Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 14

The correct answer is D, Jupiter. The four inner or terrestrial planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Jupiter lies beyond the asteroid belt and is the first of the outer planets. Inner planets are small, rocky and dense and have few or no moons. The outer planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - are gas or ice giants, far bigger, much less dense, ringed and rich in moons. Jupiter is the largest planet of the solar system and takes about twelve years to go once round the Sun. Option A is wrong because Mars, the red planet, is the fourth planet and the outermost of the inner group. Option B is wrong because Venus is the second planet and the hottest one. Option C is wrong because Mercury is the planet nearest the Sun and the smallest of all. Exam tip: the asteroid belt separates the four rocky inner planets from the four giant outer planets.

The correct answer is C, Mexico. Milpa is the name given to shifting cultivation in Mexico and in the neighbouring parts of Central America, where maize, beans and squash are grown together on a patch cleared from the forest. In shifting cultivation a plot is cleared by cutting and burning the trees, cropped for two or three years until the ash-fed soil loses its fertility, and then left fallow while the farmer moves to a fresh patch. Because the same practice grew up in forest belts across the world, it carries a different local name in each region. A is wrong because in India it is called jhum in the north-east, podu in Andhra Pradesh and bewar or dahiya in Madhya Pradesh. B is wrong because in Malaysia and Indonesia it is known as ladang. D is wrong because in Brazil it is called roca or coivara. Exam tip: milpa in Mexico, ladang in Malaysia, roca in Brazil, chena in Sri Lanka and jhum in north-east India.

The correct answer is B, Sandstone. Sandstone is a sedimentary rock: grains of sand carried by rivers or wind settle in layers and harden over time. Metamorphic rocks are different, being older rocks changed in place by great heat and pressure inside the crust, which is why they are harder and often banded. Option A is wrong because marble is limestone that has been metamorphosed. Option C is wrong because quartzite is the metamorphic form of sandstone itself. Option D is wrong because slate is metamorphosed shale and splits into thin sheets. Rocks fall into three families: igneous, formed from cooling magma or lava, sedimentary, formed from deposits, and metamorphic, formed by change. They pass from one family to another through the rock cycle, so sandstone can turn into quartzite, and any rock that melts and cools again becomes igneous. Exam tip: limestone becomes marble, sandstone becomes quartzite, shale becomes slate and coal becomes graphite.

The correct answer is C, Hiralal Chaudhuri. Hiralal Chaudhuri is called the father of the Blue Revolution, the sharp rise in India's fish production. Working as a fishery scientist, he achieved induced breeding of carp by hormone injection in 1957, a method that freed fish farmers from depending on wild seed collected from rivers and allowed hatcheries to supply fingerlings in large numbers. Aquaculture grew from there, and India is today among the largest fish producers in the world. Option A is wrong because Verghese Kurien led the White Revolution in milk, building the Amul model and Operation Flood. Option B is wrong because Sam Pitroda is linked with the telecom revolution and the spread of public call offices. Option D is wrong because M.S. Swaminathan is the father of the Green Revolution in wheat and rice. Exam tip: learn the colour revolutions together, Green for food grains, White for milk, Blue for fish, Yellow for oilseeds, Pink for prawns and Golden for horticulture.

The correct answer is C, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Barren Island lies in the Andaman Sea, to the east of the main Andaman group, and is the only active volcano in India and in South Asia. It sits on the belt where the Indian plate is being pushed under the Burma plate, the same subduction zone that produced the great undersea earthquake of December 2004.

Option A, Lakshadweep, is a chain of coral atolls built on submerged volcanic foundations of the geological past, with no active vent today. Option B, the Gulf of Kutch, lies in a highly earthquake-prone region of Gujarat that falls in seismic Zone V, but it has no volcano. Option D, the Sundarbans, is a deltaic and mangrove region formed by the Ganga and Brahmaputra and is entirely sedimentary. Note also that Narcondam, close to Barren Island, is classed as dormant, and it is the usual distractor in this question.

The correct answer is A, Zanskar Range. Zoji La, or the Zojila pass, lies in the Zanskar range of the Himalayas at a height of about 3,528 metres. It is on the Srinagar to Leh highway between Sonamarg in the Kashmir valley and Drass in the Kargil district, and it is the gateway to Ladakh. Heavy snow closes it in winter, which is why the Zojila tunnel is being built to keep the route open through the year and give the armed forces year-round access to Ladakh. Option B is wrong because the Ladakh range holds the Khardung La and Chang La passes. Option C is wrong because the eastern Karakoram range holds the Karakoram pass and Saser La on the old trade route to Central Asia. Option D is wrong because the Dhauladhar range runs through Himachal Pradesh above Dharamshala and Kangra. Exam tip: Zoji La in the Zanskar range for Kashmir to Ladakh, Khardung La in the Ladakh range beyond Leh.

The correct answer is B, nitrogen, which makes up about 78 per cent of dry air by volume. It is comparatively inert, so it dilutes oxygen and slows combustion, and it enters living things mainly through the nitrogen cycle in which bacteria fix it in a usable form.

