Which is the longest glacier in India?
- A.Gangotri
- B.Siachen
- C.Zemu
- D.Bara Shigri
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Siachen, which lies in the Karakoram range of Ladakh and is about 76 kilometres long, making it the longest glacier in India and one of the longest outside the polar regions. Its meltwater feeds the Nubra river, a tributary of the Shyok, which joins the Indus. Option A is wrong because the Gangotri glacier in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand, about thirty kilometres long, is shorter, though it is better known as the source of the Bhagirathi. Option C is wrong because the Zemu glacier of North Sikkim, at the base of Kangchenjunga, is the largest glacier of the Eastern Himalaya but much shorter than Siachen. Option D is wrong because Bara Shigri, in the Chandra valley of Lahaul, is the largest glacier of Himachal Pradesh alone and not of the country.
Read the full article: Glaciers of India and the World: Notes for Exams
Practice Questions
View allGaumukh, the snout of the Gangotri glacier, is the source of which river?
- A.Alaknanda
- B.Bhagirathi
- C.Yamuna
- D.Mandakini
Show answer
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 →Which is the largest glacier in the world?
- A.Fedchenko glacier
- B.Lambert glacier
- C.Siachen glacier
- D.Aletsch glacier
Show answer
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
Show answer
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
Show answer
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
Show answer
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.
Read the full explanation →