Geography Mixed Quiz: Set 39

The correct answer is A, France. France has twelve time zones, more than any other country, because its overseas departments and territories are scattered across the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Mainland France keeps one zone, and places such as French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Reunion, Guadeloupe and French Guiana add the rest, so a single country spans almost the whole clock. Russia comes second with eleven zones, and these lie in one continuous landmass from Kaliningrad in the west to Kamchatka in the east. B is wrong because the United States has nine standard zones at home and eleven in all when its territories are counted, still short of France. C is wrong because Russia has eleven zones, one less than France. D is wrong because the United Kingdom keeps a single zone at home and does not reach France even with its overseas territories. Exam tip: France 12 zones, Russia 11, the United States 11 with territories, while India keeps one zone based on 82 degrees 30 minutes East.

The correct answer is C, Panthalassa. In the continental drift theory that Alfred Wegener put forward in 1912, the single land mass was Pangaea and the single mega ocean around it was Panthalassa, a Greek name meaning all sea. Wegener held that Pangaea began to break up about 200 million years ago, first into Laurasia in the north and Gondwanaland in the south, with the Tethys Sea between them, and the pieces then drifted to their present places. He offered the jigsaw fit of the Atlantic coasts and matching rocks and fossils as proof, but the forces he named, the pole fleeing force and the tidal force, were too weak to convince geologists, and plate tectonics later replaced the theory. A is wrong because Pigmalion is not a geological name at all. B is wrong because Panama is an isthmus, and a country, joining North and South America. D is wrong because Pangaea was the land mass, not the ocean. Exam tip: fix the pair - Pangaea the super continent, Panthalassa the super ocean.

The correct answer is C, Calderas volcanoes. Calderas are the most explosive of the earth's volcanoes, because they erupt so violently that the magma chamber empties and the summit collapses into a wide hollow instead of building a cone.

That hollow is the caldera itself, and it often fills with water to form a crater lake. The magma of such volcanoes is acidic and thick, so gas stays trapped and pressure builds until the explosion comes.

Option A, shield volcanoes, pour out thin basaltic lava quietly and build broad gentle slopes like Mauna Loa in Hawaii. Option B, flood basalt volcanoes, release highly fluid lava that spreads over huge areas, as in the Deccan Trap. Option D, cinder cones, are small heaps of ash and rock fragments with mild eruptions.

Exam tip: shield and flood basalt volcanoes are quiet, the caldera is the most explosive.

The correct answer is D, Uruguay. The Tropic of Capricorn runs at about 23.5 degrees south and misses Uruguay, which lies further south between roughly 30 and 35 degrees. In South America the line crosses Chile, Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil; going east it passes through Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar and Australia, in all ten countries. It marks the farthest point south at which the Sun is overhead, which happens on 22 December, the summer solstice of the southern hemisphere. Option A is wrong because the line crosses northern Chile near the Atacama desert. Option B is wrong because it passes through Brazil just north of Sao Paulo, and the city sits almost on it. Option C is wrong because it runs across Paraguay, cutting the country into a northern tropical part and a southern temperate part. Exam tip: the Tropic of Cancer crosses eight states of India, while the Tropic of Capricorn passes through no part of India at all.

The correct answer is C, Between 40 degrees S and 50 degrees S latitudes. The Roaring Forties are the strong westerly winds of the southern hemisphere between about 40 and 50 degrees south. They blow with such force because there is almost no land in that belt to slow them down, so sailing ships once used them on the route to Australia. Further south the same westerlies are called the Furious Fifties, between 50 and 60 degrees, and the Shrieking or Screaming Sixties beyond 60 degrees. A is wrong because that belt holds the south-east trade winds and the subtropical high. B is wrong because the matching northern latitudes have large landmasses, so the winds there are weaker and are not given this name. D is wrong because the equatorial belt is the doldrums, a zone of calm and rising air. Exam tip: Roaring Forties 40-50 S, Furious Fifties 50-60 S, Shrieking Sixties beyond 60 S.

The correct answer is B, 2, because the first two statements are right and the third is wrong. An anticyclone is a system of high pressure, with the highest pressure at its centre, and the air there sinks from above. As it sinks it is compressed and warms, so clouds cannot form and the weather stays clear, calm and dry; winter fog and summer heat waves both settle in under anticyclones. The winds of an anticyclone diverge, blowing outward from the centre, clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the southern, so statement three is false: converging winds belong to a cyclone, where air rises and brings cloud and rain. Option A is wrong because two statements, not one, are correct. Option C is wrong because it counts the false third statement as well. Option D is wrong because two statements do hold. Exam tip: anticyclone means high pressure, sinking air, diverging winds and fair weather, the mirror image of a cyclone.

