Which of the following is the largest inland water body in the world?
- A.Dead Sea
- B.Aral Sea
- C.Caspian Sea
- D.Lake Superior
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is C, the Caspian Sea. Despite its name it has no outlet to any ocean and is therefore a lake, the largest enclosed water body on earth; it is bordered by five countries, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran and Azerbaijan, and is fed mainly by the Volga. Option A is wrong because the Dead Sea, though also a landlocked salt lake, is small and is remembered instead for its extreme salinity and for being the lowest exposed land on earth. Option B is wrong because the Aral Sea, between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, shrank drastically after the Amu Darya and Syr Darya were diverted for cotton irrigation. Option D is wrong because Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake by surface area, but it is far smaller than the Caspian and drains to the Atlantic through the St Lawrence.
Read the full article: Major Seas of the World: Map Facts and PYQ Practice
Practice Questions
View allWhich of the following is the largest sea in the world by area?
- A.Arabian Sea
- B.Philippine Sea
- C.Coral Sea
- D.South China Sea
Show answer
It is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, bounded by the Philippines on the west, Taiwan and Japan on the north and the Mariana Islands on the east, and it is the largest sea on earth; the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point of the ocean floor, lies…
Read the full explanation →The Mediterranean Sea is connected to the Atlantic Ocean through which strait?
- A.Strait of Hormuz
- B.Strait of Malacca
- C.Strait of Gibraltar
- D.Bab-el-Mandeb
Show answer
This narrow passage between Spain in Europe and Morocco in Africa is the only natural opening of the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean, and it has carried the trade of three continents since antiquity.
Read the full explanation →Which sea is unique in having no land boundary, being enclosed instead by ocean currents?
- A.Sargasso Sea
- B.Sea of Azov
- C.Tasman Sea
- D.Weddell Sea
Show answer
Lying in the middle of the North Atlantic, it is bounded on all sides by the currents of the North Atlantic gyre rather than by any coast, and it takes its name from the floating Sargassum weed in which European and American eels breed.
Read the full explanation →The Red Sea is connected to the Gulf of Aden through which strait?
- A.Strait of Hormuz
- B.Bab-el-Mandeb
- C.Strait of Dover
- D.Kerch Strait
Show answer
This strait at the southern end of the Red Sea, between the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa, leads into the Gulf of Aden and so to the Arabian Sea, and together with the Suez Canal at the northern end it makes the Red Sea a link in the…
Read the full explanation →The Aral Sea, which shrank sharply during the twentieth century, lies between which two countries?
- A.Russia and Ukraine
- B.Iran and Azerbaijan
- C.Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
- D.Turkey and Georgia
Show answer
The Aral Sea is a landlocked salt lake of Central Asia that lost most of its water after the Soviet authorities diverted its two feeding rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, to irrigate cotton, leaving salt flats, stranded fishing boats and a ruined local climate; it is the…
Read the full explanation →