Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 2

The correct answer is A, 8 minutes 20 seconds. The Sun is about 149.6 million kilometres from the Earth, a distance called one astronomical unit, and light travels about three lakh kilometres in a second. Dividing one by the other gives roughly 500 seconds, that is eight minutes and twenty seconds, so we always see the Sun as it was a little over eight minutes ago.

Option B, 1.3 seconds, is the time moonlight takes to reach us from a distance of about 384,400 kilometres, and examiners often place the two figures in the same question. Option C, 4.2 years, is the time light takes from Proxima Centauri, the nearest star after the Sun. Option D, 24 hours, is the time the Earth takes for one rotation on its axis and has nothing to do with the travel of light.

The correct answer is B, Venus. Venus is wrapped in a very thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide, which lets sunlight in but does not let the heat escape. This runaway greenhouse effect keeps its surface hotter than that of any other planet, even at night and even on the side turned away from the Sun.

Option A, Mercury, is nearer the Sun and is therefore the usual wrong choice, but it has almost no atmosphere to hold heat, so its nights are bitterly cold. Option C, Mars, is farther away, has a thin atmosphere and is a cold desert planet. Option D, Jupiter, is a gas giant far beyond the asteroid belt and is colder still at its cloud tops. Remember Venus for three records at once: hottest planet, brightest planet in our sky, and the twin of the Earth in size.

The correct answer is B, 2 and 6. The Tropic of Cancer crosses eight Indian states, and only two of them touch the sea. Running at about 23.5 degrees north, it passes from west to east through Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Gujarat and West Bengal have coastlines, while the other six are landlocked. The line divides India into two nearly equal halves, with the northern part in the temperate zone and the southern part in the tropical zone. A is wrong, because two coastal states, not one, lie on the line, and the total is eight. C is wrong, because 2 and 5 makes only seven states and misses one of the six landlocked ones. D is wrong, because no third coastal state such as Odisha lies on the Tropic; Odisha lies south of it. Exam tip: Tropic of Cancer, eight states from Gujarat to Mizoram; the coastal pair is Gujarat and West Bengal.

The correct answer is B, 1 and 3, that is Bihar and Manipur. The Sun is overhead, with its rays vertical at noon, only at places between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5 degrees N) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees S). The Tropic of Cancer crosses India through eight states: Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura and Mizoram. Any state lying wholly north of this line never gets vertical rays. Bihar stretches roughly from 24.3 to 27.5 degrees N and Manipur from about 23.8 to 25.7 degrees N, so both lie entirely north of the tropic and the Sun is never directly overhead there. A and C are wrong because they include Chhattisgarh, and D is wrong because it includes Rajasthan; the Tropic of Cancer passes through both, so their southern parts do receive vertical rays around 21 June. Exam tip: memorise the eight tropic states, Gujarat, Rajasthan, MP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram; states such as Bihar, UP, Punjab, Manipur and Assam lie north of the line.

The correct answer is B, Geology. Geology is the science of the solid Earth: the rocks it is made of, how it formed and changed over time, and the minerals, coal, oil and gas found inside it. The word comes from the Greek geo (earth) and logos (study). A geologist reads rock layers to date events, studies earthquakes and volcanoes, and maps where iron ore, coal or petroleum lie. In India this work is done by the Geological Survey of India, founded in 1851 at Kolkata, one of the oldest such bodies in the world. A is wrong because geophysics uses physics, such as gravity, magnetism and seismic waves, to probe the Earth's interior; it is a branch within the earth sciences, not the broad study asked here. C is wrong because geography studies the Earth's surface, its climate, people and places, not the rocks and resources beneath. D is wrong because geometry is the mathematics of shapes, lines and angles and has nothing to do with the Earth. Exam tip: geo-logy = rocks and resources, geo-graphy = surface and people, geo-physics = physics of the interior.

The correct answer is D, metamorphic. Quartzite is formed when sandstone, a sedimentary rock, is changed by great heat and pressure deep inside the earth. The quartz grains of the sandstone recrystallise and fuse, so quartzite becomes one of the hardest and most weather-resistant rocks, which is why the ridges of the Aravalli range and the Delhi Ridge, made largely of quartzite, have survived for hundreds of millions of years. Such change of an existing rock without melting is called metamorphism. A is wrong because igneous rocks such as granite and basalt form from cooled magma or lava, not from an older rock under pressure. B is wrong because basalt is itself a specific igneous rock, not a class of rock. C is wrong because sedimentary is the parent type; sandstone is sedimentary, but once transformed it is no longer classed that way. Exam tip: sandstone becomes quartzite, limestone becomes marble, shale becomes slate, granite becomes gneiss.

