OCR AS Level Geology Past Papers

OCR AS Level Geology (H014) introduces students to the study of Earth's materials, processes, and history, developing both practical rock and mineral identification skills and conceptual understanding of the geological processes that shape the planet over vast timescales. The qualification is assessed through written papers that draw on data interpretation and applied geological reasoning. The AS Level geology syllabus covers five main content areas. Earth materials covers the three rock types — igneous (intrusive and extrusive, classified by silica content and grain size), sedimentary (clastic, chemical, and biogenic, and the sedimentary environments that produce them), and metamorphic (contact and regional metamorphism, the effects of temperature and pressure on rock texture and mineralogy) — together with mineral identification using physical properties (hardness using the Mohs scale, cleavage and fracture, colour and streak, lustre, specific gravity, and crystal form). Earth processes covers plate tectonic theory (the evidence for plate movement — paleomagnetism, seafloor spreading, the distribution of earthquakes and volcanoes — and the geological consequences of constructive, destructive, and conservative plate boundaries), geological structures (folds and their classification, faults and their types, unconformities), and geophysical methods used to investigate Earth's interior. Earth history covers the geological time scale, the fossil record and its use in biostratigraphy (the use of index fossils to correlate rock sequences and determine relative age), radiometric dating principles (the decay of radioactive isotopes and how this allows absolute dating), and the history of life on Earth including major extinction events. Geological map reading and interpretation is a central practical skill: candidates must be able to read topographic and geological maps, identify rock types from map symbols, determine dip direction from outcrop patterns, construct and interpret geological cross-sections, and recognise structural features from map evidence.