A narrow strip of land that joins two larger landmasses and separates two seas is called:
- A.A strait
- B.An isthmus
- C.An archipelago
- D.A peninsula
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, an isthmus. The Isthmus of Panama joins North and South America and separates the Caribbean Sea from the Pacific, and the Isthmus of Suez joins Africa to Asia; both have been cut by canals precisely because they are narrow. Option A is wrong because a strait is the water counterpart, a narrow channel of water joining two seas and separating two landmasses, such as the Palk Strait between India and Sri Lanka or the Strait of Malacca. Option C is wrong because an archipelago is a group or chain of islands, such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands or Indonesia. Option D is wrong because a peninsula is land surrounded by water on three sides, as peninsular India is by the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal.
Read the full article: Geographical Terms and Isolines: Isobar to Isohyet
Practice Questions
View allLines drawn on a map joining places that receive equal amounts of rainfall are called:
- A.Isobars
- B.Isohyets
- C.Isohels
- D.Isotherms
Show answer
The word comes from the Greek hyetos, meaning rain, so an isohyet joins all places on a map that receive the same amount of rainfall in a given period; rainfall distribution maps of India, which show the 200 centimetre and 50 centimetre lines, are drawn with isohyets.
Read the full explanation →An isohel is a line on a map joining places having equal:
- A.Cloudiness
- B.Duration of sunshine
- C.Humidity
- D.Salinity
Show answer
An isohel, from the Greek helios for the sun, joins places that receive sunshine for an equal number of hours, and such maps are used in studies of solar energy potential and of crop seasons.
Read the full explanation →Lines joining points of equal depth of water in an ocean or a lake are known as:
- A.Isobars
- B.Isobaths
- C.Isopachs
- D.Isohypses
Show answer
The Greek bathos means depth, so isobaths are the depth contours of a bathymetric chart; the 200 metre isobath is conventionally taken as the outer edge of the continental shelf.
Read the full explanation →Isoseismal lines on a map are drawn to show equal:
- A.Intensity of an earthquake
- B.Thickness of rock strata
- C.Travel time from a place
- D.Wind speed
Show answer
Isoseismal lines join points at which the shaking of an earthquake was felt with the same intensity, and because intensity falls away from the source, they are drawn as roughly concentric closed curves around the epicentre, the point of the surface vertically above the focus.
Read the full explanation →The line joining places where the magnetic declination is zero is called the:
- A.Isogonic line
- B.Agonic line
- C.Isoclinic line
- D.Aclinic line
Show answer
Magnetic declination is the angle between true north and magnetic north, and along the agonic line that angle is zero, so a compass needle there points to true north.
Read the full explanation →