Option A, oxygen, is second with about 21 per cent; it is essential for respiration and combustion, but a candidate who answers from importance rather than from quantity gets the question wrong. Option C, argon, is the most abundant of the inert gases in air at a little under one per cent. Option D, carbon dioxide, is only about four hundredths of one per cent, yet it matters out of all proportion to its quantity because it absorbs outgoing heat and drives the greenhouse effect, and its share is rising.

The correct answer is A, Dang. Dang is not a South Indian tribe. The name belongs to the Dangs district of southern Gujarat, whose tribal people are mainly Bhil, Warli and Konkana, all of western India. The other three are communities of the Nilgiri hills, where Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka meet. The Toda are pastoralists known for their barrel-shaped huts and their buffalo-centred rituals. The Badaga are farmers of the Nilgiri plateau who speak a tongue close to Kannada. The Irula, a Scheduled Tribe of Tamil Nadu, are known for snake catching and for collecting forest produce. Option B is wrong because the Toda are the best known tribe of the Nilgiris. Option C is wrong because the Badaga live on the same plateau, around Udhagamandalam. Option D is wrong because the Irula are spread across Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Exam tip: remember Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Badaga and Irula as the five main Nilgiri tribes, and place Bhil, Warli and the Dangs in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The correct answer is A, Seismograph. A seismograph carries a mass that stays nearly still while the ground and the frame move under it, and the relative motion is traced as a wavy line. The trace itself is called a seismogram, and the gap between the arrival of the P wave and the S wave on it is used to work out how far the station lies from the epicentre. Readings from three or more stations fix the epicentre.

Option B, a barograph, is a self-recording aneroid barometer that draws a continuous graph of atmospheric pressure. Option C, a hygrometer, measures the humidity of the air, the wet and dry bulb type being the common one. Option D, an altimeter, is an aneroid barometer graduated to show height above sea level and is used in aircraft and by mountaineers. Instrument-and-use questions are asked directly, so learn the four together rather than one at a time.

The correct answer is D, Sikkim. Sikkim does not touch Myanmar. Its neighbours across the border are Nepal to the west, China in the north and east, and Bhutan to the south-east. Only four Indian states share the border with Myanmar - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram - and that border runs for about 1,643 km. Option A is wrong because Arunachal Pradesh meets Myanmar along its south-eastern edge. Option B is wrong because Mizoram has a long stretch of the Myanmar border besides its border with Bangladesh. Option C is wrong because Manipur meets Myanmar on the east, and Moreh in Manipur is the main trading town on that border. Sikkim is India's least populated state and shares borders with three countries, but Myanmar is not one of them. Exam tip: remember the Myanmar border states as A-N-M-M - Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram.

The correct answer is A, the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The wind is the Chinook. It descends the leeward slope, is compressed and warmed as it sinks, and can raise the temperature sharply in a few hours; it melts or evaporates the snow cover, which is why herders call it the snow eater and why it is valued for exposing the grass for cattle.

Option B is the home of the Foehn, a wind of exactly the same type and origin, but the name asked for here is the Chinook, and mixing the two is the standard trap. Option C is where the Zonda blows down from the Andes. Option D is the source region of the Sirocco, a hot and dusty wind that crosses the Mediterranean from the Sahara, which is not a descending mountain wind of this kind.

The correct answer is D, Tide. A tide is the regular rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and, to a smaller extent, the Sun, together with the centrifugal force of the spinning earth. Most coasts get two high tides and two low tides in about 24 hours and 52 minutes. When the Sun, Moon and Earth line up at new moon and full moon, the pulls add up and give the high spring tides; when the Sun and Moon are at right angles in the first and third quarters, the pulls work against each other and give the low neap tides. Tides help ships enter ports and are used for tidal power. Option A is wrong because waves are made by wind blowing over the surface. Option B is wrong because a tsunami is a single train of huge waves set off by an undersea earthquake or landslide. Option C is wrong because currents are steady horizontal flows of water such as the Gulf Stream. Exam tip: spring tides at full and new moon, neap tides in the quarters.

The correct answer is B, Italy. Mount Vesuvius stands near the Bay of Naples in southern Italy and its eruption in 79 CE buried the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum under ash, preserving them so well that they became an archaeological record of Roman daily life. It is a composite or strato volcano built of alternating layers of ash and lava.

Option A, Greece, has volcanic islands such as Santorini in the Aegean, whose ancient eruption is linked with the end of the Minoan civilisation, but not Vesuvius. Option C, Turkey, lies on the Alpine earthquake belt and has extinct volcanic peaks such as Mount Ararat, again not Vesuvius. Option D, Spain, has volcanic activity only in the Canary Islands off Africa. Italy is worth remembering as a cluster: Vesuvius near Naples, Etna in Sicily, and Stromboli in the Lipari Islands.

