Geography · Unit 11

Glaciers and Deserts

Cold and hot environments

Two environments that appear to have nothing in common and share the central problem: liquid water is scarce, and the landscape is shaped by whatever moves material in its absence.

The unit covers glacial erosion and the distinctive shapes it leaves, desert landforms and wind action, and how people and other species live in both.

This unit breaks down into 20 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 3. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 20
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-3

What this unit covers

Desert Landforms
Glacial Landforms
Glaciers and Ice
Hot Deserts
Living in Extremes

Where this fits

Best after Rocks, Soils and Weathering and Mountains and Landforms.

Where people slip

Much of the landscape in northern Europe and North America was cut by ice that is no longer there. Glacial landforms are frequently found a long way from any current glacier.

How the unit is structured

Glaciers and Deserts runs as 20 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 5 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 3 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 20 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Desert Landforms

Odd one outLevel 1
1. Which of these would you NOT find in a hot desert?
- A glaciercorrect
- A sand dune
- An oasis
- A wadi
Sand dunes, oases and wadis all belong in hot deserts, but glaciers are found in freezing cold places.
Fact or fibLevel 2
2. A mesa is a flat-topped hill with steep sides, protected on top by a layer of hard, resistant rock.
Answer: True
A mesa keeps its flat top because a cap of hard rock shields the softer rock beneath from erosion.
Fill the blankLevel 2
3. A hill with steep sides and a flat top, common in dry lands like the American Southwest, is called a ____.
- mesacorrect
- fjord
- oasis
- dune
A mesa is a flat-topped hill with steep sides, left standing when softer rock around it wears away.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
4. Crescent-shaped sand dunes, curved like a moon, are called?
- Barchan dunescorrect
- Delta dunes
- Corrie dunes
- Mesa dunes
Barchan dunes are crescent-shaped dunes that form where sand is limited and the wind blows one way.
Match the pairsLevel 3
5. Match each type of sand dune to its shape.
Answer: Barchan = Crescent shape with horns pointing downwind; Seif (linear) = Long ridge running parallel to the wind; Star = Pyramid with several arms, formed by winds from many directions; Transverse = Ridges lying at right angles to a steady wind
Dune shape depends on the wind and sand supply, giving crescent barchans, long seifs, many-armed star dunes and transverse ridges.
Picture questionLevel 3
6. 🏜️ This desert rock has been worn away much more near its base than at its top. What is it called?
- Mushroom rockcorrect
- Yardang
- Mesa
- Butte
Because wind-blown sand is carried close to the ground, abrasion undercuts the base of a rock, leaving a top-heavy mushroom rock.

Glacial Landforms

Fill the blankLevel 1
7. The mixture of rock and rubble that a glacier carries along and dumps is called ____.
- morainecorrect
- lava
- coral
- marble
Moraine is the broken rock and rubble left behind by a glacier as it melts.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
8. What shape of valley do glaciers carve out as they flow downhill?
- A U-shapecorrect
- A V-shape
- A circle
- A square
Glaciers grind out wide, steep-sided valleys shaped like the letter U.
Odd one outLevel 2
9. Which of these is NOT a landform made by glacial erosion?
- Drumlincorrect
- Corrie
- Arete
- Pyramidal peak
A drumlin is a hill of deposited till, while corries, aretes and pyramidal peaks are all shaped by erosion.
Put in orderLevel 2
10. Put these steps in order to show how a glacier shapes a valley.
Answer: Snow builds up and packs into ice -> A glacier forms and flows slowly downhill -> The moving ice scrapes out a wide valley -> The ice melts, leaving a U-shaped valley
Snow packs into ice, the glacier flows downhill, it scrapes out the valley, then the ice melts and leaves a U-shaped valley.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
11. Sort each landform by whether it is carved by a glacier or by a river.
Answer: U-shaped valley = Glacier; Fjord = Glacier; V-shaped valley = River; Meander = River
Glaciers carve wide U-shaped valleys and fjords, while rivers cut V-shaped valleys and looping meanders.
Match the pairsLevel 3
12. Match each glacial erosion landform to its description.
Answer: Corrie = Armchair-shaped hollow where a glacier begins; Arete = Narrow knife-edge ridge between two corries; Pyramidal peak = Sharp summit where three or more corries meet; Hanging valley = Tributary valley left high above the main trough
Corries, aretes, pyramidal peaks and hanging valleys are all landforms carved by glacial erosion in upland areas.

