WAEC Geography 2008 past questions and answers

At 1:200,000, 1 cm on the map is 200,000 cm = 2 km, so each 1 cm division of the linear scale must be labelled in steps of 2 km.

Halving the map doubles the denominator: 200,000 × 2 = 1:400,000.

Measure the straight line from Idumuegbu junction (south-west) to Asa (north) and convert it with the scale 1:200,000 (1 cm = 2 km).

The contour labels on the map are 50, 150, 250, 350, 450 and 550 m, so every contour ends in 50. On the hills in the south-east, the rings inside the 450 m line go up to at least 650 m, so the highest contour among the options is 650 m.

The south-east is covered with scattered cultivation and palm trees, so the people are farmers.

Umudibiokwu lies on the western edge, south of the level of Tapa, so it is south-west of Tapa.

Y is a small hill shown by a few tiny closed contours: a knoll.

Osu lies west and a little north of Umuogene, so its bearing is just over 270°: about 288°.

The moon blocks the sun's light from the earth, causing a solar eclipse.

Mercury orbits the sun in 88 days; 225 days is Venus and 687 days Mars.

Wind deflection is caused by the earth's rotation, not by its shape.

Meridians run north-south; lines running east-west are parallels of latitude.

75° × 4 min = 5 hours; places west are behind: 11.00 a.m. − 5 h = 6.00 a.m.

Count the dots in region A (four) and multiply by 10,000.

Count the dots in B and C together and multiply by 10,000.

Each dot stands for a fixed number of people, so it is a dot map.

The biosphere is the life zone of the earth.

At 100% relative humidity the air holds all the water vapour it can: it is saturated.

North of the Arctic Circle the sun stays above the horizon at midnight in summer.

The atmosphere is the envelope of gases round the earth.

The heavy central core is also called the barysphere (or centrosphere).

Sedimentary rocks are laid down in layers (strata).

Oxidation and hydrolysis change minerals chemically, so they are chemical weathering.

Folding produces upfolds (anticlines) and downfolds (synclines); grabens and horsts come from faulting.

Fertilizers washed into water cause harmful algal growth and pollution.

Zeugen are ridges carved by wind abrasion; barchans, ripples and dunes are built by wind deposition.

Planting trees protects soil from erosion.

An earthquake is a shaking of the crust; it may trigger mass movement but is not one itself.

Ox-bow lakes form on flood plains in the lower course.

A spring is where underground water flows out naturally at the surface.

Stalagmites grow up from the cave floor; stalactites hang from the roof.

A barchan is a crescent-shaped dune lying across the wind direction.

Isobars join places of equal pressure.

Koppen's classification is based on temperature and rainfall (precipitation).

Afforestation improves the environment; it is not a hazard.

Vegetation is a land (biological) resource, not part of the atmosphere.

Density = 7,200,000 ÷ 24,000 = 300 persons per km².

The main types of migration are rural-urban, urban-rural, and internal or international; inter-community movement is not usually listed as a major type.

Dormitory towns are urban settlements where commuters live; the others are rural settlement patterns.

Processing turns raw materials into goods, which is a secondary activity.

Roads go almost everywhere and give door-to-door service.

The North Atlantic route joins the industrial regions of Europe and North America.

Transport increases production by moving inputs and goods; it does not decrease it.

Poor publicity keeps tourists away.

A beach is built by wave deposition.

Savanna trees have deep roots to reach underground water; shallow roots would not help in the dry season.

Many factories lack a steady supply of raw materials and depend on imports.

(a) Light: food processing, textiles, printing, pharmaceuticals, soft drinks, leather goods. Heavy: iron and steel, shipbuilding, cement, petroleum refining, motor assembly, aluminium smelting.
(b) Nearness to raw materials; labour (skilled and unskilled); power supply; market; transport; capital; water supply; government policy; political stability; land.
(c) Employment; government revenue; foreign exchange earnings and savings; diversification of the economy; transfer of technology; growth of towns and infrastructure; higher standard of living; goods for local use.

Name industries clearly as light or heavy.

(a) Provides labour for urban industries and services; reduces pressure on rural farmland; migrants earn more and send money home; spread of ideas and skills when migrants return; growth of towns and commerce; better access to education and health for migrants.
(b) Overcrowding, housing shortage and slums; unemployment and underemployment; crime and social vices; traffic congestion; pressure on water, power, schools and hospitals; pollution and poor sanitation; high cost of living.
(c) Develop rural areas with amenities (electricity, water, roads, schools, hospitals); site industries and higher institutions in rural areas; create jobs and farm settlements; give loans and incentives to farmers; set up cooperatives.

Advantages in (a); problems for towns in (b).

(a) Attractive scenery: waterfalls, hills, plateaux (Obudu, Jos, Erin-Ijesha, Olumo Rock); beaches (Bar Beach, Lekki, Eleko); game reserves and wildlife (Yankari, Kainji); cultural heritage and festivals (Argungu, Durbar, Osun-Osogbo, Calabar Carnival); historical sites and museums; favourable climate; good transport and hotels; publicity and government support; security.
(b) Foreign exchange; employment (hotels, guides, transport); revenue to government; growth of infrastructure; market for local crafts; promotes culture and international understanding; development of related industries; income for local communities.