The correct answer is D, (a) and (b). Mount Kilimanjaro and Fujiyama were both built up by volcanic eruptions, while the Alps were formed by folding. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is the highest mountain in Africa, and Fujiyama, or Mount Fuji, is the highest mountain in Japan. Both are cone-shaped mountains made of layers of lava and ash piled up over many eruptions. The Alps in Europe are young fold mountains, raised when the African plate pushed against the Eurasian plate and the rock layers crumpled, much like the Himalayas. A is wrong because it includes the Alps, which are fold mountains. B is wrong for the same reason, even though Fujiyama is volcanic. C is wrong because the Alps alone are not volcanic, and this option leaves out both of the real volcanic mountains. Exam tip: volcanic, Kilimanjaro and Fujiyama; fold, Himalayas, Alps and Andes; block, the Vosges and the Black Forest along the Rhine valley.

The correct answer is D, 1, 2 and 3. All three statements are true. Statement 1: the size of an eruption is rated on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, a scale from 0 to 8 based on the volume of material thrown out and the height of the eruption column; each step up means roughly ten times more material. Statement 2: Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where two plates move apart, and the Philippines lies on the Pacific Ring of Fire, so both were built by volcanic activity. Statement 3: volcanic ash and lava weather into deep, mineral-rich soils, which is why Java in Indonesia supports dense farming and the Deccan's black soil, formed from basalt lava, grows cotton so well. A is wrong, because it leaves out statement 3, which is true. B is wrong, because it drops statement 1, and the index is the standard measure. C is wrong, because it drops statement 2, though both Iceland and the Philippines are volcanic. Exam tip: VEI runs from 0 to 8; Iceland sits on a ridge, the Philippines on the Ring of Fire; basalt gives black soil.

The correct answer is C, At the North Pole. The Coriolis force is the apparent force caused by the rotation of the Earth that deflects moving air and water to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. Its size is proportional to the sine of the latitude, so it is zero at the equator, where the sine of 0 degrees is zero, and greatest at the poles, where the sine of 90 degrees is one. This is why tropical cyclones cannot form within about 5 degrees of the equator, and why winds around a low-pressure system circle anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern. It was described by the French scientist Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis in 1835. A, At the Equator, the effect is zero, not largest. B, At the tropics, at 23.5 degrees, the effect is small. D, At 45 degrees latitude, the effect is only about 71 percent of its value at the poles. Exam tip: the Coriolis force is zero at the equator and maximum at the poles, and it grows with the speed of the moving body.

The correct answer is A, precipitation. Precipitation is any form of water, liquid or solid, that falls from clouds to the ground. When the temperature is above freezing it falls as rain or drizzle; below freezing, water vapour turns directly into ice crystals that fall as snow. Sleet is rain that freezes into small ice pellets while falling through a cold layer of air, and hail is made of hard ice balls built up layer by layer inside towering cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms. All three are therefore solid forms of precipitation. B, Condensation, is the change of water vapour into tiny droplets or ice crystals, which forms clouds, dew, frost and fog, but these do not fall from clouds. C, Transpiration, is the loss of water vapour from the leaves of plants. D, Evaporation, is the change of liquid water into vapour, the first step of the water cycle. Exam tip: rain, drizzle, snow, sleet and hail fall, so they are precipitation; dew, frost, fog and mist form on or near the ground, so they are condensation.

The correct answer is B, Wheat. Western disturbances are low-pressure systems that originate over the Mediterranean Sea and travel eastward with the subtropical westerly jet stream in winter, bringing light rain to Punjab, Haryana, western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, and snow to the Himalaya, between December and February. Wheat is the main rabi crop, sown in October and November and harvested in March and April, and it needs cool weather and a little rain during its growing period; this winter rain, called mahawat in north India, is described as gold for wheat because it saves a round of irrigation and improves the grain. A, Rice, is a kharif crop that depends on the heavy rain of the south-west monsoon. C, Bajra, is a kharif millet of the dry areas of Rajasthan and Gujarat, grown on monsoon rain. D, Cotton, is also a kharif crop, sown at the start of the monsoon and picked in autumn. Exam tip: western disturbances bring the winter rain of north-west India, which is good for the rabi crops wheat, barley, gram and mustard.

