Definitions
TRIPLE POINTER YOU LUCKY DUCKY!
The process where an increasing percentage of a country's population moves from rural areas to live in towns and cities
What is urbanisation?
NEGATIVE 2X THE POINTS FOR THIS ONE IF YOU GET IT WRONG!
A massive, fast-moving ocean wave triggered by a sudden vertical displacement of the seafloor during an underwater earthquake.
What is a tsunami?
Molten rock that has broken through the Earth's surface during a volcanic eruption.
What is lava? (Bonus distinction: It is called magma when underground)
To officially be classified as a megacity, an urban area must reach a minimum continuous population of this many people.
What is 10 million?
The rapid, poorly planned outward expansion of low-density housing from a city into surrounding agricultural land or natural ecosystems.
What is urban sprawl?
A natural hazard originating from the Earth's internal lithospheric processes, such as volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, or earthquakes.
What is a geomorphic hazard?
The scientific instrument used by geophysicists to detect, measure, and record the vibrations and seismic waves caused by an earthquake.
What is a seismometer (or seismograph)?
The horseshoe-shaped zone around the Pacific Ocean basin where the majority of the world's active volcanoes and earthquakes occur.
What is the Ring of Fire?
DOUBLE POINT BONUS!
This global continent currently holds the highest total concentration of rapidly growing megacities on Earth.
What is Asia?
Indonesian high-density, informal settlements or shantytowns that develop rapidly on the edges of large cities due to severe housing shortages.
What are kampungs?
The basic physical and organizational structures (like roads, bridges, electricity grids, and water pipes) needed for a society to function.
What is infrastructure?
The underground location or point of origin where tectonic rocks first fracture to trigger an earthquake.
What is the focus?
A destructive, superheated, and fast-moving avalanche of gas, ash, and rock fragments that races down the side of an erupting volcano.
What is a pyroclastic flow?
Megacities have historically tended to develop near these physical landscape features to make international trade and maritime transport easier.
What are coasts or navigable rivers?
The urban phenomenon where concrete buildings and asphalt roads absorb and trap solar radiation, making cities significantly warmer than rural surroundings.
What is the Urban Heat Island effect?
The exact point on the Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake originates underground.
What is the epicentre?
+100 for this correct answer!
This logarithmic scale is used by scientists to measure the total amount of energy released (magnitude) during an earthquake event.
What is the Moment Magnitude Scale (or Richter Scale)?
A volcanic mudflow caused by volcanic ash mixing rapidly with melting glaciers, ice, or heavy rainfall.
Triple points if you can name the Icelandic version of this secondary hazard event!
What is a lahar/landslide/jökulhlaups
'YUR-kul-loup" = Icelandic version of glacial outburst floods following a volcanic eruption.
Negative factors like poverty, crop failures, or conflict that drive people away from rural villages, combined with positive attractions that draw them to megacities.
What are push and pull factors?
This crucial geographic goal involves managing rapid urban growth and hazard risks so that current populations can thrive without compromising future generations.
What is sustainability?
The tectonic plate boundary where two plates slide horizontally past one another, often resulting in powerful earthquakes without creating or destroying crust.
What is a transform boundary?
This hazardous process occurs when violent earthquake shaking causes saturated, loose soil to lose its structural strength and behave like a liquid.
What is liquefaction?
This type of volcano, featuring steep sides built from alternating layers of ash and lava flows, is known for explosive eruptions
What is a composite volcano (or stratovolcano)?
This Japanese capital city is widely recognized as the world's most populous, highly connected, and economically dominant megacity, however, in 2025 it was eclipsed by another megacity as the world's most populated megacity.
2 answers required!
What is Tokyo, the capital city of Japan and what is Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia.
DOUBLE POINT BONUS!
High-income countries are often better prepared for geomorphic hazards because they can afford to invest in this protective structural step.
What is mitigation?