including: pyroclastic flows, ash and lahars.
  • Preparation such as public education as well as the monitoring of volcanoes can reduce risks to people living close by.
  • Short-term responses include local and international emergency services providing aid to people.
  • Long-term responses include infrastructure repair/rebuild in the months and years after the eruption.

Vocabulary To Learn

  • evacuate: to move people away from an area with a threat or hazard to a place of safety
  • infrastructure: all the basic systems in a country, such as transport and power supply
  • short-term response: actions that occur in the hours, days or weeks immediately after a disaster to help the basic needs of people
  • long-term response: actions that occur in the months or years after a disaster to help rebuild or recover from the effects

Common Mistakes To Avoid

  • People do not live on volcanoes because it is too dangerous.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

1. Explain this geography topic using two clear key points.

One in twenty people lives close to an active volcano due to their fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy. There are risks including: pyroclastic flows, ash and lahars.

2. Define this geography term and use it in an example. 'evacuate'

to move people away from an area with a threat or hazard to a place of safety.

3. Correct this common geography misunderstanding.

Mistake: People do not live on volcanoes because it is too dangerous. Correction: One in twenty people live close to an active volcano, as there are many attractive qualities to living there, e.g. fertile soils, tourist income and geothermal energy.

More Lessons In This Unit

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