Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 29

The correct answer is B, Rajasthan. Sambhar lies west of Jaipur in a shallow depression with no outlet to the sea; water that flows in can only evaporate, leaving behind the salt that has made the lake a major source of common salt for centuries. It is a Ramsar site and a feeding ground for flamingos in winter. Option A, Gujarat, has the Rann of Kachchh, a salt marsh rather than a lake, and questions often use it as a distractor for exactly this reason. Option C, Madhya Pradesh, has the Bhojtal or Upper Lake at Bhopal, a large freshwater body. Option D, Haryana, has the Sultanpur wetland, important for birds but small. Remember the pairing of the three salt-related features: Sambhar the saline lake, the Rann a salt marsh and Chilika a brackish lagoon.

The correct answer is A, B, D and E, that is landslide, tsunami and floods. An earthquake is the shaking of the ground when energy stored along a fault is suddenly released, and that shaking sets off further hazards. On a steep slope the tremor loosens soil and rock and brings down a landslide. Under the sea, a sudden movement of the ocean floor lifts a huge column of water and sends out a tsunami, as in the Indian Ocean in December 2004. Floods follow when the shaking cracks a dam or an embankment, or when a landslide dams a river and the water later bursts through. Option B is wrong because lightning and thundering are weather events born in tall cumulonimbus clouds and have nothing to do with movement inside the earth. Option C is wrong because it keeps only the landslide and leaves out the tsunami. Option D is wrong because it adds floods but still misses the tsunami. Exam tip: earthquake – landslide, tsunami and dam-burst floods; lightning and thunder belong to a thunderstorm.

The correct answer is A, gypsum. Gypsum, that is calcium sulphate, supplies calcium that replaces the sodium held on the soil particles, and once the sodium is set free it can be washed out of the field by irrigation and drainage, restoring structure to land that had become hard and impermeable. Option B is wrong because urea is a nitrogen fertiliser that feeds the crop but does nothing about the excess sodium, and heavy use of it can even worsen the reaction of the soil. Option C is wrong because common salt is itself the problem in such land, since saline soil already carries too much sodium chloride and other salts. Option D is wrong because lime is used the other way round, to correct soil that is too acidic, for example the leached laterite and hill soils of the high-rainfall belt.

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 D, Red sandal. Red sanders, or red sandalwood, is a tree of the dry deciduous forest and grows almost entirely in the Seshachalam and Palakonda hills of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh, where it is prized for its dark red heartwood; it is not a thorn forest species. Options A, B and C are all classic trees of the tropical thorn forest, which grows in the semi-arid belt receiving less than 70 centimetres of rainfall. Khair, the catechu tree, yields the katha used in paan. Keekar and babool are names for the acacia that dots the plains of Rajasthan, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. All three carry thorns, small leaves and long tap roots, the standard adaptations for a dry habitat, while red sanders is a taller tree of a moister and shadier forest type.

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, rainy. Kharif crops are sown in June and July with the onset of the south-west monsoon and harvested in September and October, because they need both high temperature and heavy rainfall while growing. Paddy, maize, jowar, bajra, tur, moong, urad, cotton, groundnut, soyabean and jute are the standard kharif crops of India.

Option A is wrong because crops sown at the beginning of winter, in October and November, are rabi crops such as wheat, barley, gram, peas and mustard. Option B is wrong because the short summer season between rabi and kharif is the zaid season, used for watermelon, muskmelon, cucumber and fodder. Option C is wrong because spring is not recognised as a cropping season in the Indian classification at all, so no crop group is named after it.

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 A, Insolation. Insolation is the incoming solar radiation actually received by a unit area of the earth's surface, and how much of it a place receives decides how warm that place becomes. Insolation falls off from the equator towards the poles, because the sun's rays strike at a smaller angle there and travel through a thicker slice of atmosphere, which is why the temperature belts of the world run roughly parallel to the latitudes. Altitude, nearness to the sea, ocean currents and winds change this pattern, but they only modify what insolation has already decided. B is wrong because solar radiation is all the energy the sun sends out, while it is the part received at the surface, insolation, that controls surface temperature. C is wrong because terrestrial radiation is the heat the earth gives back, a result of insolation rather than its cause. D is wrong because distance from the sea is only a local, secondary control. Exam tip: insolation means incoming solar radiation, highest at the equator and least at the poles.

The correct answer is C, Gorges. In its upper course a river flows fast down steep slopes, so it cuts downward into the rock more than it spreads sideways. This vertical erosion makes deep, narrow valleys with steep sides: V-shaped valleys and, where the rock is hard, gorges. Waterfalls and rapids also belong to this young stage of a river. A famous example is the Indus gorge in the Himalayas, and the Narmada flows through a marble gorge at Bhedaghat near Jabalpur. A is wrong because oxbow lakes form in the lower course, when a loop of a meander is cut off from the main channel. B is wrong because meanders, the wide loops of a river, form in the middle and lower course, where the land is gentle and the river swings sideways. D is wrong because floodplains form in the lower course, where the river spreads out and leaves silt during floods. Exam tip: upper course, V-shaped valley, gorge and waterfall; lower course, meander, oxbow lake, floodplain and delta.

The correct answer is D, Tamil Nadu. Hogenakkal Falls lies on the river Kaveri in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu, close to the border with Karnataka. The river breaks into many channels over carbonatite rock here and drops in sheets, throwing up so much spray that the Kannada name hogenakkal, meaning smoking rocks, describes it exactly. Visitors are carried across the pools in round coracle boats, and the place is often called the Niagara of India; a drinking water project for Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri draws from the river here. A is wrong because Andhra Pradesh has falls such as Talakona and Ettipothala. B is wrong because Kerala's best known falls are Athirappilly and Palaruvi. C is wrong because Maharashtra has falls such as Thoseghar and Randha, not Hogenakkal. Exam tip: Hogenakkal is on the Kaveri in Dharmapuri, Tamil Nadu — smoking rocks and coracle rides.