The correct answer is A, Tamil Nadu. The Arabian Sea branch of the southwest monsoon strikes the Western Ghats first and drops most of its moisture on the windward western slopes, so the land on the eastern, leeward side gets little rain. This dry leeward zone is the rain shadow, and Tamil Nadu lies in it, which is why it receives its main rain later, from the retreating north-east monsoon in October to December. A famous local example is Mumbai getting far more monsoon rain than Pune, which lies just behind the Ghats. B is wrong because Gujarat is on the windward side and gets direct rain from the Arabian Sea branch. C is wrong because Goa lies on the west coast in front of the Ghats and is one of the wettest states. D is wrong because Kerala is where the southwest monsoon first arrives in India, around 1 June, and it gets very heavy rain. Exam tip: the Western Ghats block the Arabian Sea branch; west side wet (Kerala, Goa), east side dry (Tamil Nadu), which is why Tamil Nadu depends on the north-east monsoon.

The correct answer is A, Mizo Hills. The Lushai Hills are the old British name for the hills of present-day Mizoram, home of the Mizo (Lushai) people. The Lushai Hills district of Assam was renamed the Mizo Hills district in 1954, became the Union Territory of Mizoram in 1972 and the 23rd State on 20 February 1987 under the 53rd Amendment. These hills form the southern part of the Purvanchal, the eastern extension of the Himalayas along the Myanmar border, and their highest point is Phawngpui, the Blue Mountain, at 2,157 metres. Option B is wrong because the Patkai Hills lie further north on the Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland border with Myanmar. Option C is wrong because the Khasi Hills are in Meghalaya, with Shillong, Cherrapunji and Mawsynram. Option D is wrong because the Naga Hills are in Nagaland, with Mount Saramati as the highest peak. Exam tip: Purvanchal from north to south runs Patkai, Naga, Manipur and Mizo (Lushai) hills; the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya are a separate plateau block.

The correct answer is B, North Atlantic Ocean. The Sargasso Sea lies in the middle of the North Atlantic and is the only sea in the world with no coastline. Instead of land, it is bounded by four ocean currents that circle clockwise around it: the Gulf Stream on the west, the North Atlantic Current on the north, the Canary Current on the east and the North Atlantic Equatorial Current on the south. Because it sits in the calm centre of this gyre, its water is warm, clear and very salty. It is named after sargassum, a brown seaweed that floats on its surface in huge mats, and it is the breeding ground of the American and European eels. Option A is wrong because the Arctic Ocean lies around the North Pole, far from this sea. Option C is wrong because the Sargasso Sea is north of the equator, not in the South Atlantic. Option D is wrong because the Indian Ocean is on the other side of Africa. Exam tip: Sargasso Sea means North Atlantic, no coastline, walled by currents, named after floating seaweed.

The correct answer is C, Bhabar. When rivers leave the Himalayas and reach the plains, their speed drops suddenly and they drop the heaviest load first, pebbles and boulders, in the Bhabar belt. The Bhabar is a narrow strip about 8 to 16 km wide that runs along the foot of the Shiwaliks from the Indus to the Tista. The ground is so porous that most streams sink underground and seem to disappear here. South of it, the water comes up again and creates the wet, marshy Terai, once covered by thick forests full of wildlife. A is wrong, because Khadar is the newer, fine alluvium of the flood plains, renewed almost every year by floods. B is wrong, because Bhangar is the older alluvium on higher ground above flood level, with lime nodules called kankar. D is wrong, because the Terai lies below the Bhabar and has fine, damp soil where the lost streams re-emerge, not boulders. Exam tip: from the hills down, Bhabar (boulders, streams vanish), Terai (streams return, marshy), then Bhangar old and Khadar new alluvium.

