Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier, is the source of which river?
- A.Alaknanda
- B.Bhagirathi
- C.Yamuna
- D.Mandakini
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Bhagirathi. The Gangotri glacier ends in a snout shaped like the mouth of a cow, which gives it the name Gaumukh, and the stream that issues from it is the Bhagirathi. The Bhagirathi meets the Alaknanda at Devprayag, and below that confluence the river is called the Ganga. Option A is wrong because the Alaknanda rises from the Satopanth and Bhagirath Kharak glaciers in Chamoli district, not from Gangotri. Option C is wrong because the Yamuna rises in the Bandarpunch massif near Yamunotri, a separate glacier system to the west. Option D is wrong because the Mandakini, which joins the Alaknanda at Rudraprayag, rises from the Chorabari glacier above Kedarnath. Learning these glacier and river pairs is the quickest way to answer this family of questions.
Read the full article: Glaciers of India and the World: Notes for Exams
Practice Questions
View allWhich is the longest glacier in India?
- A.Gangotri
- B.Siachen
- C.Zemu
- D.Bara Shigri
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Its meltwater feeds the Nubra river, a tributary of the Shyok, which joins the Indus.
Read the full explanation →Which is the largest glacier in the world?
- A.Fedchenko glacier
- B.Lambert glacier
- C.Siachen glacier
- D.Aletsch glacier
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Antarctica holds the greater part of the ice of the earth, so its outlet glaciers dwarf those of other continents.
Read the full explanation →The Fedchenko glacier, the longest glacier outside the polar regions, lies in which mountain system?
- A.The Andes
- B.The Pamirs
- C.The Alps
- D.The Rockies
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The Pamir knot is the node where the Himalaya, the Karakoram, the Hindu Kush, the Kunlun and the Tian Shan ranges meet, and the Fedchenko glacier, running for roughly seventy-seven kilometres, is the longest glacier found anywhere outside the Arctic and the Antarctic.
Read the full explanation →A small lake occupying a cirque or corrie hollow in a glaciated mountain is called a:
- A.Tarn
- B.Kettle lake
- C.Fjord
- D.Lagoon
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A cirque, also called a corrie, is the armchair-shaped hollow that a glacier scoops at the head of its valley by plucking and abrasion; when the ice melts, water collects in the rock basin and the small round lake so formed is a tarn.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is a landform of glacial deposition?
- A.Cirque
- B.Arete
- C.Drumlin
- D.Roche moutonnee
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A drumlin is a smooth oval mound of till, the unsorted debris left by ice, shaped like an inverted spoon with its steeper end facing the direction from which the glacier came; a group of drumlins produces what is called basket-of-eggs topography.
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