Name actual Nigerian tourist sites.

(a) Flat to gently undulating plains make farming and grazing easy; low, seasonal rainfall and long dry season favour drought-tolerant crops (millet, sorghum, groundnut, cotton) and cattle, sheep and goat rearing; the Sokoto-Rima river and fadama flood plains support irrigated rice, onions, wheat and vegetables and fishing (Argungu); sedimentary rocks provide limestone for cement (Sokoto) and phosphate/kaolin; tsetse-free savanna supports pastoralism and hides and skins trade.
(b) Low and unreliable rainfall and drought; desertification and sand dunes; poor sandy soils; shortage of water; long distance from the sea and poor transport; few industries and low investment; seasonal flooding of rivers; poverty and low literacy.
(c) Irrigation schemes and dams (Bakolori, Goronyo); afforestation and shelter belts; improved roads and railways; boreholes and water supply; provide credit and incentives for industries; fertilizers and improved seeds.

Link each activity to relief, climate, rivers or rocks.

(a) Railway Lagos-Abeokuta-Ibadan-Oshogbo-Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa-Minna; limestone: Ewekoro, Nkalagu, Sokoto, Ukpilla; coal: Enugu (Udi), Okaba, Gombe; columbite: Jos Plateau (Jos, Bukuru); gold: Maru, Bin Yauri, Iperindo/Ilesha.
(b) Columbite occurs with tin ore in alluvial deposits on the Jos Plateau; overburden removed by draglines or by hand (open cast/paddock method); the ore-bearing gravel is dug and washed with water jets or in sluices; heavy minerals settle and are concentrated; columbite is separated from tin ore by magnetic separation; small-scale miners use hand digging and panning.
(c) (Jos Plateau) Mine ponds and pits dangerous to people and animals; destruction of farmland and land degradation; soil erosion; pollution of water; loss of vegetation; displacement of people.

Mark the railway with cross-ticks and name the stations.

(a) Tropical (savanna) climate: belts north and south of the equatorial region (West African savanna, Sudan, East Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe); hot desert: Sahara and Namib/Kalahari; warm temperate eastern margin: south-east coast of South Africa (Natal, around Durban).
(b) Distinct wet season (summer) and dry season (winter); high temperatures all year (21-32°C) with an annual range of 5-10°C; rainfall 500-1,500 mm, decreasing away from the equator; mainly convectional rain; low humidity and dusty winds (harmattan) in the dry season.
(c) Trees shed their leaves in the dry season; long tap roots reach underground water; thick bark resists fire and drought; small, thorny or waxy leaves reduce water loss; baobabs store water in their trunks; grasses dry up and remain dormant in the dry season and sprout quickly with the rains; umbrella-shaped crowns.

Link each adaptation to the long dry season.

(a) Large areas of equatorial rain forest with valuable hardwoods (mahogany, ebony, sapele, iroko, limba); rivers (Congo and tributaries, or Bandama, Comoé) for floating logs; ports (Matadi, Boma; Abidjan, San Pedro); demand in Europe; cheap labour; government concessions and foreign capital; modern machines.
(b) Concession areas are surveyed and valuable trees marked; undergrowth cleared and trees felled with power saws (or axes); branches removed and trunks cut into logs; logs dragged by tractors or bulldozers to roads; carried by lorries or floated down rivers to sawmills or ports; sawn into planks, veneer and plywood or exported as logs.
(c) Trees of one species scattered, not in pure stands; hardwoods very heavy, many sink and cannot be floated; dense undergrowth and swampy ground; poor roads; rapids and waterfalls on rivers; heavy rain and diseases; shortage of capital and skilled labour; deforestation and slow regrowth.

Choose one country and keep the examples to it.

(a) Mediterranean: River Nile; crosses the Equator twice: River Congo (Zaire); Indian Ocean: Zambezi or Limpopo; rift valley lake: Tanganyika, Malawi (Nyasa), Turkana, Albert, Edward; man-made lake: Volta, Kariba, Kainji, Nasser; lake crossed by the Equator: Lake Victoria.
(b) Rapids, cataracts and waterfalls; seasonal changes in volume; water weeds (water hyacinth); silting and sandbars at mouths; many are shallow or have narrow channels; some flow through sparsely populated or desert areas; lack of capital for ports and dredging; lack of cooperation among countries they flow through.

Show the Congo crossing the equator twice.

