Which is the largest glacier in the world?
- A.Fedchenko glacier
- B.Lambert glacier
- C.Siachen glacier
- D.Aletsch glacier
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, the Lambert glacier of East Antarctica, the largest and longest glacier in the world, which drains a huge basin of the inland ice sheet into the Amery ice shelf. Antarctica holds the greater part of the ice of the earth, so its outlet glaciers dwarf those of other continents. Option A is wrong because the Fedchenko glacier, in the Pamir mountains of Tajikistan, holds a different record: it is the longest glacier outside the polar regions. Option C is wrong because Siachen, about seventy-six kilometres long, is the longest glacier in India and one of the longest in the Karakoram, but far smaller than Lambert. Option D is wrong because the Aletsch glacier of Switzerland is only the largest glacier of the Alps, a region of comparatively small valley glaciers.
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 →Gaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier, is the source of which river?
- A.Alaknanda
- B.Bhagirathi
- C.Yamuna
- D.Mandakini
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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.
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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