UPSC World Geography Test 1 (Old Year Questions)

Ans b
The traditional Nino, also called Eastern Pacific (EP) El Nino, involves temperature anomalies in the Eastern Pacific. However, in the last two decades non-traditional El Ninos were observed, in which the usual place of the temperature anomaly is not affected, but an anomaly arise in the central Pacific. The phenomenon is called Central Pacific (CP) El Nino, “dateline” El Nino (because the anomaly arises near the dateline), or El Nino “Modoki” (Modoki is Japanese for “similar, but different”) The effects of the CP El Nino are different from those of the traditional EP El Nino – e.g., the new El Nino leads to more hurricanes more frequently making land fall in the Atlantic. The recent discovery of El Nino Modoki has some scientists believing it to be linked to Global Warming. However, Satellite data only goes back to 1979. More research must be done to find the correlation and study past El Nino episodes.

Ans d
The littoral states of the Straits of Malacca are, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. The straits, situated between the coastline of Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to the East and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the West extends 600 miles (900 km) from its widest point (about 350 km between Northern Sumatra and Thailand) to its narrowest (less than 3 km wide between southern Sumatra and Singapore). At its shallowest, it has a reported depth of just 25 metres. According to the International Maritime Organization, at least 50,000 ships sail through this strait every year. They transport about 30 per cent of the world’s trade goods and 80 per cent of Japan’s oil needs.

Ans d
The Tropic of Capricorn, or Southern tropic, is one of the five major circles of latitude that mark maps of the Earth. It lies 23o 26’ 22’ south of the Equator. Tropic of Capricorn passes through the following countries, starting at the prime meridian and heading west: Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile. It also passes through these other countries: French Polynesia, Tonga, Coral Sea Islands Territory, Australia, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia

Ans a
Cannes in the Alpes-Maritimes departments in the region of Provence-Aples-Cote d’Azur in southeastern France is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. Davos is a municipality in the district of Prattigau/Davos in the canton of Graubunden, Switzerland. It is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range. It is the highest city in Europe. Davos has a dual claim to fame as the host to the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of global political and business elites (often referred to simply as Davos), and the home of the largest ski resort in Switzerland, serving as the site of the annual Spengler cup ice hockey tournament, hosted by the HC Davos local hockey team Roland Gaross: France The Stade de roland Garros is a tennis venue located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France and home to the French Open Tennis Tournament.

Ans a
The Spree is a river in Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin, Germany and in Usti and Labem Region, Czech Republic. It is a left tributary of the Havel river and is approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi) in length. Its source is located in the Lusatian Hills on the Czech border. Further north the river enters the Spreedwald, a large wetlands area, that is identical with the settlement areas of the Sorbs. In its final portion the river runs through the city centre of Berlin to join the River Havel in Spandau, a western quarter of Berlin

Ans c
Hurricane Ike (September 1-14, 2008) was the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States. It was the ninth named storm, fifth hurricane and third major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Gustav (August 26, 2008) was the seventh tropical cyclone, third hurricane and second major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Gustav caused serious damage and casualties in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba and the United States. Hurricane Kate was the second-longest tropical cyclone in the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. The eleventh tropical storm, fifth hurricane, and third major hurricane of the season, Kate developed from tropical wave in the central tropical Atlantic on September 25, 2003.

Ans b
The Great Victoria Desert is a barren, arid, and sparsely populated desert ecoregion in southern Australia. It falls inside the states of South Australia and Western Australia and consists of many small sandhills, grasslands and salt lakes. The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park – one of the first national parks in the United States. Lake Winnipeg is a very large (24,514 km2 (9,465 sq mi)) lake in central North America, in the province of Manitoba, Canada, about 55 kilometres (34 mi) north of the city of Winnipeg. It is the largest lake within the undeveloped and pristine large watershed of southern Canada. The Southern Alps is a mountain range which runs along the western side of the South Island of New Zealand. It forms a natural dividing range along the entire length of the South Island.

