The Galapagos Islands, famous for the studies of Charles Darwin, belong to which country?
- A.Chile
- B.Ecuador
- C.Peru
- D.Mexico
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Ecuador. The Galapagos Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the eastern Pacific, about a thousand kilometres west of the South American coast, and they form a province of Ecuador; the finches, tortoises and iguanas Charles Darwin observed there in 1835 led him towards the theory of natural selection, and the group is a World Heritage Site. Option A is wrong because Chile owns Easter Island and the Juan Fernandez Islands in the Pacific, not the Galapagos. Option C is wrong because Peru, although it faces the same stretch of the Pacific, has no oceanic island group of this kind. Option D is wrong because Mexico holds the Revillagigedo Islands and Guadalupe far to the north, well away from the equator where the Galapagos lie.
Read the full article: Major Islands and Archipelagos of the World: GK Notes
Practice Questions
View allWhich is the largest island in the world?
- A.Australia
- B.Greenland
- C.New Guinea
- D.Madagascar
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Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark lying between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, is the largest island on earth, most of it covered by an ice sheet, and it is a continental island separated from the North American landmass.
Read the full explanation →Which country is the largest archipelago in the world?
- A.Philippines
- B.Japan
- C.Indonesia
- D.Maldives
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Indonesia is a chain of more than seventeen thousand islands stretching along the equator between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi and the Indonesian halves of Borneo and New Guinea as its principal members, and it is the largest archipelago in the world.
Read the full explanation →Majuli, the largest river island in the world, lies in which river?
- A.Brahmaputra
- B.Ganga
- C.Godavari
- D.Mahanadi
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Majuli lies in the Brahmaputra in Assam, formed by silt deposited by the river and its tributaries, is a seat of the Vaishnava satras founded in the tradition of Srimanta Sankardeva, and has been constituted a district of Assam, the first river island district in the country.
Read the full explanation →The only active volcano in India is situated on which island?
- A.Narcondam Island
- B.Barren Island
- C.Car Nicobar
- D.Minicoy
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Barren Island in the Andaman group of the Bay of Bengal carries the only active volcano in India and indeed in South Asia, part of the volcanic arc produced where the Indian plate dips beneath the Burma plate, and it has erupted several times in recent decades.
Read the full explanation →The Ten Degree Channel separates which two island groups?
- A.Andaman and Nicobar
- B.Lakshadweep and Maldives
- C.Andaman and the Coco Islands
- D.Minicoy and the rest of Lakshadweep
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The Ten Degree Channel runs along the tenth parallel of north latitude across the Bay of Bengal and separates the Andaman group in the north from the Nicobar group in the south, which is why the Union Territory is named for both groups.
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