Lesson 3.1.1.5

3.1.1.5 Water and carbon cycles: quantitative and qualitative skills Quiz: AQA Geography, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson 3.1.1.5, Water and carbon cycles: quantitative and qualitative skills: 20 multiple choice questions for the AQA Geography (7037), Unit 1: Physical geography, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. How many litres are equal to 1 mm of rainfall falling over 1 km2?

    • 10,000,000 litres, which is the volume obtained by multiplying the area by 10 for the depth
    • 1,000,000 litres (one megalitre)
    • 1,000 litres, which is the volume obtained by treating the rainfall depth as one centimetre
    • 100,000 litres, which is the volume obtained by dividing the area by a factor of ten

  2. How many litres are in 1 cubic metre?

    • 1,000,000 litres, which is the volume of a cube with sides of one hundred metres
    • 10,000 litres, which is the volume of a tank measuring ten metres on each side
    • 1,000 litres
    • 100 litres, which is the volume of a cube with sides of about 46 centimetres each

  3. Which unit is used in hydrology for river discharge, equal to cubic metres per second?

    • Cumecs
    • Millimetres per hour, which is the standard unit for rainfall intensity measurement
    • Litres per minute, which is a common unit for pumped flow in water supply systems
    • Kilograms per cubic metre, which is the standard unit for the density of water and sediment

  4. Which conversion is correct for converting a mass of carbon dioxide to a mass of carbon?

    • Multiply the CO2 mass by 16/44, which uses the mass of oxygen as the conversion factor
    • Multiply the CO2 mass by 44/12, about 3.67, which gives the mass of carbon dioxide from carbon
    • Multiply the CO2 mass by 12/44, about 0.27
    • Divide the CO2 mass by two, because each carbon atom is paired with two oxygen atoms

  5. A store has an initial mass of 1,000 t, receives inputs of 500 t and loses outputs of 320 t. What is the final store?

    • 1,320 t, which is obtained by adding the outputs to the initial store without the inputs
    • 1,180 t
    • 680 t, which is obtained by subtracting the outputs from the inputs and then from the store
    • 820 t, which is obtained by subtracting the inputs from the initial store and adding the outputs

  6. A river carries a steady 36 m3/s. How much water (m3) passes a point in 24 hours?

    • 36,000 m3, which is the volume obtained by multiplying the discharge by one thousand seconds
    • 864 m3, which is the volume obtained by multiplying the discharge by the 24 hour period
    • 3,110,400 m3
    • 129,600 m3, which is the volume that passes in a single hour at the same steady discharge

  7. A set of 20 field measurements has a mean of 14.6 and a standard deviation of 2.1. What does the standard deviation show?

    • A stronger correlation between two variables, because the spread increases with correlation
    • The spread or variability of values around the mean
    • The number of measurements that were recorded in the survey, which is twenty in this case
    • A higher average value than the mean, since the standard deviation adds to the central value

  8. A Spearman's rank correlation of rs = -0.85 between slope angle and infiltration rate suggests:

    • A strong negative monotonic relationship between the two variables
    • No relationship between the two variables, since the coefficient is so far from zero
    • A weak positive relationship between the two variables, with infiltration rising as slope rises
    • A linear relationship with a slope of 0.85, meaning infiltration changes by that amount per unit

  9. Which statistical test assesses whether observed field counts differ significantly from expected counts?

    • Pearson's product-moment correlation, which measures the linear association between two variables
    • Spearman's rank correlation, which measures the strength of the association between two ranked variables
    • The chi-squared test
    • The mean and standard deviation, which summarise the central value and spread of a single variable

  10. A chi-squared test is most appropriate for which kind of data?

    • Continuous data only, which is assumed to follow a normal distribution in every case
    • A single observation with no comparison, so that the variation can be measured directly
    • Categorical data recorded as frequencies in classes
    • Ranked ordinal data with no frequencies, where the ranks are the only values available

  11. A basin has annual precipitation of 800 mm, evapotranspiration of 500 mm and discharge of 260 mm. What is the storage change?

    • -40 mm, which is obtained by treating the discharge as an input to the basin storage
    • +760 mm, which is the sum of the evapotranspiration and the discharge added together
    • +300 mm, which is obtained by subtracting the discharge from the precipitation and the evaporation
    • +40 mm

  12. A tributary has a bankfull discharge of 12 m3/s. If the flood peak is 3.5 times bankfull, what is the peak flow?

    • 3.5 m3/s, which is the multiplier itself and not a value of discharge for the tributary
    • 15.5 m3/s, which is obtained by adding 3.5 to the bankfull discharge of 12 m3/s
    • 42 m3/s
    • 36 m3/s, which is three times the bankfull discharge and not the 3.5 times in the question

  13. A hydrograph shows a 6-hour lag time. Which statement is correct?

    • Peak discharge occurs six hours after peak rainfall
    • River discharge returns to base flow six hours after the storm begins, once the channel drains
    • The basin receives six hours of rainfall before any runoff starts reaching the river channel
    • Peak rainfall occurs six hours after peak discharge, so the river peaks before the rain does

  14. Which field technique is most appropriate for measuring mean stream velocity across a channel cross-section?

    • Counting the number of stones on the channel bed along a single line across the stream
    • Using a flow meter or float timing at several points, then calculating the mean velocity
    • Measuring the colour of the water with a Secchi disc lowered from a bridge above the channel
    • Recording the air temperature above the channel at a single point on the bank

  15. Which best describes a scatter graph used in field analysis?

    • It shows proportions of a whole as segments of a circle, with each segment labelled by value
    • It shows the frequency of values grouped in equal class intervals, with bars touching each other
    • It displays cumulative totals accumulated over time, so that the trend can be read directly
    • It plots paired values to show the form and strength of a relationship between two variables

  16. A sample of river channel widths includes one extreme outlier. Which measure of central tendency is most suitable?

    • The total of all the channel widths, which summarises the overall size of the sample
    • The mean, which gives the best central value when the data set includes a clear extreme value
    • The range, which summarises the difference between the largest and smallest channel widths
    • The median

  17. A rain gauge records 18 mm of rain over a 2.5 km2 catchment, and 60 per cent infiltrates. Assuming the rest runs off, what is the runoff volume?

    • 27,000 m3, which is the volume that infiltrates into the soil over the catchment area
    • 45,000 m3, which is the total volume of rain falling over the catchment in the storm
    • 7,200 m3, which is the volume obtained by applying the infiltration fraction twice over
    • 18,000 m3

  18. Which graphical method best displays how river discharge changes over time during a storm?

    • A line graph with time on the x-axis and discharge on the y-axis
    • A bar chart of monthly rainfall totals only, with no information on the timing of the flow
    • A pie chart of land-use proportions, with each segment showing the share of the catchment
    • A scatter plot of channel width against slope, which does not include a time axis at all

  19. A total CO2 emission of 36.7 Gt CO2 corresponds to what mass of carbon?

    • About 44 Gt C, which is the molecular mass of carbon dioxide in the emission total given
    • About 10.0 Gt C
    • About 26.7 Gt C, which is obtained by subtracting the carbon fraction from the total emitted
    • About 3.1 Gt C, which is obtained by multiplying the emissions by 12/44 a second time

  20. A field study takes all its measurements on one sunny afternoon. Which error is most likely?

    • Systematic error caused by a poorly calibrated instrument that always reads too high
    • Random error that cancels out when the results are averaged across the whole set of samples
    • Rounding error caused by the final presentation of figures to a fixed number of decimal places
    • Sampling bias, because the results may not represent conditions across the whole season or year

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