WAEC Geography 1998 past questions and answers

The railway, roads and footpaths all meet at Dikwa, so it grew as a nodal (route-centre) town.

Y is surrounded by closed, roughly circular contours rising to a top, which shows a hill.

Between the contours labelled 500 m and 700 m there is one unlabelled contour, so the interval is 100 m.

Count the smaller streams that join the main river on the map.

From M the land rises steadily up the slope to the high ground just before N and then drops a little, giving a single rise and fall like profile C.

The north-west is marked with the grass symbol, which points to savanna.

A place is visible if no higher ground lies on the line of sight between the two settlements.

Bundu lies to the south-east of Tasima, so its bearing is between 90° and 180°: about 133°.

Koras is surrounded by grassland, which is used for grazing animals.

Rivers flow from high to low ground; the River Maira rises in the high land in the north-east of the map.

A galaxy is a huge cluster of millions of stars, such as the Milky Way.

A sill is a sheet of igneous rock formed when magma spreads along (parallel to) the bedding planes and cools.

Local time changes with every degree of longitude, so travellers would have to keep resetting their watches; zones that keep one time avoid this.

Gabbro is a coarse-grained igneous rock; the others are metamorphic.

Sediments are laid down in low places such as seas, lakes and basins, not formed in upland areas.

A composite cone is built of alternate layers of ash and (acid) lava, often with small side (parasitic) cones.

A residual mountain is what remains of an older highland after denudation has worn most of it away.

The earth's rotation deflects currents to the right in the north and left in the south.

Water running back down the beach after a wave breaks is the backwash; the swash moves up the beach.

Climate is the average weather of a place over a long period (about 30 years).

An anemometer measures wind speed; humidity is measured with a hygrometer (wet and dry bulb).

Oxygen is needed by people and animals for breathing and for burning, making it the most useful gas.

The Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder burns a trace on a card while the sun shines.

Leaching is the washing down of dissolved minerals by water moving through the soil.

Groundnut pods develop underground and need light, loose, well-drained sandy soils.

Colloids (very fine clay and humus particles) bind soil grains together.

Huge amounts of leaves and plant matter fall and rot quickly, adding humus to the topsoil.

Hardwoods such as mahogany and iroko come from the tropical rainforest; coniferous forests give softwood.

The short, nutritious grasses of the prairies, pampas and steppes are used mainly for grazing cattle and sheep.

Sunshine varies with clouds, night and seasons, so solar power is not always available.

The dense equatorial forest is hard to clear for farms, roads and settlements.

If population grows faster than food production, there will be serious food shortages.

Better medical care lowers the death rate while births stay high, so population rises quickly.

Moving from a city (Lagos) to settle in a village is urban-to-rural migration.

Settlements are called rural when their main function is primary activity such as farming or fishing.

A holiday resort exists to serve tourists.

Air fares and freight charges are high, so few people and goods use it.

Ship building, locomotives and heavy chemicals all use bulky materials and big plant, so they are heavy industries.

The low, flat valleys of the Niger and Benue are flooded every rainy season.

Flights are delayed or cancelled by harmattan haze, storms and poor visibility.

Rainfall in the north is low and seasonal, but rivers such as the Sokoto, Hadejia and Kano provide water for irrigation.

Lying within the tropics, Nigeria is hot throughout the year and has a wet tropical climate.

West African countries mostly produce the same tropical crops and minerals, so they have little to sell to one another.

Cape Agulhas, the southern tip of Africa, is at about 35°S.

Africa has plenty of goods to move; the problems are rapids, weeds, seasonal flow and borders.

Droughts, wars, pests and poor soils reduce food supply directly; export price changes are not a direct cause of famine.

Among these countries, Senegal grows by far the most groundnuts; it is a leading groundnut exporter in West Africa.

(a) Dense population on the fertile alluvial plains of the Ganges and coastal deltas; monsoon rainfall supporting rice farming; early marriage and high birth rate; religion and culture favouring large families; industrial and commercial cities (Calcutta/Kolkata, Bombay/Mumbai); sparse population in the Thar Desert and the Himalayas and on parts of the Deccan.
(b) Large labour force; large market for goods; more revenue from taxes; strong defence (large army); export of manpower.
(c) Food shortage and hunger; unemployment; overcrowding and slums; pressure on schools, hospitals and housing; high crime rate; diseases; environmental degradation.

Explain why people concentrate in some areas and avoid others.

(a) Size and population (e.g. Lagos is much bigger than Ilorin); function (administrative Abuja, industrial Aba, port Lagos, mining Jos); site and situation (river, coast, hill); layout/plan (planned Abuja vs. unplanned old towns); age (old Kano vs. new Port Harcourt); amenities and outlook.
(b) Market for farm produce; supply of manufactured goods (tools, fertilisers, clothing); services such as hospitals, secondary schools, banks; jobs; administrative and security services; transport and information.

Use named Nigerian or world towns as examples.

