IB Geography · Option D · SL and HL

Option D Geophysical hazards: Hazard risk and resilience

15 revision questions with answers for Option D Geophysical hazards: Hazard risk and resilience, marked SL and HL. Read them here, or play the set as a class game on the projector. Free to host, and students join with a code.

A question from this set

Logarithmic measure of the energy released by an earthquake, which has replaced Richter?

  • Moment magnitude scaleRight answer
  • Modified Mercalli scale
  • Volcanic Explosivity Index
  • Saffir–Simpson scale
From Option D Geophysical hazards: Hazard risk and resilience, 15 questions.

What this set covers

Measuring hazards and coping with them are the themes. Moment magnitude and Modified Mercalli scales, the Volcanic Explosivity Index, pyroclastic flows, lahars, liquefaction, tsunamis, the Park model, retrofitting and seismic gaps are included.

Common mix-up
Students often mix up the moment magnitude scale and the Modified Mercalli scale: one measures energy released, the other ranks observed effects on people and buildings from I to XII.
Revision tip
Write the risk equation from memory, including capacity, then match each management term in the set to the part of the equation it changes.

All 15 questions and answers

  1. Logarithmic measure of the energy released by an earthquake, which has replaced Richter?

    Answer: Moment magnitude scale

  2. Ranking from I to XII of an earthquake's observed effects on people and buildings?

    Answer: Modified Mercalli scale

  3. 0–8 logarithmic scale of eruption size, based on ejected volume and plume height?

    Answer: Volcanic Explosivity Index

  4. Fast-moving avalanche of hot gas, ash and rock down a volcano's flanks?

    Answer: Pyroclastic flow

  5. Volcanic mudflow of ash and water, often triggered by heavy rain or melting ice?

    Answer: Lahar

  6. Waterlogged sandy ground losing strength and flowing like a fluid during earthquake shaking?

    Answer: Liquefaction

  7. Series of ocean waves caused by sudden displacement of the sea floor?

    Answer: Tsunami

  8. Risk = hazard × vulnerability, divided by…?

    Answer: Capacity

  9. Graph of quality of life through relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction after a disaster?

    Answer: Park model

  10. Hazard perception that losses are inevitable or God's will, so little can be done?

    Answer: Fatalism

  11. Restricting development in high-risk areas identified on hazard maps?

    Answer: Land-use zoning

  12. Strengthening existing buildings so they better withstand earthquake shaking?

    Answer: Retrofitting

  13. Hazard event whose impacts exceed a community's ability to cope using its own resources?

    Answer: Disaster

  14. Effects such as fires, landslides and tsunamis that follow an earthquake's ground shaking?

    Answer: Secondary hazards

  15. Section of an active fault with no recent large earthquake, thought likely to rupture next?

    Answer: Seismic gap

Play it as a class game

Play this set opens it in splycr, where you can host it for your class straight away. Hosting needs no account: put the room code on the projector, and students join from a phone with the code and their first name. Each question plays as multiple choice, and the three wrong options were written for that question.

The questions were written for the splycr library by Biology by Bradford. IB and AP are trademarks of their owners. splycr is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate or the College Board.