Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 16

The correct answer is A, Sedimentary rocks. Only sedimentary rocks preserve fossils, because they are built up layer by layer from sediment that settles in water or on land. When a plant or animal dies and is buried in such a layer, the sediment hardens around it and keeps its shape or its hard parts as a fossil. Sandstone, shale, limestone and coal are sedimentary; the word comes from the Latin sedimentum, meaning settling, and the layers are called strata. Option B is wrong because extrusive igneous rock, such as basalt, cools from lava on the surface at temperatures that destroy any remains. Option D is wrong for the same reason: intrusive igneous rock like granite solidifies from magma deep inside the crust. Option C is wrong because metamorphic rocks are old rocks reshaped by great heat and pressure, which erases the fossils they once held. Exam tip: fossils are found only in sedimentary rocks, which is why coal seams carry plant imprints.

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 A, Loo. The loo is a hot, dry wind that blows over the plains of north India and Pakistan in May and June, often pushing afternoon temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius and causing heat strokes. Winds are grouped as planetary, which blow across the globe all year, seasonal, which reverse with the seasons, and local, which affect a small area for a short period because of local heating and pressure differences. Other local winds worth remembering are the chinook of North America, the foehn of the Alps, the mistral of France and the sirocco of the Mediterranean. Option B is wrong because the westerlies are planetary winds blowing from the subtropical high towards the subpolar low. Option D is wrong because the easterlies, or trade winds, are also planetary winds moving towards the equator. Option C is wrong because the monsoon is a seasonal wind that reverses direction between summer and winter. Exam tip: loo, chinook, foehn, mistral and sirocco are the standard local winds.

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 A, the north-east monsoon. As the monsoon retreats in October and November the wind direction reverses and air moves from the land towards the sea. Crossing the Bay of Bengal it picks up moisture and strikes the Coromandel coast, giving Tamil Nadu and coastal Andhra Pradesh their main rainy season. This is why Tamil Nadu is the one large part of India whose farming calendar depends on winter rather than summer rain.

Option B, local air circulation, produces land and sea breezes that are too small to give a season of rain. Option C, temperate cyclones, are the western disturbances, and they bring winter rain to the north-west of India, not to the far south. Option D, the south-west monsoon, leaves Tamil Nadu dry because the state lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats during those months.

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 C, the Agulhas current. It is a warm current of the Indian Ocean that flows southward along the eastern coast of southern Africa, carrying tropical water towards the Cape before most of it turns back into the Indian Ocean. Along with the Mozambique and West Australian currents it makes up the southern Indian Ocean gyre.

Option A, the Florida current, belongs to the Atlantic; it carries water out of the Gulf of Mexico past Florida and feeds the Gulf Stream. Option B, the Canary current, is also Atlantic, a cold current flowing south along the north-western coast of Africa past the Canary Islands. Option D, the Kurile or Oyashio current, is a cold current of the northern Pacific that flows south past the Kurile Islands towards Japan, where it meets the warm Kuroshio.

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 D, Wang Chhu River. The Wang Chhu flows through western Bhutan and joins the Brahmaputra system in India.

The Wang Chhu rises in the Himalayas of Tibet, passes Thimphu and Paro in Bhutan, and enters West Bengal, where it is known as the Raidak. It then flows through Assam and meets the Brahmaputra. Several other Brahmaputra tributaries also come down from Bhutan, among them the Manas, the Sankosh and the Torsa, while the Subansiri, Dibang and Lohit join it in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

A is wrong: the Ayeyarwady, or Irrawaddy, is the main river of Myanmar and drains into the Andaman Sea. B is wrong: the Sittaung is also a river of Myanmar. C is wrong: the Chindwin is the largest tributary of the Ayeyarwady in Myanmar.

Exam tip: Brahmaputra tributaries from Bhutan - Wang Chhu (Raidak), Manas, Sankosh, Torsa; the Ayeyarwady, Sittaung and Chindwin belong to Myanmar.

