Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 25

The correct answer is B, Narmada. The Narmada flows west between the Vindhyan range and the Satpuras along a trough formed by faulting, that is, a rift valley, and it empties into the Gulf of Khambhat through a broad estuary rather than a delta. The Tapi behaves in the same way a little to the south. Because the land falls steeply on the western side and the rivers carry little silt to a submerging coast, estuaries rather than deltas are the rule there. Option A is wrong because the Godavari, the largest peninsular river, flows east across the Deccan and builds a large delta in Andhra Pradesh. Option C is wrong because the Krishna also drains east to the Bay of Bengal and forms a delta next to the Godavari. Option D is wrong because the Mahanadi flows east through Chhattisgarh and Odisha and builds the delta on the Utkal coast.

The correct answer is C, because the Suez Canal has no locks at all. It is a sea level canal: the Mediterranean and the Red Sea stand at almost the same height, so ships sail straight through without being raised or lowered. The canal, about 193 km long, was built under Ferdinand de Lesseps and opened in November 1869 across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt, separating Africa from Asia. Egypt nationalised it in 1956. Options A, B and D all state facts, so none of them is the answer: the canal did open in 1869, it does join the Mediterranean to the Red Sea through the Gulf of Suez, and it did shorten the voyage from Europe to India by thousands of kilometres, ending the long route round the Cape of Good Hope. Exam tip: Suez is a lock free canal; the Panama Canal is the one with locks, because Gatun Lake lies well above sea level.

The correct answer is C, Krishna. The Musi rises in the Anantagiri hills of Telangana, flows through Hyderabad, and joins the Krishna in Nalgonda district, which is why the city's water supply and floods are tied to it. Option A is wrong because the main tributaries of the Kaveri are the Hemavati, the Kabini, the Bhavani, the Noyyal and the Amaravati. Option B is wrong because the Godavari receives the Indravati, the Manjra, the Purna, the Pranhita and the Wainganga, not the Musi. Option D is wrong because the Mahanadi, which rises in the highlands of Chhattisgarh and carries the Hirakud dam, is joined by the Seonath, the Hasdeo, the Jonk and the Tel. The Krishna's other tributaries are the Bhima, the Tungabhadra and the Ghatprabha, and the pair Hyderabad, Musi and Krishna is the quickest way to hold this fact.

The correct answer is C, Europe. The Orient Express ran from Paris in France to Istanbul in Turkey, crossing Strasbourg, Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade and Sofia, so almost the whole of its roughly 3,000 km line lay inside Europe. Only the last stretch at Istanbul touches the edge of Asia, which is why the route is counted as a European trans-continental railway. It began in 1883 and carried cheese, wine, silk and passengers across the continent, and school geography lists it beside the Trans-Siberian, the Canadian Pacific and the Australian Trans-Continental lines. Option A is wrong because the long Asian trans-continental line is the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Vladivostok. Option B is wrong because the Canadian Pacific and the Union Pacific are the North American lines. Option D is wrong because South America's famous route is the Trans-Andean line linking Buenos Aires with Valparaiso. Exam tip: Orient Express Paris–Istanbul, Europe; Trans-Siberian Moscow–Vladivostok, the longest in the world.

The correct answer is D, placer deposits. Minerals that are washed out of their parent rock and settle in the sand and gravel of a river bed, flood plain or valley floor are called placer deposits. Running water carries the lighter material away and drops the heavy, non-corrodible grains, so placers are rich in gold, platinum, tin and tungsten. Panning for gold in the sands of the Subarnarekha river, and the monazite-bearing beach sands of Kerala, are Indian examples. Option A is wrong because manganese nodules are potato-sized lumps lying on the deep ocean floor, not in valleys. Option B is wrong because a bulk deposit only means ore mined in large tonnages and says nothing about how it formed. Option C is wrong because vein deposits are minerals that fill cracks and fissures inside solid rock, which is exactly the source a placer is eroded from. Exam tip: placer = heavy minerals in river or beach sand; veins = cracks in rock; nodules = ocean floor.

The correct answer is C, 1 and 2 only. Statement 3 is wrong because the Kaleshwaram project is built on the Godavari, not the Krishna. The scheme takes its name from Kaleshwaram in Telangana, near the point where the Pranhita joins the Godavari, and it was inaugurated in June 2019, which makes statement 1 correct. It is described as the world's largest multi-stage, multi-purpose lift irrigation project, so statement 2 is correct: water is raised through a long chain of pump houses, barrages, tunnels, canals and reservoirs to fields that lie far above the river, and it is meant to serve lakhs of hectares in north Telangana as well as drinking water and industry. Option A is wrong and option D is wrong because both accept statement 3 and its Krishna River claim. Option B is wrong because it leaves out the correct statement 2. Exam tip: Kaleshwaram is on the Godavari in Telangana, while Polavaram is on the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.

