Karela Lake, the site of the study, is located near which city?
- A.Patna
- B.Prayagraj
- C.Lucknow
- D.Kanpur
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is Lucknow. Karela Lake is an oxbow lake at Hulas Khera in Mohanlal Ganj, near Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, and lies in the Central Ganga Plain. Its position next to the Hulas Khera archaeological site, a settlement of the Kushan period, allowed the team to study how ancient farming communities responded to changes in climate. Options A, B and D are all cities of the Ganga basin and therefore plausible at first glance, but none of them is the location given for this lake. An oxbow lake, worth recalling here, is a curved water body left behind when a river cuts off one of its meanders, and such lakes turn out to be sensitive archives of long-term monsoon and ecosystem change.
Read the full article: BSIP Study Reconstructs 4,600 Years of Monsoon History
Practice Questions
Which institute reconstructed 4,600 years of monsoon and environmental history from Karela Lake?
- A.Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology
- B.Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences
- C.National Institute of Oceanography
- D.Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology
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Its scientists traced past environmental conditions at Karela Lake using stable isotopes, vegetation changes and archaeological and sedimentary records, and built a record stretching back about four thousand six hundred years.
Read the full explanation →Which of these climate events was identified among the four major phases in the study?
- A.The Little Ice Age
- B.The Carboniferous glaciation
- C.The Cretaceous thermal maximum
- D.The Permian extinction
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The researchers identified four major environmental phases in the lake record, associated with key climate events that include the arid event of about four point two thousand years ago, the Roman Warm Period and the Little Ice Age.
Read the full explanation →Which desert, identified as a gypsum-bearing Martian analogue site in this study, lies outside India?
- A.Atacama Desert, Chile
- B.Sahara Desert, Africa
- C.Gobi Desert, Mongolia
- D.Kalahari Desert, Botswana
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Gypsum was identified there and also in the Tiruchirappalli Badlands, a semi-arid geological and palaeoclimatic terrain in Tamil Nadu, and both places therefore qualify as Martian analogue sites for the study of past water activity.
Read the full explanation →Which institution's research team identified the Martian analogue sites using a laser Raman spectrometer?
- A.Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad
- B.University of Kerala, Department of Geology
- C.Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bengaluru
- D.National Centre for Earth Science Studies
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The laser Raman spectrometer used for the work is supported under the DST-FIST programme at that department, and the research team was led by Dr. Sajin Kumar K. S., who is the Project Coordinator of DST-FIST.
Read the full explanation →Which mineral identified at Neyveli in Tamil Nadu helped establish it as a Martian analogue site?
- A.Melanterite
- B.Gypsum
- C.Hematite
- D.Olivine
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At Neyveli the mineral forms from marcasite in the lignite substratum through sulphide oxidation, and it records short-lived wet, acidic and oxidising conditions of the kind believed to have produced sulphates on Mars.
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