AQA GEOGRAPHY PAPER
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM 2026 STUDY
GUIDE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TESTED
SOLUTIONS
●● Types of natural hazards?.
Answer: Geophysical hazards, Hydrological hazards, Meterological
hazards, Climatological hazards
●● What factors affect hazard risk?.
Answer: 1. The type of hazard - predictability - some hazards can be
predicted more easily than others
Magnitude - size of event, more powerful earthquakes kill more people
Frequency - how often a hazard occurs
2. Hazard exposure - Location - how close people are to hazards (e.g. a
village on the coast would be prone to storms, a village inland would be
safe from storms)
Population density - amount of people living in an area
More people - higher risk of deaths and damage
,3. Capacity to cope - ability to resist hazard effects
HICs (e.g. Japan) - high capacity
LICs (e.g. Haiti) - low capacity
●● What happens at constructive plate boundaries?.
Answer: 1. Convection currents rise beneath the constructive boundary
2. Tectonic plates are pulled apart
3. A gap forms in the crust with the plates, magma rises, causes a
volcanic eruption
4. Rising magma erupts, lava cools and hardens, a new crust / volcano is
formed
●● What happens at destructive plate boundaries?.
Answer: 1. The oceanic and continental crust collide
2. Oceanic crust is denser so it subducts continential
3. The oceanic crust melts to form magma and magma rises through
cracks in the continental crust
4. Magma erupts violently through continental crust, this repeats and
layers of lava and ash build up leading to a volcano
5. There's friction between plates, plates get jammed and pressure builds
up causing an earthquake
, ●● What happens at conservative plate boundaries?.
Answer: There are no volcanoes at conservative plate boundaries.
There's no subduction, no magma or no gap for magma to rise
The plates slide past each other, there's friction between plates, plates get
stuck and pressure builds up causing an earthquake
●● Where are the world's plate boundaries?.
Answer: Destructive - occurs where oceanic and continental crust meet
(e.g. Nazca (oceanic) + South America (continential))
Constructive - usually found in the middle of oceans (e.g. mid Atlantic
Ridge. They occur where plates slide past each other e.g. West coast of
USA))
●● What are the primary and secondary effects of a hazard?.
Answer: Primary effect - an effect that happens directly because of a
hazard
Secondary effect - an effect caused by a primary effect, not the hazard
itself
COMPREHENSIVE EXAM 2026 STUDY
GUIDE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TESTED
SOLUTIONS
●● Types of natural hazards?.
Answer: Geophysical hazards, Hydrological hazards, Meterological
hazards, Climatological hazards
●● What factors affect hazard risk?.
Answer: 1. The type of hazard - predictability - some hazards can be
predicted more easily than others
Magnitude - size of event, more powerful earthquakes kill more people
Frequency - how often a hazard occurs
2. Hazard exposure - Location - how close people are to hazards (e.g. a
village on the coast would be prone to storms, a village inland would be
safe from storms)
Population density - amount of people living in an area
More people - higher risk of deaths and damage
,3. Capacity to cope - ability to resist hazard effects
HICs (e.g. Japan) - high capacity
LICs (e.g. Haiti) - low capacity
●● What happens at constructive plate boundaries?.
Answer: 1. Convection currents rise beneath the constructive boundary
2. Tectonic plates are pulled apart
3. A gap forms in the crust with the plates, magma rises, causes a
volcanic eruption
4. Rising magma erupts, lava cools and hardens, a new crust / volcano is
formed
●● What happens at destructive plate boundaries?.
Answer: 1. The oceanic and continental crust collide
2. Oceanic crust is denser so it subducts continential
3. The oceanic crust melts to form magma and magma rises through
cracks in the continental crust
4. Magma erupts violently through continental crust, this repeats and
layers of lava and ash build up leading to a volcano
5. There's friction between plates, plates get jammed and pressure builds
up causing an earthquake
, ●● What happens at conservative plate boundaries?.
Answer: There are no volcanoes at conservative plate boundaries.
There's no subduction, no magma or no gap for magma to rise
The plates slide past each other, there's friction between plates, plates get
stuck and pressure builds up causing an earthquake
●● Where are the world's plate boundaries?.
Answer: Destructive - occurs where oceanic and continental crust meet
(e.g. Nazca (oceanic) + South America (continential))
Constructive - usually found in the middle of oceans (e.g. mid Atlantic
Ridge. They occur where plates slide past each other e.g. West coast of
USA))
●● What are the primary and secondary effects of a hazard?.
Answer: Primary effect - an effect that happens directly because of a
hazard
Secondary effect - an effect caused by a primary effect, not the hazard
itself
