Geography GK Questions with Answers – Page 4

Gauge conversion, electrification of tracks and automatic signalling have all been part of the modernisation of Indian Railways. Gauge conversion: under Project Unigauge, started in 1992, metre-gauge and narrow-gauge lines have been steadily converted to broad gauge (1,676 mm) so that trains can run through without transhipment.

The word nimbus means rain cloud: these dark, thick clouds bring steady rain or snow. Nimbus clouds form at low to middle heights and are so dense that sunlight hardly passes through them, which is why they look dark grey or black.

The plateau is part of the ancient Gondwana landmass, so it is a rigid, stable block worn down by long erosion.

Cumulonimbus clouds form by strong convection, grow into huge cauliflower-like towers with flat anvil-shaped tops, and are the only clouds that bring hail, thunder and lightning.

The Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 defines the Eastern Rivers as the Sutlej, the Beas and the Ravi, and the Western Rivers as the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab.

The Dogger Bank is a large shallow sandbank in the North Sea about 100 kilometres off the east coast of England, one of the richest fishing grounds of Europe.

The Banas is not a tributary of the Luni; it flows east and joins the Chambal, which belongs to the Ganga basin.

An avalanche is a sudden slide of snow, ice and debris down a mountain slope, a movement of material on the land surface, so it is grouped with terrestrial disasters.

Every point on the Earth turns through 360 degrees in the same time, but points nearer the equator travel a longer circle and so move faster.

Going from east to west, the order is Kosi, Gandak, Ghaghara and Gomti. All four join the Ganga from the north.

The damage an earthquake does depends on how strongly the ground shakes and on what, and who, stands on it, not on the region's climate.

In India's land-use records, land that can be farmed but has lain uncultivated for over five years is called culturable wasteland.

Antarctica is bigger than Europe and, because of its thick ice sheet, it stands higher on average than any other continent.

Sleet is a form of precipitation, frozen raindrops or a mix of rain and snow that falls from clouds, not a form of condensation.

New York, with its urban agglomeration, became the first city to cross a population of 10 million, around 1950. A megacity is an urban agglomeration with more than 10 million people, the threshold used by the United Nations.

On the winter solstice the Sun is overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn, so the Northern Hemisphere has its shortest day and longest night.

Hot deserts have a large daily range of temperature and very little moisture, so rocks break up physically rather than decay chemically.

Spring tides occur whenever the Sun, the Earth and the Moon lie in a straight line, a position called syzygy, whether the Moon is on the same side as the Sun or the opposite side.

Sentosa is a small resort island just off the southern coast of the main island of Singapore. Sentosa lies across a narrow channel from Singapore's main island and is linked to it by a causeway, a cable car and a monorail.

Indian Standard Time is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, so noon in New Delhi is 6:30 in the morning in London.