Observation

This was a popular question among the candidates and the performance of most of the candidates that answered the question were good. They were able to correctly define mass wasting as the movement of weathered rock materials down slope under the influence of gravity. The factors influencing mass wasting which were explained by the candidates to score good marks included:

• rock structure or type;
• angle of slope;
• climate factors particularly rainfall and temperature;
• earthquake and earth tremor;
• nature and weight of the materials;
• human activities;
• amount of vegetal cover;
• water retention capacity of the soil.

The effects of mass wasting that were stated by the candidates included:

• loss of farmlands;
• displacement of settlements;
• loss of lives;
• loss of properties;
• tilting of electrical and telegraph poles;
• destruction of transport network;
• predisposes soil to erosion;
• pulling down of trees.