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 B, Pulicat. Pulicat Lake lies across the boundary of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, with the larger share in Andhra Pradesh, and is the second largest brackish-water lagoon in India after Chilika. A long barrier island, Sriharikota, separates it from the Bay of Bengal, and that island holds the Satish Dhawan Space Centre from which ISRO launches its rockets. The lagoon is fed by the Arani, Kalangi and Swarnamukhi rivers and the Pulicat Bird Sanctuary on its shores draws flamingoes and pelicans. Option A is wrong because Dal is a freshwater lake in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. Option C is wrong because Loktak, with its floating phumdis and the Keibul Lamjao National Park, is in Manipur. Option D is wrong because Sambhar, India's largest inland salt lake, lies in Rajasthan. Exam tip: Chilika in Odisha is India's largest brackish lagoon and Pulicat the second, with Sriharikota on it.

The correct answer is A, Two. Because of the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, together with the centrifugal effect of the earth's rotation, most coasts see the sea rise and fall twice in a day. The moon's pull raises a bulge of water on the side of the earth facing it and another on the opposite side, and as the earth turns a place passes through both bulges in about twenty-four hours. These are called semi-diurnal tides, and successive high tides come about twelve hours and twenty-five minutes apart. Option B is wrong because no shore gets three tidal cycles in a day. Option C is wrong because four counts the individual tides — two high and two low — while the rise-and-fall cycle itself happens twice. Option D is wrong because a single daily high and low, called a diurnal tide, occurs only on a few coasts such as parts of the Gulf of Mexico. Exam tip: spring tides come at full moon and new moon when sun and moon pull in line, and neap tides at the quarters.

The correct answer is C, Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest. Tropical dry deciduous forest covers the largest share of India's forest area. It grows in the wide belt that gets roughly 70 to 100 cm of rain a year — much of the peninsular plateau, central India, the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats and parts of the plains — and its trees, teak, sal, sandalwood, bamboo, khair and axlewood, shed their leaves in the dry months to save water. These forests are the most used for timber and were the most cleared for cultivation. Option A, tropical dry evergreen forest, is confined to a narrow strip along the Coromandel coast of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Option B, tropical semi evergreen forest, lies on the wetter margins of the Western Ghats, in the north east and in the Andamans. Option D, Himalayan moist temperate forest, is a mountain type between about 1,500 and 3,000 metres, with oak, deodar and pine. Exam tip: rainfall decides the type — above 200 cm evergreen, 100 to 200 cm moist deciduous, 70 to 100 cm dry deciduous.

The correct answer is B, fissure volcanic rock. Black cotton soil, or regur, formed from the weathering of the Deccan Trap basalt, lava that poured out through long cracks in the crust about 65 million years ago. This fissure eruption spread layer after layer of basalt over Maharashtra, western Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and parts of Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and the soil is found mainly on this plateau. It is rich in iron, lime, magnesium and potash but poor in nitrogen, phosphorus and organic matter, and its dark colour comes from titaniferous magnetite and humus. It holds moisture well, swells when wet and cracks deeply when dry, so it is said to 'plough itself', and it suits cotton. Option A is wrong because brown forest soil is itself a soil type, not the parent rock of regur. Option C is wrong because granite and schist weather mainly into red soils. Option D is wrong because shale and limestone are sedimentary rocks, not the source of the Deccan soils. Exam tip: regur means Deccan basalt, cotton and self-ploughing cracks.

The correct answer is B, Cotton. Cotton is a kharif crop: it is sown with the first showers of the south-west monsoon in June and July and picked from September onwards, because it needs high temperature, light rain and a long frost-free spell. Kharif crops are the monsoon crops and include rice, maize, jowar, bajra, ragi, arhar, moong, urad, groundnut, soybean and jute; the word kharif comes from the Arabic for autumn. Gujarat, Maharashtra and Telangana are the leading cotton states, and cotton grows best on the black regur soil of the Deccan. Options A and C are wrong because gram and pea are rabi pulses, sown from October to December and harvested in March and April. Option D is wrong because wheat is the main rabi cereal, which needs a cool growing season and warm ripening weather. Exam tip: cotton, rice and jute are kharif; wheat, gram, pea and mustard are rabi.