(a) Air is much faster; water carries bulky heavy goods more cheaply; air is not restricted by relief or water bodies while water transport is restricted to seas, rivers and lakes; air is mainly for passengers, mail and valuable/perishable goods while water carries bulk cargo; air is more expensive per tonne; air is disrupted by poor visibility, water by rapids, falls and low water.
(b) Promotes trade and market growth; creates jobs; government revenue; movement of people and national unity; opens up remote areas; tourism; defence.
(c) Rapids and waterfalls; seasonal low water; floating weeds; sandbars and silting; high cost of dredging and port facilities; pilfering at ports.

Make each difference a direct comparison.

(a) Mainly small-scale; produce consumer goods (food, drinks, textiles); depend on imported machinery and raw materials; concentrated in a few large towns and ports; many owned by foreign companies; import substitution.
(b) Jobs and incomes; goods for local needs; saves foreign exchange; government revenue; development of infrastructure; diversification of the economy; use of local raw materials.
(c) Inadequate capital; unreliable power; poor transport; shortage of skilled manpower; small market and low incomes; competition from imports; political instability and poor management.

Keep characteristics, contributions and problems separate.

(a) Similar products (all export primary goods); poor transport links between countries; different currencies and lack of convertibility; language barriers; ties to former colonial powers; trade restrictions and border controls; preference for goods from industrialised countries; small markets.
(b) Build road and rail links across borders (Trans-African highways); remove tariffs and border restrictions (ECOWAS free trade); common or convertible currency; diversify and industrialise to produce different goods; trade fairs; encourage buying African-made goods; strengthen regional bodies such as ECOWAS/AU.

Each suggestion in (b) should answer a problem in (a).

(a) The earth is spherical (strictly a geoid/oblate spheroid, flattened at the poles).
(b) Any four, each with a diagram: ship's hull disappears first and mast last over the horizon; circular shadow of the earth on the moon during a lunar eclipse; sunrise and sunset happen at different times east and west; circumnavigation (going round the world and returning to the start); the horizon looks circular and widens with height; photographs from space; other heavenly bodies are spherical.

Each proof needs a simple labelled diagram.

Yardang: ridges of hard rock separated by grooves, parallel to the prevailing wind, 5-15 m high, in deserts (Atacama, Central Asia); formed where vertical bands of hard and soft rock lie in the wind direction and sand-laden wind scours the soft bands.
Crater: funnel-shaped hollow at the top of a volcano; formed when the volcano explodes and material is blown out of the vent, or the summit collapses; may fill with water to form a crater lake.
Block mountain (horst): uplifted block with steep sides and flat top, bounded by parallel faults (e.g. Ruwenzori, Vosges, Black Forest); formed by tension or compression in the crust: the middle block is pushed up or the outer blocks sink along faults.
Each with a labelled diagram.

Choose two and draw a labelled diagram for each.

(a)(i) 23 − 12 = 11°C. (ii) Total 216 ÷ 12 = 18°C. (iii) 200+180+120+45+8+0+0+0+5+35+100+160 = 853 mm.
(b)(i) Tropical continental (savanna) climate, probably on a high plateau (e.g. Zimbabwe highveld).
(ii) Distinct wet season and long dry season (May-September almost dry); moderate rainfall about 850 mm; fairly high temperatures with an 11°C range; mild temperatures suggest altitude.
(c) Southern hemisphere: the hottest and wettest months are December-February and the coolest is June.

Rain falls when the sun is overhead, which in December-February means the southern hemisphere.

Flood plain: wide, flat land on either side of a river in its lower course; built of alluvium spread when the river overflows its banks during floods; fertile soils; features include levees, meanders and ox-bow lakes; examples Niger and Benue valleys, Ganges, Mississippi; useful for farming but liable to floods.
Hydrological cycle: continuous circulation of water: evaporation from seas, lakes and land, transpiration from plants; condensation into clouds; precipitation as rain or snow; run-off into rivers and back to the sea; infiltration and percolation into groundwater; diagram helps.
River erosion: processes of hydraulic action, corrasion (abrasion), attrition and solution (corrosion); vertical erosion in the upper course forms V-shaped valleys, gorges, waterfalls, potholes; lateral erosion in the middle/lower course widens valleys and forms meanders.

Choose two and explain each fully with examples.

(a) Weathering of parent rock into small mineral particles; addition of organic matter (humus) from dead plants and animals; leaching/eluviation (washing down of minerals) and illuviation (deposition lower down) forming horizons; laterisation in hot wet areas; podzolisation in cool wet areas; calcification in dry areas; action of living organisms (earthworms, bacteria) mixing the soil.
(b) Medium for plant growth and food production; supplies nutrients and water to plants; habitat for organisms; building materials (clay, laterite); foundation for buildings and roads; raw materials for pottery and bricks; stores and filters water.

Name the process and say what it does to the soil.

(a) Atmospheric resources are the parts of the air and weather that are useful to man, plants and animals, such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, water vapour, sunlight and wind.
(b) Oxygen for breathing and burning; carbon dioxide for photosynthesis; nitrogen fixed into soil nitrates for plants and used for fertilisers; water vapour giving rain for farming and water supply; sunlight for solar energy, drying crops and vitamin D; wind for windmills/wind power, sailing, winnowing and drying; ozone layer shielding the earth from ultraviolet rays; gases used in industry (e.g. oxygen in welding).

Give six different uses, each with an example.