The correct answer is B, Puducherry with its units at Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe, and Yanam. Puducherry is the only Union Territory spread over both coasts of India. Puducherry and Karaikal lie on the east coast within Tamil Nadu, Yanam lies on the east coast in Andhra Pradesh, and Mahe lies on the west (Malabar) coast within Kerala. All four were French settlements; they came to India in 1954 and formally became part of India in 1962. Option A is wrong because the Andaman and Nicobar Islands lie only in the Bay of Bengal, on the eastern side. Option C is wrong because Lakshadweep lies only in the Arabian Sea, off the Kerala coast. Option D is wrong because Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu lie only on the western side, near Gujarat and Maharashtra. Exam tip: Puducherry has four districts in three states: Puducherry and Karaikal (Tamil Nadu), Yanam (Andhra Pradesh) and Mahe (Kerala).

The correct answer is C, badland topography. Running water cuts gullies in the soft alluvium of the Chambal basin, and where those gullies deepen and spread over a wide tract the land becomes a maze of steep channels and ridges unfit for cultivation, which geographers call badland and local people call the ravines or beehad. Option A is wrong because wind erosion, which works by lifting and rolling loose sand, dominates in the dry west of Rajasthan rather than in this river valley. Option B is wrong because sheet erosion removes a thin even film of soil and leaves no visible channels, the opposite of what the Chambal shows. Option D is wrong because waterlogging is the rise of the water table in canal-irrigated flat land, which brings salts to the surface and is a problem of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

The correct answer is C, Panama Canal. The Panama Canal cuts across the narrow Isthmus of Panama in Central America and joins the Atlantic Ocean, through the Caribbean Sea, with the Pacific Ocean. It was opened in 1914 by the United States and is about 82 km long. Because the land in between is higher than the sea, ships are raised and lowered by locks that use water from the man-made Gatun Lake. The canal saves ships the long voyage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America. The USA handed the canal over to Panama on 31 December 1999. A is wrong because the Kiel Canal in Germany joins the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. B is wrong because the Suez Canal in Egypt, opened in 1869, joins the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. D is wrong because the White Sea Canal in Russia links the White Sea with the Baltic Sea. Exam tip: Suez 1869 (Mediterranean to Red Sea, no locks), Panama 1914 (Atlantic to Pacific, with locks), Kiel (North Sea to Baltic Sea).

The correct answer is C, Deciduous forest. Tropical deciduous forest is called monsoon forest because it is the natural vegetation of the monsoon climate, growing where rainfall lies between 70 and 200 centimetres and where a marked dry season follows the rains. Its trees shed their leaves for six to eight weeks in the dry months to save water, and it is the most widespread forest type in India, yielding teak, sal, shisham and sandalwood. Options A and B, rain forest and equatorial forest, describe the evergreen forest of the heavy rainfall belt above 200 centimetres, which has no leafless season at all. Option D, mountain forest, is classified by altitude rather than by the rainfall regime and changes from oak and chestnut through pine and deodar to alpine meadow as one climbs, so it is not tied to the monsoon rhythm.

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, wheat. Wheat is the leading rabi crop of India. It is sown in October and November, needs a cool season of about fifty to sixty centimetres of rainfall for growth and bright sunshine at the time of ripening, and is harvested in March and April. Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh are its main producing States.

Option B is wrong because groundnut is a kharif oilseed sown with the monsoon, mainly in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. Option C is wrong because paddy is the classic kharif crop, needing more than a hundred centimetres of rainfall and standing water in the field. Option D is wrong because maize is grown as a kharif crop across most of India, although it is also raised as a rabi crop in parts of Bihar, which is why the question asks for the general classification.

The correct answer is A, Nagpur. The National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, an institute of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, works from Nagpur and prepares the soil maps and land capability surveys on which district planning rests. Option B is wrong because Dehradun is the home of the Forest Research Institute and of the Survey of India, both important but concerned with forests and with topographical mapping rather than with soil. Option C is wrong because Hyderabad houses the National Institute of Rural Development and the Indian Institute of Millets Research, and is not the soil survey bureau. Option D is wrong because Karnal is known for the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute and the National Dairy Research Institute; salinity research there is a narrower field than the national soil survey.

The correct answer is B, Reserved forests. Indian forests are classified administratively into reserved, protected and unclassed forests, and the first two together are described as the permanent forest estate, that is land maintained permanently for timber and other forest produce and for the protection of soil and water. Reserved forests are the most valuable of the three and enjoy the strictest protection, with grazing and cultivation prohibited or closely regulated. Option A, unprotected forests, is not one of the recognised administrative classes at all. Option C, unclassed forests, covers the remaining wooded land, a great deal of it owned by communities and private persons in the north-east and in Gujarat, and it lies outside the permanent estate. Option D, community forests, again describes ownership rather than an administrative class, and such land usually falls within the unclassed category.

The correct answer is B, barley and gram. Both are sown in October and November after the monsoon withdraws and harvested in March and April. Barley is a coarse cereal grown mainly in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and gram is the most important rabi pulse of India, grown in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.

Option A is wrong because peas are a rabi crop but maize is grown mainly in the kharif season, so the pair is mixed. Option C is wrong because both paddy and cotton are kharif crops and neither is rabi. Option D is wrong for the same mixed reason: wheat is rabi but jowar is a kharif millet in most of India. Only option B has two crops that are rabi and nothing else, which is what the word only in the question demands.