The correct answer is D, Titanium. Ilmenite (FeTiO3) and rutile (TiO2) are the main ores of titanium, and India has large deposits of them in its beach sands. These heavy mineral sands occur mainly along the coasts of Kerala (Chavara), Tamil Nadu (Manavalakurichi) and Odisha (Chhatrapur), often together with monazite, zircon and garnet. Titanium is light, strong and does not rust, so it is used in aircraft, spacecraft and medical implants, while titanium dioxide is the white pigment in paints, paper and toothpaste. Option A is wrong because aluminium comes from bauxite, found mainly in Odisha and Jharkhand. Option B is wrong because copper comes from ores like chalcopyrite, mined at Khetri in Rajasthan and Malanjkhand in Madhya Pradesh. Option C is wrong because iron is taken from haematite and magnetite; ilmenite does contain iron, but it is mined for its titanium. Exam tip: ilmenite and rutile give titanium, monazite gives thorium and rare earths, and all three come from the black sands of the south-west and east coasts.

The correct answer is A, Tamil Nadu. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Station stands on the coast of the Gulf of Mannar in the Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. It was built with Russian help and is run by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India. Its reactors are of the VVER type and carry 1,000 megawatts each, the largest single units in the country, which makes Kudankulam India's biggest nuclear station by capacity; the first unit reached criticality in 2013 and the second in 2016, and further units are being added. Tamil Nadu also has the Madras Atomic Power Station at Kalpakkam. Option B is wrong because the nuclear station of Rajasthan is Rawatbhata, on the Chambal in Chittorgarh district. Option C is wrong because Karnataka has the Kaiga station in Uttara Kannada. Option D is wrong because Gujarat has Kakrapar, near Tapi. Exam tip: Tarapur in Maharashtra was India's first nuclear power station and Kudankulam is the largest.

The correct answer is C, A is true, but R is false. Iron and steel is indeed a heavy industry, but not because of light raw materials.

Industries are classified by the weight of the material they handle. A heavy industry uses bulky, heavy raw materials and turns out bulky products, so iron and steel, which consumes iron ore, coking coal, limestone, dolomite and manganese by the tonne, is the classic example. A light industry uses light raw materials and gives light finished goods, and it is here that cotton, rubber, silk and electronics belong. That is why the reason given is false: cotton and rubber are never the inputs of an iron and steel plant.

A is wrong as a choice because the reason is false. B is wrong for the same reason. D is wrong because the assertion about iron and steel being a heavy industry is perfectly true.

Exam tip: Heavy industry - iron and steel, cement, shipbuilding; light industry - cotton textiles, electronics, rubber goods.

The correct answer is C, Pisciculture. The Blue Revolution means the rapid rise in fish production, so it belongs to pisciculture, the rearing of fish. In India it began with the Fish Farmers Development Agency set up in the early 1970s, and Dr Hiralal Chaudhuri, who worked out induced breeding in carp, is called its father. The effort continued through the Neel Kranti Mission and then the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, and India today is among the largest fish producers in the world, with inland fisheries giving most of the catch. Option A is wrong because floriculture, the growing of flowers, comes under the Golden Revolution in horticulture. Option B is wrong because sericulture is the rearing of silkworms for silk. Option D is wrong because horticulture, the growing of fruit and vegetables, is linked to the Golden Revolution. Exam tip: Blue for fish, White for milk, Yellow for oilseeds, Green for food grains.

The correct answer is B, North and Northwestern. The Loo is the hot, dry wind of the northern and north-western plains of India.

The Loo blows from the west and north-west during the day in May and June, when the land heats up and a low pressure trough forms over north-west India. Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar feel it most, and it often pushes the afternoon temperature past 45°C and causes heat stroke. It dies down at night and disappears once the monsoon arrives.

A is wrong: the west and south-west coast is cooled by sea breezes and the pre-monsoon Mango showers. C is wrong: the east and north-east get Kaal Baisakhi thunderstorms and Bardoli Chheerha instead. D is wrong: the south and south-west are peninsular and coastal, where the sea keeps temperatures even.

Exam tip: Loo - hot summer wind of north India; Kaal Baisakhi - Bengal; Mango showers - Kerala and Karnataka.