Natural Resources Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Tilted river terraces

Tilted river terraces show tectonic control, since uplift or tilting changes the river's gradient and leaves terraces at an angle. Alluvial forms, boulder content and meanders depend more on climate and river dynamics.

The other options, Alluvial forms; Increased boulder proportions in the river belt; River meandering, are not the answer to this question. This agrees with the official final answer key for the paper, which gives option A.

Answer: C

Reserve implies high degree of economic viability and high degree of geological knowledge

A reserve is the part of a resource that is economically viable to extract and is known with a high degree of geological confidence, so both are needed, which is option C. A resource may be less well known or less viable, so the first two options give only one condition and the last reverses the sense.

The other options, Reserve implies high degree of economic viability; Resource implies high degree of geological knowledge; Resource implies high degree of economic viability and high degree of geological knowledge, are not the answer to this question. This agrees with the official final answer key for the paper, which gives option C.

Answer: A

Regolith soil

The key gives laterite as regolith soil, a deeply weathered residual layer rich in iron and aluminium oxides. It is not glacial soil, and black cotton soil and red soil are other soil types.

The other options, Glacial soil; Black cotton soil; Red soil, are not the answer to this question. This agrees with the official final answer key for the paper, which gives option A.

Answer: B

Quartz

Quartz is the mineral most resistant to chemical weathering, as it is a simple stable silica with no easily leached cations. Olivine, K-feldspar and biotite weather faster.

The other options, Olivine; K-feldspar; Biotite, are not the answer to this question. This agrees with the official final answer key for the paper, which gives option B.

Answer: A

Silicon \(\\gt\) Aluminium \(\\gt\) Iron \(\\gt\) Calcium

By weight the earth's crust holds oxygen first, then silicon, aluminium, iron and calcium, so the descending order of the four listed is silicon, aluminium, iron, calcium. The other orders put a lighter component too high.

The other options, Aluminium \(\\gt\) Iron \(\\gt\) Calcium \(\\gt\) Silicon; Iron \(\\gt\) Calcium \(\\gt\) Silicon \(\\gt\) Aluminium; Calcium \(\\gt\) Silicon \(\\gt\) Aluminium \(\\gt\) Iron, are not the answer to this question. This agrees with the official final answer key for the paper, which gives option A.

Answer: A

Seismic waves arrive at a recording station in the order P-wave, S-wave, L-wave and R-wave. The P (primary) wave is the fastest body wave, then the S (secondary) wave, and then the surface waves, of which the Love wave (L) travels faster than the Rayleigh wave (R). The answer is (A).

The other options start with the S wave or a surface wave, but a surface wave cannot reach the station before the P wave, and the S wave cannot come before the P wave.

The first two waves are body waves that travel through the interior of the Earth, while the L and R waves are surface waves that travel along the surface and cause most of the damage.

Answer: C

Resources which are unlimited and whose quality is not degraded by use are called immutable (perpetual) resources, such as solar energy, wind and tides. The answer is (C).

Renewable resources can be replenished, but they can be depleted or degraded if overused, such as forests. Reusable resources, such as metals, can be used again. Exhaustible resources, such as coal and oil, are limited and are used up. So (A), (B) and (D) are wrong.

Examples of immutable resources are sunlight, wind and tidal energy, since human use neither reduces nor degrades them.