The correct answer is A, Indira point. Indira Point on Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands is the southernmost point of Indian territory, at about 6 degrees 45 minutes north latitude. It was earlier called Pygmalion Point and was renamed after Indira Gandhi in 1985. It lies only about 150 km from Indonesia's Sumatra, and its lighthouse area was partly submerged by the 2004 tsunami. The question asks about the whole territory, which includes the islands, so the mainland tip is not the answer. B is wrong because Kanyakumari is the southernmost point of the Indian mainland, not of the entire territory. D is wrong because Cape Comorin is simply the old English name of Kanyakumari, so it is the same mainland point. C is wrong because Karondi is not a recognised geographical extremity of India. Exam tip: southernmost point of India is Indira Point (Great Nicobar); southernmost point of the mainland is Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin).

The correct answer is B, Mahanadi river. The Malwa plateau lies in western Madhya Pradesh and south-eastern Rajasthan, between the Vindhyas in the south and the Aravallis in the north-west, and is made of Deccan lava with black soil. It slopes to the north, so its rivers, the Chambal, Kali Sindh, Parbati, Betwa and Ken, flow north to join the Yamuna. The Mahanadi has nothing to do with Malwa: it rises near Sihawa in the Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh, flows east through Odisha past the Hirakud dam and falls into the Bay of Bengal. Option A is wrong because the Chambal rises at the Janapav hills near Mhow on the Malwa plateau and carries the Gandhi Sagar dam. Option C is wrong because the Ken rises on the Kaimur hills in Panna and drains the eastern edge of the plateau. Option D is wrong because the Betwa rises near Raisen in the Vindhyas and crosses Malwa and Bundelkhand to meet the Yamuna at Hamirpur. Exam tip: Malwa rivers flow north to the Yamuna (Chambal, Betwa, Ken); the Mahanadi flows east to the Bay of Bengal.

The correct answer is A, Ganga. The Ganga basin is the most populous river basin on earth, home to more than 600 million people across India, Nepal, Bangladesh and a small part of Tibet. In India alone it covers about 8.6 lakh square km, roughly a quarter of the country, across Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Delhi and parts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and it supports about 40 percent of India's population. Fertile alluvial soil, plentiful groundwater and a long farming history explain the dense settlement. B is wrong because the Nile, though the longest river, flows mostly through desert and its basin holds far fewer people. C is wrong because the Mississippi basin lies in the thinly populated interior of the USA. D is wrong because the Amazon has the largest discharge and basin area but its rainforest is among the least populated regions on earth. Exam tip: Ganga is the most populated basin; Amazon is the largest by area and water; Nile is the longest river.

The correct answer is C, Sikkim. Tsomgo Lake, also called Changu Lake, lies in East Sikkim, about 40 km from Gangtok on the road to Nathu La. It is a glacial lake at a height of roughly 3,750 metres; it freezes in winter and is fed by melting snow in summer, which makes it one of Sikkim's best-known tourist spots. In the local language tso means lake, the same word you see in the names of Ladakh's lakes. Nathu La, the pass just beyond it, is a point for border trade with the Tibet region of China. A is wrong, because Ladakh's famous high lakes are Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri, not Tsomgo. B is wrong, because Himachal Pradesh is known for lakes such as Chandratal and Suraj Tal. D is wrong, because Uttarakhand's lakes include Nainital, Bhimtal and the mysterious Roopkund. Exam tip: Tsomgo (Changu) and Gurudongmar are Sikkim lakes; Pangong Tso and Tso Moriri are in Ladakh.

The correct answer is D, Altitude and slope determine the rate of humus formation. Altitude and slope, which together make up relief, decide how much soil collects at a place, not how fast humus forms. Humus is the dark organic matter made when dead leaves and animals rot, and its rate of formation depends on climate and on the living things in the soil: plants, animals and micro-organisms. NCERT lists five factors of soil formation. Parent rock gives the soil its colour, texture and minerals; climate, meaning temperature and rainfall, sets the rate of weathering and humus formation; relief, meaning altitude and slope, controls how much soil accumulates; time decides the thickness of the soil profile; and flora, fauna and microbes affect humus. A is wrong as a choice because temperature and rainfall really do control weathering. B is wrong because time does decide how thick the profile grows. C is wrong because parent rock does fix the colour of soil. Exam tip: relief = accumulation of soil; climate and organisms = humus; parent rock = colour and texture; time = thickness.