The correct answer is D, Western disturbances. Mawat is the local name in Rajasthan and the neighbouring plains for the light winter rain brought by western disturbances. These are low pressure systems that form over the Mediterranean region, travel east with the subtropical westerly jet stream and reach north-west India between December and February. The rain is small in amount but comes at the right time for the rabi crop, so wheat, gram, barley and mustard gain from it and farmers treat Mawat as golden drops. The same systems give snow to the western Himalayas. A is wrong because the retreating north-east monsoon brings winter rain to the Tamil Nadu coast, not to Rajasthan. B is wrong because the south-west monsoon is the rain of June to September. C is wrong because India has no south-east monsoon. Exam tip: Mawat equals winter rain from western disturbances, a boon for the rabi crop.

The correct answer is B, Young folded mountains. Young fold mountains were raised in the Tertiary period, only a few tens of millions of years ago in geological time, so erosion has had little time to wear them down and many of them are still rising as the plates behind them keep pushing. The Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes and the Rockies belong to this class, and the tallest summits on earth, Mount Everest and K2 among them, stand in the Himalaya and the Karakoram. A is wrong because old fold mountains such as the Aravallis, the Appalachians and the Urals were formed far earlier, and long erosion has reduced them to low rounded hills. C is wrong because residual mountains are only the harder remnants left behind after the surrounding rock was stripped away, so they stay low. D is wrong because block mountains, like the Vosges and the Black Forest, are raised by faulting between rift valleys and never reach such heights. Exam tip: the Himalaya is a young fold range and the highest, while the Aravalli is the oldest fold range in India.

The correct answer is A, Tropical Deciduous Forests. Tropical deciduous forests are India's monsoon forests, and their trees shed their leaves for about six to eight weeks in the dry summer to save water.

They grow where rainfall is between 70 and 200 centimetres, which covers most of the country, and they give us teak, sal, sandalwood, shisham and bamboo. They are divided into moist deciduous forests, found on the eastern slopes of the Western Ghats and in the north-east, and dry deciduous forests, found in the drier plains and in Rajasthan.

Option B, tropical evergreen forests, grow where rainfall is above 200 centimetres and do not shed all their leaves at one time, so they look green all year. Option C, montane forests, change with altitude in the hills and include conifers. Option D, tropical thorn forests, suit areas with under 70 centimetres of rain.

Exam tip: deciduous forests are monsoon forests — teak and sal, 70 to 200 cm of rain.

The correct answer is A, A snow covered mountain. Albedo is the share of incoming sunlight a surface reflects back, and fresh snow reflects the most of any natural surface on land. Clean new snow has an albedo of about 80 to 90 per cent, which is why snowfields stay cold and why sunlight on them hurts the eyes. The colour and roughness of a surface decide its albedo: pale, smooth surfaces throw light back, while dark, rough ones soak it up. This matters for climate because melting snow and ice expose darker ground, which absorbs more heat and speeds up further melting. Option B is wrong because bare rock reflects only about 10 to 25 per cent. Option C is wrong because dry sand reflects roughly 25 to 40 per cent, high but well below snow. Option D is wrong because a mangrove forest has the lowest albedo here, around 10 to 15 per cent, as its dark canopy traps light. Exam tip: snow highest, forest and ocean lowest, earth's average albedo about 30 per cent.

The correct answer is D, Rose. The Pushkar valley in Ajmer district is the rose belt of Rajasthan, and its desi gulab is grown on a large scale for processing rather than for cut flowers. The petals go into gulab jal, gulkand, rose oil and perfume, and small units around Pushkar and Ajmer buy the crop, which is why the area is often called the flower garden of Rajasthan. The town itself is known for the Brahma temple and for the cattle fair held at Kartik Purnima. A is wrong because tomato is a common vegetable crop with no special link to Pushkar. B is wrong because date palm in Rajasthan is associated with the dry districts of Jaisalmer, Bikaner and Barmer. C is wrong because chrysanthemum is grown mainly in the south and in hill areas for cut flowers. Exam tip: Pushkar means roses, so remember the pair Pushkar and gulab jal or gulkand.

The correct answer is C, Reduction in the vegetation cover to arrest landslide. Cutting the vegetation on a slope makes landslides more likely, not less, so it can never be a mitigation measure. Roots bind the soil and hold a slope together, and the leaf cover breaks the force of falling rain; where the forest is cleared, the loose soil slides down with the first heavy spell. The measures actually used are hazard zonation and mapping, retaining walls and benching of slopes, control of surface and subsurface drainage, afforestation on the slope, and limits on construction and blasting in fragile hill areas. A is wrong because a retaining wall holds the slipping mass in place and is a standard engineering step. B is wrong because hazard mapping marks the vulnerable belts so that building can be kept away from them. D is wrong because leading rainwater and spring flow away removes the water pressure that sets a slide off. Exam tip: afforestation helps and deforestation hurts; in India the Himalayas and the Western Ghats are the most landslide-prone regions.