Glaciers and Ice

Fill the blankLevel 1
13. During the last ____ Age, thick ice sheets spread across much of northern Europe and North America.
- Icecorrect
- Stone
- Space
- Iron
In the last Ice Age, huge sheets of ice covered land that is now warm and green.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
14. Build a true sentence about how climate change is affecting mountain glaciers.
Answer: Alpine glaciers are melting and retreating
Alpine glaciers are melting and retreating as the climate warms, shrinking year after year.
Fact or fibLevel 2
15. Most of the fresh water on Earth is frozen inside glaciers and ice sheets.
Answer: True
About two thirds of the world's fresh water is locked up as ice in glaciers and ice sheets.
Guess the numberLevel 2
16. Roughly how many years ago did the last Ice Age end?
Answer: 11700 years ago
The last Ice Age ended about 11,700 years ago, when the great ice sheets melted back.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
17. Which of these are used as evidence that ice sheets once covered areas that are now ice-free? (Select all that apply.)
- U-shaped valleyscorrect
- Glacial erraticscorrect
- Striations scratched into bedrockcorrect
- Coral reefs
U-shaped valleys, erratics and striations are all left behind by ice, so they show that glaciers once reached far beyond today's ice sheets.
Match the pairsLevel 3
18. Match each mass of ice to where it is found.
Answer: Aletsch Glacier = The Alps; Vatnajokull = Iceland; Greenland ice sheet = The Arctic; Antarctic ice sheet = The South Pole
The Aletsch Glacier is in the Alps, Vatnajokull in Iceland, and the two great ice sheets sit over Greenland's Arctic and around the South Pole.

Hot Deserts

Fact or fibLevel 1
19. A hot desert can be baking hot in the daytime but very cold at night.
Answer: True
With few clouds and little moisture, desert heat escapes fast at night, so it can turn very cold.
Fill the blankLevel 1
20. A small green spot in a desert where water lets plants grow is called an ____.
- oasiscorrect
- iceberg
- island
- harbour
An oasis is a watered patch in the desert where water reaches the surface and plants can grow.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
21. Build a sentence about a region hit hard by desertification.
Answer: The Sahel borders the southern edge of the Sahara
The Sahel is the semi-arid belt along the southern edge of the Sahara and is one of the areas most affected by desertification.
Guess the numberLevel 2
22. A desert is usually defined as land that gets less than about how many millimetres of rain in a year?
Answer: 250 millimetres
Deserts are places that receive less than about 250 millimetres of rain per year.
Match the pairsLevel 2
23. Match each desert to the region where it is found.
Answer: Atacama = South America; Gobi = Asia; Mojave = North America; Namib = Africa
The Atacama is in South America, the Gobi in Asia, the Mojave in North America and the Namib in Africa.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
24. Which of these are ways to reduce or reverse desertification? (Select all that apply.)
- Planting drought-resistant trees, such as the Great Green Wall
- Building low stone lines to trap rainwater and soilcorrect
- Using drip irrigation to save watercorrect
- Clearing more forest to create farmland
Tree planting, water-trapping stone lines and efficient irrigation all help protect the soil, while clearing forest makes desertification worse.

Living in Extremes

Build the sentenceLevel 1
25. Put the words in the right order to make a true sentence about desert animals.
Answer: Many desert animals come out at night
Many desert animals come out at night, when it is cooler, to avoid the fierce daytime heat.
Fill the blankLevel 1
26. Animals in freezing places like the Arctic often have a thick layer of fatty ____ under their skin to keep warm.
- blubbercorrect
- sand
- feathers
- scales
Blubber is a thick layer of fat that keeps animals such as seals and whales warm in icy water.
Multiple choiceLevel 1
27. What do camels store in their humps?
- Fatcorrect
- Water
- Sand
- Milk
Camels store fat, not water, in their humps and use it for energy when food is scarce.
Picture questionLevel 1
28. 🌵 This spiky desert plant stores water inside its thick stem so it can survive long dry spells. What is it?
- A cactuscorrect
- A fern
- An oak tree
- Seaweed
A cactus stores water in its swollen stem, which helps it survive the dry desert.
Fact or fibLevel 2
29. A cactus has sharp spines instead of leaves, which helps it lose less water.
Answer: True
Cactus spines are tiny leaves; having spines instead of broad leaves means the plant loses far less water.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
30. Which features help desert plants (xerophytes) survive with very little water? (Select all that apply.)
- A thick, waxy skin to reduce water loss
- Spines instead of broad leavescorrect
- Fleshy stems that store watercorrect
- Large, thin leaves to catch as much sun as possible
Waxy skins, spines and water-storing stems all cut water loss, whereas large thin leaves would lose too much water in the heat.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 17 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Listen and choose
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sequence recall
Sort into groups
Spell it
Tap the pairs
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Glaciers and Deserts

120 questions across 20 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Glaciers and Deserts

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

More units in Geography

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