The correct answer is B, Chilika Lake. Chilika lies on the Utkal coast of Odisha, separated from the Bay of Bengal by a long sandbar, and it is the largest brackish-water lagoon in India, famous for its migratory birds and for its population of Irrawaddy dolphins. Option A is wrong because Vembanad in Kerala is the longest lake of India and the largest of the Malabar backwaters or kayals, but it lies on the western coast and is not the largest brackish lagoon. Option C is wrong because Pulicat, on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, is a brackish lagoon too but smaller than Chilika; the barrier island that shelters it carries the Sriharikota launch range. Option D is wrong because Kolleru is a freshwater lake lying between the deltas of the Godavari and the Krishna. All four are Ramsar wetlands, which is why they are set against each other.

The correct answer is D, a-iii, b-iv, c-ii, d-i. Coniferous forests grow in the cold northern belt of Asia, Europe and North America and are made of softwood evergreen trees such as pine, fir and spruce, whose light wood is used for paper and furniture. Mediterranean vegetation belongs to the west and south-west margins of the continents, where winters are wet and summers dry, and it is known for citrus fruits, olives and grapes. Tropical evergreen forests of the hot wet equatorial belt carry heavy hardwood trees such as mahogany, ebony and rosewood. Temperate evergreen forests lie on the eastern margins of the continents, where rain falls through the year. A, B and C are wrong because each misplaces at least two pairs, usually by tying coniferous forests to a continental margin instead of to softwood. Exam tip: conifer means softwood, Mediterranean means western margin, equatorial means hardwood.

The correct answer is B, Godavari. The Godavari is about 1,465 kilometres long, rises at Trimbakeshwar near Nashik in Maharashtra, crosses Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh and falls into the Bay of Bengal, all within India, which makes it the longest river flowing wholly inside the country. It is also the longest peninsular river and is called the Dakshin Ganga. Option A is wrong because the Ganga, at about 2,525 kilometres, is the longest river of India but does not stay inside it; it continues into Bangladesh as the Padma. Option C is wrong because the Narmada, about 1,312 kilometres, is shorter and flows west into the Gulf of Khambhat. Option D is wrong because the Krishna, about 1,400 kilometres, is also shorter than the Godavari. The trap in this question is the word entirely, so read the stem to the end.

The correct answer is A, Rill erosion. Water erosion of soil moves through a fixed sequence: raindrops first loosen the soil, that is splash erosion; the water then takes off a thin even layer of topsoil, which is sheet erosion; the flow soon gathers into small finger-like channels called rills; and when those rills are cut deeper and wider by running water until a plough can no longer cross them, they become gullies. So a gully is a grown up rill, the advanced stage of rill erosion. The ravines along the Chambal in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are the classic Indian example of badlands made by gully erosion. B is wrong because splash erosion is the first step, the impact of raindrops. C is wrong because sheet erosion comes before rills and removes soil in a uniform layer. D is wrong because wind erosion is a separate agent that lifts dry loose soil, not the parent of a gully. Exam tip: splash, then sheet, then rill, then gully.

The correct answer is B, basalt of the Deccan Trap. Towards the end of the Cretaceous period, fissure eruptions poured out sheet after sheet of lava over western and central India; the hardened lava is basalt and the stepped landscape it makes is called the Deccan Trap. Weathering of that basalt produces the deep black clayey soil known as regur, which holds moisture, swells when wet and cracks when dry, and suits cotton, which is why it is also called black cotton soil. Option A is wrong because granite weathers into red and lateritic soils rather than black clay. Option C is wrong because sandstone yields light sandy soils poor in clay. Option D is wrong because limestone country gives thin calcareous soils and karst features. Link the chain in memory: fissure eruption, basalt, Deccan Trap, regur, cotton.

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 C, Trimbakeshwar near Nashik. The Godavari rises in the Western Ghats at Trimbakeshwar in the Nashik district of Maharashtra and flows east across the peninsula to the Bay of Bengal, draining the second largest basin in India after the Ganga. Option A is wrong because the Amarkantak plateau in Madhya Pradesh is the source of the Narmada, and the Son also rises in the same highland. Option B is wrong because Talakaveri in the Brahmagiri hills of Karnataka is the source of the Kaveri. Option D is wrong because the Krishna rises near Mahabaleshwar in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. All four places are standard options in this question, so fix each with its river: Trimbakeshwar with the Godavari, Mahabaleshwar with the Krishna, Talakaveri with the Kaveri and Amarkantak with the Narmada.

The correct answer is B, Stalagmite. A stalagmite is a column of calcium carbonate that rises from the floor of a limestone cave. Rainwater with dissolved carbon dioxide slowly dissolves limestone and carries it as calcium bicarbonate. When this water drips inside a cave, carbon dioxide escapes and a thin layer of calcium carbonate is left behind, drop after drop, for thousands of years. The drop that hangs from the roof builds a stalactite, and the water that falls on the floor builds a stalagmite below it; when the two meet they form a pillar. Such cave landforms are part of karst topography, seen in India in the Borra Caves of Andhra Pradesh and the caves of Meghalaya. A is wrong because hatectite is not a standard cave term. C is wrong because a stalactite hangs down from the roof, the opposite of what the question describes. D is wrong because dripstone is the general name for all such drip deposits, stalactites and stalagmites alike, not the upward form alone. Exam tip: stalaCtite hangs from the Ceiling, stalaGmite rises from the Ground.