(a) A measuring chain made of 100 links of thick steel wire joined by small rings; Gunter's chain is 66 ft (20.1 m) long, the engineer's chain 100 ft, and the metric chain 20 m or 30 m; brass handles at both ends; brass tags mark every 10 links (or every 5 m/10 m) to make reading easy; used with arrows (pins) and ranging poles to measure distances in chain surveys.
(b) Links bend or stretch, giving wrong lengths; sagging of the chain on uneven ground; obstacles such as rivers, buildings and thick bush on the line; slow and difficult on marshy or broken ground; heavy and tiring to carry; tangling and kinks; errors in counting chains and booking.

Describe its length, links and tags, then the difficulties in the field.

(a) Local time is the time of a place by the sun on its own meridian (noon when the sun is overhead), so it changes by 4 minutes for every degree of longitude; standard time is the time adopted for a whole time zone or country, usually the local time of a central meridian, so it changes by whole hours between zones; places in one zone share one standard time but have different local times.
(b) Time difference = 7.46 p.m. − 5.30 a.m. = 14 h 16 min = 856 minutes; 856 ÷ 4 = 214° of longitude; B is behind A so it lies 214° west of 70°E: 214 − 70 = 144°W.

Find the time difference in minutes, divide by 4, then move west because B's time is earlier.

(a) Delta: a low, flat, roughly triangular or fan-shaped plain of alluvium at a river mouth, crossed by many distributaries, with swamps, creeks and lagoons; forms where a river enters a sea or lake, slows down and drops its load faster than waves and currents can remove it, helped by a gentle offshore slope and sheltered coast; types arcuate (Niger, Nile), bird's foot (Mississippi), estuarine.
(b) Block mountain (horst): a raised block with steep fault-scarp sides and a fairly flat top; formed when the land between two parallel faults is pushed up, or the land on both sides sinks, through tension or compression, e.g. Vosges, Black Forest, Ruwenzori, Usambara.
(c) Rock pedestal (mushroom rock): a rock with a narrow base and a wide cap; formed in deserts where wind carrying sand blasts (abrades) the lower part of a rock most strongly because sand is heaviest near the ground; softer bands are cut back faster, leaving a top-heavy pillar.

Draw each landform and label its parts.

(a)(i) Erosion is the wearing away and removal of rock material by moving agents such as rivers, wind, waves and ice; mass movement is the downslope movement of weathered material under the pull of gravity alone, without a transporting agent.
(ii) River erosion: V-shaped valley, gorge, waterfall, pothole, interlocking spurs, river cliff. Mass movement: landslide scar, terracettes, slump, scree/talus, mudflow deposits.
(b) Steepness of slope (steeper slopes move faster); amount of water lubricating the material (heavy rain); nature of rock and soil (loose, clayey or jointed material moves easily); vegetation cover (roots hold soil; clearing increases movement); depth of weathering; earthquakes and volcanic activity trigger movement; human activities (road cutting, mining, building on slopes); freezing and thawing.

Stress that gravity drives mass movement.

(a) Weather is the state of the atmosphere of a place over a short time (hours or days); climate is the average weather of a large area over a long period (about 30-35 years); weather changes often, climate is fairly stable.
(b)(i) Barometer; (ii) Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder; (iii) rain gauge; (iv) anemometer.
(c) A cup anemometer (three or four cups on arms fixed to a vertical spindle) is placed in an open place high above obstacles; the wind turns the cups and the spindle drives a counter or dial showing speed in km/h or knots; readings are taken at fixed times (e.g. 09.00 and 15.00) and entered in a weather record book with the date.

Give one instrument per element.

(a) Upper (youthful/torrent) course: steep gradient near the source; fast flow; vertical erosion dominates; narrow V-shaped valleys, gorges, waterfalls, rapids, potholes, interlocking spurs.
Middle (mature/valley) course: gentler gradient; lateral erosion widens the valley; load carried in suspension and solution; meanders begin; some deposition on valley floor.
Lower (old/plain) course: very gentle gradient; slow flow; deposition dominates; wide flood plain, meanders, ox-bow lakes, levées, braided channels, deltas or estuaries.
(b) Water for domestic, industrial and irrigation use; HEP; transport; fishing; fertile alluvial soils; recreation and tourism; boundaries; alluvial minerals (gold, diamond, tin).

For each stage say gradient, main process and landforms.

(a) Western sides of continents between about 30° and 45° N and S: lands round the Mediterranean Sea, North Africa coast (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), south-west Cape of South Africa, central Chile, California, south-west and south Australia.
(b) Hot dry sunny summers (21-27°C); mild wet winters (5-10°C); annual rainfall 500-900 mm falling mainly in winter from westerly cyclones; summer drought; clear skies; local winds such as sirocco and mistral.
(c) Evergreen woodland of cork oak, olive, laurel, eucalyptus; conifers (pine, fir, cedar) on higher slopes; scrub (maquis, chaparral) with thick, waxy, small leaves and long roots adapted to summer drought; grasses.
(d) Fruit growing (citrus, grapes, olives, figs) and wine making; cereals (wheat, barley) grown in winter; irrigation farming; livestock (sheep, goats, transhumance); fruit canning; tourism; fishing; lumbering of softwoods.

Write notes under each of the four headings.