Lesson video

Hello, my name's Mrs. Hormigo, and I'm going to be teaching you today.

I hope you're going to enjoy the lesson and learn lots.

Let's get started.

Today's lesson looks at the UK's landscapes and how geology and past processes have shaped them.

By the end of the lesson, you'll be able to explain how geology, tectonics, and glaciation have influenced the UK's upland and lowland landscapes.

There are five keywords for today's lesson.

Landscape, an area shaped by physical and human processes.

Igneous rocks, rocks that are formed when molten magma cools and solidifies.

Sedimentary rocks, rocks made from compacted sediment layers over time.

Metamorphic rocks, rocks that have been changed by intense heat and/or pressure.

And geology, the study of the Earth and its physical structure.

There are three learning cycles for today's lesson.

The physical geography of the UK is our first.

The second is the influence of geology and tectonic activity.

And the third is the impact of glacial processes.

Let's get started on our first learning cycle, the physical geography of the UK.

The UK you may well know has many diverse physical landscapes.

You may have had an opportunity to visit many of these.

You'll see from these images here that we have steep mountains, coastal cliffs, and rolling hills and flat, fertile plains.

This is a relief map and it shows the areas that are upland and lowland in the UK.

We can see this using the key.

So the more dark orangey, browny colours show areas of high land, so upland, and the bluey greeny colours show lower land.

Where's the highest and lowest land in the UK? Have a chat to your partner and see if you can work that out.

So the upland areas are highland areas with steep slopes and rocky terrain.

And we can see if you look at this map that a large proportion of these are found in the north and the west of the UK.

These include the Scottish Highlands, Eryri, and the Pennines.

Characteristics you would expect to find in these upland areas are steep gradients, thin soils, and a cooler, wetter climates.

And they're largely made from harder, more resistant rocks.

For example, igneous and metamorphic.

And we'll come back to that a little bit later.

Lowlands are flatter, lower areas with softer ground and deeper soils.

And these are largely found in the south and the east of the UK.

For example, we have the Fens in East Anglia, the Thames valley, and the Weald, an area between the North and South Downs in the southeast of the UK.

The characteristics of these areas are flat terrain, deep fertile soils, and a warmer, drier climates.

And they're made from softer sedimentary rocks, for example, chalk and clay.

Quick check now for you.

Which of these are upland areas of the UK? Eryri, the Weald, the Pennines, or Scottish Highlands? Pause the video and come back when you've made your decision.

I hope you correctly identified that it was Eryri, the Pennines, and the Scottish Highlands that were upland areas of the UK.

A second check now.

Which of these are lowland areas of the UK? Is it Eryri, the Weald, Pennines, or the Fens? Pause the video and come back when you've made your decision.

I hope you identify the Weald and the Fens as the examples of lowland areas of the UK.

Well done.

Rivers have played a major role in shaping the UK's landscapes as well.

They've done this by eroding, transporting, and depositing material over time.

This map shows four key rivers in the UK.

The River Trent in the Midlands, the River Tyne in the northeast of England, the River Seven which flows through Wales and England, and the River Thames, which starts in the Cotswolds and flows out to the North Sea through London.

In upland areas, rivers erode steep V-shaped valleys and waterfalls.

In lowland areas, rivers deposit materials forming floodplains, meanders, and estuaries.

A check for you now.

Which of these features are caused by river erosion? Floodplain, waterfall, estuary, or a V-shaped valley? Pause the video and come back when you've made your decision.

I hope you correctly identified that a waterfall and a V-shaped valley are erosional landforms that are found in upland areas due to the vertical erosion of the land by the rivers as they work their way down from the source towards the middle and the lower course.

First task for you now.

On your outline map of the UK, can you shade and label two upland areas and one lowland area.

And then around the map, can you annotate it with key characteristics of upland and lowland areas? Pause the video and come back when you've had a go at this.

Your map will be similar to this one.

On your map, you should have identified two upland areas.

And I've chosen Northwest Highlands in Scotland and the Lake District in northwest England.

And for my lowland area, the Fens in East Anglia.

Then surrounding that, we've got the annotations.

So for the upland areas, I've put that they have steep gradients, thin soil, and cooler wetter climates.

And they're formed from hard, resistant igneous and metamorphic rocks.

And then for the lowland areas, they are flatter terrain and they have a warmer, drier climate.