The correct answer is C, 949, 929. Census 2011 put the rural sex ratio at 949 females per thousand males and the urban sex ratio at 929, while the figure for the country as a whole was 943, the highest since 1951. The sex ratio is lower in towns and cities mainly because men move there for work and leave their families behind in the village. Two other numbers from the same census are worth fixing: the child sex ratio in the age group 0 to 6 years fell to 919, the lowest since independence, and Kerala had the best state ratio at 1084 while Haryana had the lowest at 879. A, B and D are wrong because they misstate both halves of the pair; no census has recorded a rural figure of 969, 959 or 939 with the urban figure shown against it. Exam tip: Census 2011 sex ratio, total 943, rural 949, urban 929, child 919.

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 A, Assam. Dispur, a locality within Guwahati, became the capital of Assam in 1973 after Shillong, the earlier capital, went to the newly created State of Meghalaya. The Assam secretariat and the legislative assembly function from Dispur, while Guwahati remains the commercial centre and the seat of the Gauhati High Court. Option B is wrong because the capital of Meghalaya is Shillong, which it inherited from Assam. Option C is wrong because the capital of Nagaland is Kohima, while Dimapur is its largest city and railhead. Option D is wrong because the capital of Tripura is Agartala, which lies close to the Bangladesh border. The question is a standing favourite because four north-eastern capitals look interchangeable to a candidate who has not revised them as pairs.

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 B. By area the order of the continents is Asia, about 44 million square kilometres, then Africa with about 30 million, North America with about 24 million, South America with about 18 million, Antarctica with about 14 million, Europe with about 10 million and Australia with about 8 million. Option A is wrong because it places South America above North America, which is a common slip since South America is longer but narrower. Option C is wrong because Africa is the second largest continent, not the first; Asia alone covers nearly a third of the land surface. Option D is wrong because North America is smaller than Africa. A simple memory aid for the order is the sentence pattern Asia, Africa, North, South, Antarctica, Europe, Australia, which also happens to run from the most populous to the least.

The correct answer is D, Underground water. A stalagmite is built up on the floor of a limestone cave by water that seeps in from above, so the agent at work is underground water. Rainwater charged with carbon dioxide dissolves limestone as it percolates through joints; when a drop reaches the cave and gives up its carbon dioxide, a little calcium carbonate is left behind. Over thousands of years these deposits grow downward from the roof as stalactites and upward from the floor as stalagmites, and where the two meet they join into a pillar. Such caves and sink holes make up karst topography, named after the Karst region of Europe. A is wrong because glaciers leave moraines, drumlins and eskers. B is wrong because wind builds sand dunes and loess plains. C is wrong because surface water builds deltas, flood plains and alluvial fans. Exam tip: a stalactite hangs from the ceiling and a stalagmite grows from the ground.

The correct answer is C, eye. The calm centre of a cyclone is called the eye of the storm, a roughly circular area twenty to fifty kilometres across where the air sinks, the winds are light and the sky can even be clear.

Around the eye stands the eye wall, a ring of tall clouds where the wind is strongest and the rain heaviest, so fierce weather returns soon after the deceptive calm passes over a place. A cyclone forms over warm tropical seas when moist air rises, condenses and releases heat, and it weakens quickly after landfall because its supply of moisture is cut off.

Option A, arm, is not a term used for any part of a cyclone. Option B, heart, is not the scientific name for the centre. Option D, head, is also not a cyclone term.

Exam tip: the eye is calm, the eye wall carries the strongest winds.

The correct answer is D, Tundra Forest. Mosses and lichens are the typical plants of the tundra, the cold treeless belt that lies beyond the coniferous forests of the far north. The growing season there lasts only a few weeks, the subsoil stays frozen as permafrost and the soil layer is thin, so tall plants with deep roots cannot survive, while low cushions of moss and lichen along with sedges and dwarf shrubs can. Reindeer and caribou feed on lichen, which is why one kind is called reindeer moss. A is wrong because tropical rain forests are hot and wet and carry tall evergreen trees in several layers. B is wrong because temperate forests are made of broad-leaved deciduous trees such as oak, elm and maple. C is wrong because coniferous or taiga forests carry pine, fir and spruce, the softwood belt lying just south of the tundra. Exam tip: moving from the pole towards the equator the order is tundra, taiga or coniferous, temperate and then tropical.