The correct answer is C, Kerala. The southern section of the western coastal plain, lying in Kerala, is called the Malabar coast, and it is distinguished by its kayals, the shallow lagoons and backwaters such as Vembanad and Ashtamudi that are linked into an inland waterway. Option A is wrong because the Karnataka stretch of the same plain is called the Kanara or Karavali coast. Option B is wrong because Goa lies within the Konkan section, not the Malabar one. Option D is wrong because the Maharashtra stretch is the Konkan coast proper, running from the Daman Ganga to Goa. Learn the four names of the western coast in order from north to south: the Kachchh and Kathiawar coast of Gujarat, the Konkan coast of Maharashtra and Goa, the Kanara coast of Karnataka and the Malabar coast of Kerala.

The correct answer is C, Western Ghats. Tropical evergreen forests need more than 200 cm of annual rainfall with a short dry season, and in India the western slopes of the Western Ghats get exactly that from the south-west monsoon. Such forests also grow in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in Assam and along the upper Assam hills. Because there is no season without moisture, the trees shed leaves at different times and the forest never looks bare; it is layered, dense and hard to walk through, with rosewood, mahogany, ebony and aini among its trees. Option A is wrong because Punjab, with low rainfall and heavy cultivation, carries only thorn and scrub vegetation. Option B is wrong because the Sunderbans is tidal or mangrove forest of the delta, dominated by the salt-tolerant sundari tree. Option D is wrong because Rajasthan's dry climate supports desert thorn forest such as khejri and cactus. Exam tip: evergreen needs rainfall above 200 cm — Western Ghats, Andaman and Nicobar, north-east India.

The correct answer is B, Narmada. The Narmada flows west from the Amarkantak plateau through the rift valley between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges and empties into the Gulf of Khambhat through an estuary, because the steep, narrow valley lets it carry its silt straight out to sea instead of spreading it. The Tapi behaves in the same way. Option A is wrong because the Mahanadi flows east and builds a delta in Odisha, with Hirakud dam on its course. Option C is wrong because the Krishna flows east from Mahabaleshwar and forms a delta in Andhra Pradesh next to the Godavari delta. Option D is wrong because the Kaveri too flows east and forms a delta in Tamil Nadu around Thanjavur, long called the granary of the south. Remember that only the west flowing Narmada and Tapi lack deltas.

The correct answer is B, the Chotanagpur plateau. Lying mainly in Jharkhand with parts in Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, and drained by the Damodar, it holds India's richest concentration of coal along with iron ore, mica, bauxite and copper; the cluster of collieries, steel plants and power stations along the Damodar has earned it the nickname Ruhr of India, after the industrial region of Germany. Option A is wrong because the Malwa plateau in Madhya Pradesh is a black-soil farming region built on lava flows, not a mining belt. Option C is wrong because the Deccan plateau is the whole plateau south of the Narmada and is far too large to carry such a name. Option D is wrong because Bundelkhand is a worn granite upland between the Yamuna and the Vindhyas with no comparable mineral industry.

The correct answer is A, Mahanadi. Hirakud dam stands on the Mahanadi in the Sambalpur district of Odisha and is among the longest earthen dams in the world, built for flood control, irrigation and power in a basin that used to flood badly. Option B is wrong because the Godavari carries projects such as Polavaram and the Sriram Sagar, not Hirakud. Option C is wrong because the Narmada is the river of the Sardar Sarovar and Indira Sagar projects. Option D is wrong because the Sutlej carries the Bhakra Nangal project, whose reservoir is the Gobind Sagar. The safest way to prepare this family of questions is a short list: Bhakra Nangal on the Sutlej, Hirakud on the Mahanadi, Sardar Sarovar on the Narmada, Nagarjuna Sagar on the Krishna and Tehri on the Bhagirathi.

The correct answer is C, Tamil Nadu. The eastern coastal plain is divided into three named stretches, and the southern one, running along Tamil Nadu, is the Coromandel coast; it receives much of its rain from the retreating north-east monsoon in October and November, unlike the rest of India. Option A is wrong because the Odisha stretch of the eastern plain is called the Utkal coast, the one that carries Chilika lagoon and the Mahanadi delta. Option B is wrong because West Bengal lies at the head of the plain in the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta, which is treated as part of the Northern Plains. Option D is wrong because Gujarat lies on the western coast altogether, on the Kachchh and Kathiawar side. The middle stretch, along Andhra Pradesh, is known as the Northern Circars.