And the underlying geology are sedimentary rocks.

Well done if yours is similar to this one.

Let's move now to our second learning cycle, the influence of geology and tectonic activity.

So geology influences the shape and features of the land, and it's often the key reason for contrasting UK landscapes.

The type of geology has a huge impact on the processes that are acting on the landscape.

And we can see here two contrasting landscapes found in different areas of the UK.

The steeper land is found in the northwest and the flatter land is found in the southeast.

So the UK geology, as you can see from this map, is extremely varied and it spans almost three billion years.

The different colours on this map indicate different rock types.

As a general pattern, we can say that the oldest rock is in the northwest and the youngest rock is in the southeast.

If we look now at the three main types of rock found in the UK.

We have sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic.

And you can see that there is a distinct pattern as to where they're found.

So igneous rocks that are shown by the red on the map are hard and they're resistant to erosion.

And in areas like Dartmoor in the southwest and the Scottish Highlands in the northwest, they create upland areas with rugged terrain, so steep rocky slopes.

Sedimentary rocks, which are the yellow rocks on the map, they vary in resistance.

Harder rocks, for example limestone, will form hills and escarpments.

And softer rocks, for example mudstone and shale, will form lowland plains, for example the Weald in the southeast of England.

And finally, metamorphic rocks.

And they're shown by the blue colour on the map.

They are largely found in the northwest of Scotland.

They are also very resistant to erosion.

And as we can see, they're found in the mountainous regions such as the Scottish Highlands.

Quick check for you now then.

Which two of these statements correctly describe the UK's geology? Read them carefully and make your decision.

Come back when you're ready.

I hope you correctly identified B and C as being the correct statements.

The south and east of the UK often have landscapes associated with sedimentary rocks.

If you remember that yellow colour is what we saw in that area of the UK.

Igneous and metamorphic rocks are generally found in the northwest of the UK.

If you think back to the map, the red and the blue colours were generally found in the northwest.

A is not true.

Most UK landscapes are dominated by igneous rocks.

The dominant rock type in the UK is that yellow colour, which is sedimentary rocks.

Well done.

This sequence of maps shows how the movement of tectonic plates over billions of years has had an impact on the UK.

It was originally located near to the equator.

And over this time, it has slowly moved much further north.

And although it is not near an active plate boundary now, the plate movement has moved the UK from the tropics, and tectonic processes have had a major impact on shaping the landscape.

Plate tectonic collisions caused uplift, and is forming mountain regions that took place around 400 million years ago.

So orogeny is a geological term that is used for a mountain building event.

There were two key orogenies that affected the UK.

The Caledonian orogeny formed the Scottish Islands.

And it was a series of tectonic collisions that caused uplift and mountain building.

And the Armorican orogeny, which caused folding and uplift across west and central Europe.

And this is evidenced in the southwest of the UK.

Tectonic pressures caused the folding of rocks that created upland ridges like the Pennines.

We have there an image of the Pennines running down the spine of the UK.

And faults which are cracks in the Earth's crust created escarpments and they influenced river courses.

Now escarpments are cliffs or steep slopes that separate higher and lower land.

And volcanic activity also affected the UK.

Around 340 million years ago, volcanoes did erupt.

An example of is Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.

This is the remains of an ancient volcano.

And the igneous rocks left behind are very resistant to erosion.

And as a result, they form prominent hills and features.

Let's have a check now.

Tectonic processes have not influenced the UK's landscape.

Pause the video and decide whether you think that is true or false.

And can you give a reason why.

I hope you said false And your reason why may have looked something similar to this.

Plate tectonic collisions caused uplift forming mountain rages around 400 million years ago.

Volcanoes, although now extinct, once erupted 340 million years ago, leaving behind prominent hills that are made of igneous rock that is very resistant to erosion.

Well done if you had something similar to that.

Let's look now at task B.

Can you complete this summary table? Consider these three different influences and the effect they've had on the UK's landscape.

And then give a named example.

So think first about geology and past tectonic activity, and finally, volcanic activity.

Come back when you've had a go at filling out your table.

Your table may have looked something like this.

So the influence of geology, the effect it has on the UK's landscape, different rock types form uplands and lowlands due to the differences in hardness and resistance to erosion.

A named example you may have given are the Scottish Highlands as an upland area and the Weald as a lowland area.

And then thinking about past tectonic activity, they formed mountains, folded rocks and caused fault lines.

