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Subjects · Leaving Cert Geography

Leaving Cert Geography: Glaciation

How often Glaciation comes up on the Geography papers, every year it was asked, and questions to try.

HL Asked on 10 of the last 10 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2026. banker

OL Asked on 10 of the last 10 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2026. banker

June 2028 is the first exam on the new Geography course. These come from the 2016–2026 papers, so read them as a guide.

Glaciation, Higher Level(8 marks)

Quick ones on Glaciation.

(a)Narrow knife-edged ridge between two corries?
  1. A pyramidal peak
  2. An arête
  3. A moraine
(b)Long winding ridge of sand and gravel left by a meltwater stream under the ice?
  1. A drumlin
  2. A moraine
  3. An esker
(c)Peak formed where three or more corries erode back to back?
  1. A pyramidal peak
  2. A roche moutonnée
  3. An arête
Show the answers

(a) An arête

(b) An esker

(c) A pyramidal peak

Your turn: Higher Level questions on Glaciation.

Higher Level

Asked on 10 of the last 10 Higher Level papers, most recently in 2026. banker

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2026SQ2, Q2B
2025SQ2, Q2B
2024SQ1, Q2B
2023SQ1, Q2B
2022SQ3, Q2B
2021SQ3, Q1B
2019SQ2, Q1B, Q3A
2018SQ9, Q2C
2017SQ2, Q3B
2016SQ5, Q2B

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Glaciation questions

Glaciation, 2 marks

Material carried inside the body of a glacier rather than on top of it or at its base?

  1. Supraglacial material
  2. Subglacial material
  3. Englacial material
Show the answer

Englacial material

Supraglacial is on the surface, englacial is within the ice and subglacial is at the base, where it abrades the bedrock.

Glaciation, 2 marks

Glacial erosion in which rocks frozen into the base of the ice scrape and polish the bedrock?

  1. Freeze-thaw
  2. Abrasion
  3. Plucking
Show the answer

Abrasion

The embedded rocks act like sandpaper, smoothing and scratching the rock beneath as the ice slides over it.

Glaciation, 3 marks

Compacted, granular old snow that is changing into glacier ice?

  1. Firn (neve)
  2. Boulder till
  3. Rime frost
Show the answer

Firn (neve)

Snow that survives a summer is buried and squeezed, the air is driven out, and over years it turns to dense blue ice.

Ordinary Level

Asked on 10 of the last 10 Ordinary Level papers, most recently in 2026. banker

Every paper, year by year

YearWhere it came up
2026Q1B, Q2A
2025SQ3, Q1B
2024SQ4, Q2B
2023SQ4, Q2A, Q3B
2022SQ3, Q1B
2021SQ4, Q2B
2019Q1B, Q3A
2018SQ3, SQ5, Q2B
2017SQ3, Q2B
2016SQ5, SQ8, Q1B

Links open the State Examinations Commission’s paper for that year.

More Glaciation questions

Glaciation, 2 marks

Armchair-shaped hollow eroded high on a mountainside by ice?

  1. A drumlin
  2. An esker
  3. A corrie
Show the answer

A corrie

Snow gathered in a hollow, turned to ice and rotated as it moved, deepening the hollow into a steep-backed basin that often holds a small lake.

Glaciation, 2 marks

Oval hill of boulder clay shaped by moving ice?

  1. An arête
  2. A drumlin
  3. A corrie
Show the answer

A drumlin

The ice moulded material it was carrying into a smooth egg-shaped hill, and swarms of drumlins cover much of Down, Monaghan and Cavan.

Glaciation, 2 marks

Shape of a valley that has been widened and deepened by a glacier?

  1. U-shaped
  2. V-shaped
  3. Circular
Show the answer

U-shaped

Ice fills the whole valley and erodes the sides as well as the floor, leaving steep sides and a wide flat bottom, as at Glendalough.

Other Geography topics

All of Leaving Cert Geography