GET THAT GRADE!
Unit 03
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Mapwork 3 Exercise

Rivers and Valleys

 

Read the question!

Reading is situated in the Thames valley.

Reading is not situated in the River Thames.

Obvious? Of course it is.
However, exam candidates often make mistakes when they are asked to describe either a river or a valley. Many examiners are driven to despair by the number of candidates who describe the valley when asked to describe the river or vice versa. Be careful - make sure you don't make this mistake!

Always read the question very carefully.

In particular, take care to check whether the question asks about the whole valley, or about the much smaller river that runs in the bottom of the valley.

You also need to check whether questions refer to the cross-section of the river or valley or to the long profile.

The cross-section of a river runs across from one river bank to the other. The cross-section of a valley runs across from the high land on one side of the valley to the high land on the other.

The long profile of the river or valley runs along the river from source to mouth.

!

Remember:
A cross-section runs across the river or valley
A long profile runs along the river or valley



Now, look at the map at the back of your Get That Grade! book. Look at the long profile of the River Thames between 630768 and 750750.

1. What is the height above sea level at each of those grid references? __________ __________

2. What is the distance between those two points? _____________________

3. Give one word to describe the gradient of the river between those two points.
_____________________

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These first three questions were easy. If you found them difficult, you were looking for complications that weren't there!


4. Describe the cross-section of the valley between 685779 and 653750.

Maybe it would be easier to split this question it into four, and describe the slope in each of these sections:
(i) 685779 to 675768
(ii) 675768 to 672767
(iii) 672767 to 668757
(iv) 668757 to 653750

What word did you use to describe the land between 672767 and 668757? (If you did not use an anagram of doofl aplin you were not thinking in a very geographical way. Go back and check.)


5. Explain why the land between 672767 and 668757 might be difficult to drain after a period of heavy rainfall.
6. Describe one feature of the river in the section of the river between 630768 and 750750 which is typical of a river in its mature stage.
7. Explain how the feature you described above was probably formed.

!

The following questions are rather harder. It might be more difficult to see the evidence that you are looking for, but you should still find the questions interesting and useful.


Study Grid Squares 6876 and 6976.
8. Is there any evidence of surface drainage in these two squares?
9. Suggest what happens to water which falls on the land surface during a rain storm.

10. Does the rock in this area seem to be permeable or impermeable? Explain your answer.

11. Look closely at the contour pattern in this area. What evidence can you see that there might have been a river flowing through this area in the past?
12. This contour pattern shows a dry valley - a place where a river used to flow when climate conditions were different from those at present.
  (a) Describe the long profile of this dry valley, comparing it with the long profile of the Thames which you described earlier.
  (b) Describe the cross-section of the valley, again comparing it with the cross-section of the Thames valley.
  (c) Give two pieces of evidence which suggest the river that flowed in this area was a youthful river.