The correct answer is A, A-ii, B-iii, C-iv, D-i. The Gobi is a cold desert of Asia spread over Mongolia and northern China, and it is famous for its dinosaur fossils. Patagonia lies in southern Argentina in South America; it is a rain-shadow desert, dry because the Andes block the moist westerly winds coming from the Pacific. The Great Victoria Desert is the largest desert of Australia, stretching across Western Australia and South Australia. The Kalahari covers most of Botswana and parts of Namibia and South Africa, in southern Africa. Paper setters like Patagonia because it lies on the eastern side of its continent, while most hot deserts lie on the western margins, next to cold ocean currents. Option B is wrong because it puts the Gobi in Australia and Patagonia in Asia. Option C is wrong because it places Patagonia in southern Africa and the Victoria Desert in South America. Option D is wrong because it gives every desert the wrong continent. Exam tip: Gobi–Asia, Patagonia–South America, Great Victoria–Australia, Kalahari–southern Africa.

The correct answer is A, the Loo. It is a strong, hot and dry wind that blows during the day over the plains of north India and Pakistan in the peak of summer, raising temperatures sharply and causing heat stroke, and it dies down after sunset. It is a local wind of the hot weather season, and the arrival of the monsoon ends it.

Option B, the Foehn, is a warm dry wind of the Alps caused by air descending a mountain slope. Option C, the Mistral, is a cold and dry wind that blows down the Rhone valley of France towards the Mediterranean. Option D, the Bora, is another cold wind, blowing from the north-east over the Adriatic coast. The last two are examples of cold local winds and are used as distractors because students memorise the names without the temperature.

The correct answer is C, 3 1 2 4. The Steppes are the temperate grasslands of Eurasia, stretching across Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan; the Prairies cover the central plains of the United States and Canada; the Velds are the grassy plateaus of South Africa; and the Downs are the grasslands of south-eastern Australia, famous for sheep rearing and merino wool. All four are temperate grasslands in the interior of continents, where light rainfall, hot summers and cold winters keep trees few and let grass dominate. The Pampas of Argentina and the Canterbury plains of New Zealand belong to the same family, while the Llanos and Campos of South America are tropical grasslands. Option A is wrong because it places the Steppes in South Africa. Option B is wrong because it puts the Steppes in the USA and the Prairies in Australia. Option D is wrong because it sends the Steppes to Australia and the Downs to the USA. Exam tip: Steppes–Russia, Prairies–USA, Velds–South Africa, Downs–Australia, Pampas–Argentina.

The correct answer is C, Stromboli. Stromboli is a small island volcano in the Lipari or Aeolian group north of Sicily, and it has been in almost continuous mild eruption for centuries. The glow of its frequent bursts of incandescent material can be seen at night far out to sea, which earned it the name Lighthouse of the Mediterranean.

Option A, Mount Etna, also in Italy on the island of Sicily, is the tallest active volcano in Europe and erupts often, but the lighthouse epithet belongs to Stromboli. Option B, Krakatoa, lies in the Sunda Strait of Indonesia between Java and Sumatra, far from the Mediterranean, and is remembered for its catastrophic eruption of 1883. Option D, Mount Fuji or Fujiyama, is the composite cone of Japan and the standard textbook example of that type. This nickname is a favourite one-line question, so tie it to Stromboli alone.

The correct answer is A, Ferrel's law. It states the deflection produced by the rotation of the earth, the Coriolis effect, which turns every freely moving body to the right of its path in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern. The deflection is zero at the equator and increases towards the poles, which is why cyclones do not form very close to the equator.

Option B, Buys Ballot's law, is related but different: it says that if you stand with your back to the wind in the northern hemisphere, low pressure lies to your left and high pressure to your right. Option C is not a law of this kind; Hadley is remembered instead for the Hadley cell of tropical circulation. Option D, Charles's law, belongs to physics and relates the volume of a gas to its temperature at constant pressure.

The correct answer is B, Primary waves. P waves are longitudinal, moving the particles of the medium back and forth along the direction of travel by compression and rarefaction. They are the fastest of all seismic waves and therefore always reach a station first and appear first on the seismogram, which is exactly why they are named primary.

Option A, secondary or S waves, are transverse and travel more slowly, so they arrive after the P waves; the time gap between the two arrivals is used to calculate the distance to the epicentre. Options C and D, surface waves, which include Love and Rayleigh waves, are generated when body waves reach the surface; they are the slowest of all and arrive last, yet they cause the heaviest damage because of their long rolling motion along the ground. The order of arrival to remember is P, then S, then surface waves.

The correct answer is A, the Mistral. It is a cold, dry and often violent wind that blows from the north down the Rhone valley of southern France to the Gulf of Lion, chilling the coast and damaging crops, which is why orchards there are protected by lines of trees and walls.

Option B, the Sirocco, is hot and dusty and blows from the Sahara northwards across the Mediterranean, arriving in Italy as a sultry, dust laden wind. Option C, the Harmattan, is a dry wind that blows from the Sahara over West Africa and is welcomed there as the doctor because it brings relief from damp heat. Option D, the Khamsin, is a hot southerly wind of Egypt. Only the Mistral in this list is a cold wind, and the region named in the question settles it.