OCR A Level Geology (H014/H414/2017) Past Papers 2026

Fundamentals of Geology

Duration: 2h 15m

Scientific Literacy in Geology

Duration: 2h 15m

Practical Skills in Geology

Duration: 1h 30m

Practical Activity Groups

Duration: Pass/fail — assessed throughout the course

Magnetic inclination, palaeolatitude and Curie point — linking remanent magnetism to plate position evidence

H414/01 June 2023 Q28c: 'Very few candidates understood the significance of magnetic inclination preserved in rocks and its link to palaeolatitude.' Many candidates knew that magnetic polarity reversals are recorded in rocks but could not explain what inclination angle indicates about the rock's original latitude.

H414/01

Oceanic core complexes, hydrothermal vents and black/white smoker formation processes at mid-ocean ridges

H414/01 June 2024 Q29c-d: 'Candidates are not confident when discussing aspects of oceanic core complexes.' Examiners note 'very few candidates could give detailed responses' to hydrothermal vent formation, with 'common misconceptions that vents were created by escaping gas from magma that was close to the surface' rather than the seawater-circulation mechanism.

H414/01

Walther's Law — linking lateral facies change in a meandering river to the vertical sequence preserved in the stratigraphic log

H414/01 June 2024 Q27c: 'Walther's Law always proves a challenge to candidates.' Only the strongest answers linked channel-lag gravels, point-bar sands and floodplain clays as lateral environments to their vertical equivalents in the sedimentary log. Many candidates produced a fining-upward log without explaining the Walther's Law principle.

H414/01

Earthquake intensity vs magnitude — confusing the two concepts when interpreting isoseismal maps, Mercalli intensities and building-damage data

H414/02 June 2023 Q6c and H414/02 June 2024 Q3a: Examiners flag 'confusion between magnitude and intensity' in both series. Candidates 'used the term strongest when it should be highest for intensity' and misidentified competent rocks as producing higher (rather than lower) intensity shaking.

H414/02

Gravity anomalies on a crustal scale — negative anomalies beneath mountain roots vs positive anomalies above dense metallic ore bodies (isostasy)

H414/02 June 2024 Q2b: 'A significant number thought mountain ranges would produce positive gravity anomalies due to the large thickness of crust in these areas.' The key point — less dense continental crust in place of denser mantle in mountain roots — was missed. Candidates conflated large-scale isostatic gravity anomalies with small-scale exploration gravity surveys.

H414/02

Evaporite mineral sequences and the role of repeated seawater influx in generating thick deposits

H414/01 June 2024 Q27d: 'Very few candidates knew about repeated influxes of seawater could lead to thick sequences of evaporites.' Most candidates memorised the crystallisation order (calcite → gypsum/anhydrite → halite → potash salts by increasing solubility) but did not link repeated basin flooding to the observed thickness of real evaporite successions.

H414/01

Stress-strain relationships and elastic rebound — distinguishing stress from strain, and explaining failure and seismic wave generation precisely

H414/02 June 2023 Q5b: 'Only a minority attained both marks for their response. Some did not distinguish between stress and strain, and there were incorrect references to tension. Few explained that failure occurs when accumulated strain overcomes the strength of the rock or that, afterwards, elastic rebound occurs.'

H414/02

Diagenesis — distinguishing physical processes (compaction) from chemical processes (cementation), and explaining pressure dissolution, stylolitisation and cement precipitation at grain contacts

H414/02 June 2024 Q1d: Candidates who named compaction first when asked only for physical processes had all subsequent answers ignored under the list rule. Pressure dissolution and stylolite formation were 'known by only a minority'. Many confused cement (secondary, crystalline, in solution) with matrix (primary, fine-grained, detrital).

H414/02