Examples, Scottish Highlands and the Pennines.

And then volcanic activity.

This created hills and resistant rock outcrops.

For example, Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, now an extinct volcano.

Well done if your table was similar to this one.

Let's move now to our final learning cycle for today's lesson, the impact of glacial processes.

The last Ice Age peaked around 20,000 years ago.

And this map shows the extent of ice sheets covering the UK during that period.

During the Ice Age, glacial processes have shaped both upland and lowland areas.

The glacial erosion shaped many of the UK's upland areas as they were covered by the ice sheet.

We can see there the Northwest Highlands in Scotland, the Cairngorms, the Lake District, and Eryri in Wales.

Glaciers erode the land through plucking, so when rocks or stones are frozen to the base of the side of the glacier, and are pulled or plucked away as the glacier moves, and abrasion, where sediment froze into the base of the glacier, grinds against the bedrock shaping it.

And these processes create really distinct land forms. And we can see here in this image we have a pyramidal peak, an arete, a corrie, and a U-shaped valley.

A corrie is a steep-sided hollow that appears after the glacier has melted.

And arete is a sharp ridge separating two glaciers or two corries.

And a pyramidal peak forms where three or more corries form back to back.

A large U-shaped valley is created due to the weight and the erosional processes as a glacier moves through an existing valley.

A check for you now.

How many of these land forms are evidence of glacial processes in upland areas? A, arete.

B, river.

C, U-shaped valley.

Or D, waterfall.

Pause the video and come back when you've decided.

I hope you correctly identified an arete, which is a sharp ridge between two corries or glaciers.

And a U-shaped valley created as the glacier moves through a valley, eroding it and making it deeper and wider.

So although glaciers mainly covered the upland areas, lowland parts of the UK were affected too.

Glacial meltwater and deposits during the last Ice Age influenced the UK's lowland landscapes and created many distinct landforms. So as the glaciers melted, they deposited sediment which was called till across nearby lowland areas.

Meltwater rivers then spread this sediment further, and it created flat, fertile till plains, which we can see in East Anglia.

And in some lowland areas near the former ice margins, drumlins, which are small, streamlined hills made from sediment deposited by the glacier, and terminal moraines, which are ridges of debris left at the furthest extent of the glacier, are left behind.

A check for you now.

Which of these land forms are evidence of glacial processes in lowland areas? Is it A, arete, B, drumlins C, fertile till plains, or D, U-shaped valleys? Pause the video and come back when you've decided.

I hope you identified that drumlin and fertile till plains are the landforms that we see in lowland areas as a result of glacial processes.

Well done.

True or false now.

Upland areas in the UK were created by glaciers.

Pause the video and make your decision.

Can you also think of a reason why for your decision.

I hope you said false and I hope you thought back to think something similar to this.

So glaciers have shaped many upland areas during the last Ice Age, but the original formation of mountains like those in Scotland and the Lake District was caused by tectonic activity millions of years ago.

Well done.

Let's move now to our final task.

Can you annotate this map to show how glaciers have had an impact on the landscape of the UK? Pause the video and come back when you've had a go.

Your map may have looked at something like this.

So the areas identified there, we've got Eryri, the Lake District, and the Scottish Highlands.

Glaciers have shaped upland areas through erosion, carving out dramatic landform like U-shaped valleys and corries.

And these features formed as glaciers moved downhill using plucking and abrasion to wear away the rock.

Glacial deposition was a major process shaping many lowland areas, for example, East Anglia.

And as glaciers melted, they left behind till plains and moraines.

Meltwater rivers then spread some of this sediment creating flat, fertile landscapes like those in East Anglia.

Well done if you've got a map that looks similar to this one.

Let's now look at a summary of today's lesson.

So geology influences landscapes.

Hard rocks like granite and slate often form UK upland areas, while softer rocks like mudstone are associated with UK lowland areas.

Rivers and weathering continue to shape the land, eroding and transporting and depositing sediment.

Tectonic activity created mountain ranges and folded rock layers, especially in Scotland, Wales, and northern England.

And glaciation carved out features in upland areas, for example, U-shaped valleys, and deposited materials in lowland areas, for example, till plains and drumlins.

Well done today.

I hope you now feel more confident in discussing how UK landscapes have been influenced by the role of geology and past processes including tectonic activity and glaciation.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.