Ans b
Dadaab is a town in northeastern Kenya approximately 100 kilometers from Kenya-Somali border. It hosts mostly-Somali refugees from Kenya’s northern neighbors. The major feature in Dadaab is the UNHCR base that serves refugee camps around Dadaab: Hagadera, Ifo and Dagahaley. The international humanitarian organization CARE is UNHCR’s lead implementing partner responsible for managing the camp.

Ans b
A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is threatened with destruction. The biodiversity hotspots by region: North and Central America: California floristic province, Caribbean Islands, Madrean pine-oak woodlands, Mesoamerica South America: Atlantic Forest, Cerrado, Chilean Winter Rainfall-Valdivian Forests, Tumbes-Choco-Magdalega, Tropical Andes Europe and Central Asia: Caucasus, Irano-Anatolian, Mediterranean Basin, Mountains of Central Asia Africa: Cape Floristic Region, Costal Forests of Eastern Africa, Eastern Afromontane, Guinean Forests of West Africa, Horn of Africa, Madagascan and the Indian Ocean Islands, Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany, Succlent Karoo Asia-Pacific: East Melanesian Islands, Eastern Himalaya, Indo-Burma, Japan, Mountains of Southwest China, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Philippines, Polynesia-Micronesia, Southwest Australia, Sundaland, Wallacea, Western Ghats and Sri Lanka.

Ans d
Elephant Pass, Northern Province, Sri Lanka is an important military base and formerly the island’s largest salt field, located in the gateway of Jaffna Peninsula. It has thus regularly been the site of battles during the civil war. In a major military defeat, the Sri Lankan Army lost control of the pass to the LTTE on April 22, 2000 in the Second Battle of Elephant Pass. The Sri Lankan Army recaptured Elephant Pass in the Third Battle of Elephant Pass on January 09, 2009.

Ans a
Cape Canaveral, is a headland in Brevard County, Florida, United States, near the center of that state’s Atlantic coast. Known as Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it sits due east of Merritt Island, separated from it by the Banana River. It is part of a region known as the Space Coast, and is the site of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Since many United States spacecraft are launched from both the station and the Kennedy Space Center on nearby Merritt Island, the term “Cape Canaveral” or “Canaveral” has become a metonym that refers to both as the launch site of spacecraft. In homage to its spacefaring heritage, the Florida Public Service Commission allocated “321” as the telephone area code for Cape Canaveral and surrounding countries.

Ans a
Uranium deposits are found all over the world. The largest deposits of uranium are found in Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada. High-grade deposits are only found in Canada. Australia has 23% of the world’s uranium ore reserves and the world’s largest single uranium deposit, located at the Olympic Dam Mine in South Australia. Almost all Australia’s mined uranium is exported, under strict International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards against use in nuclear weapons.

Ans a
Moldova is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east and south. It does not share borders with Belarus. Belarus borders Russia to the north and east, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the north.

Ans b
The International Date Line is an imaginary Line on the 180th meridian in the Pacific Ocean that goes through the Bering Strait (between Alaska and Russia), which is half way around the world from Greenwich, England. It is basically a straight Line; however, there are some zigzags. These zigzags are necessary because otherwise one country would be observing two Dates at the same time. In order to prevent this, the International Date Line curves around these countries and only goes through the Pacific Ocean.

Ans b
Planet of the Solar System:

Mercury – The planet with the highest temperature in our solar system and the closest planet to the sun.
Venus – Is close to the same size as earth
Earth – It is our home planet and has one moon
Mars – Closest planet to the Earth
Jupiter – The largest planet in the solar system
Saturn – Has rings around it that make it took different in photos
Uranus – Sometimes called the “Sideways Planet”
Neptune – The furthest planet from the Sun. Pluto is no longer a planet, but is classified as a dwarf planet.

Ans c
Continental Drift refers to the movement of the Earth’s continents relative to each other. The hypothesis that continents ‘drift’ was first put forward by Abraham Ortelius in 1596 and was fully developed by Alfred Wegener in 1912. The Hubble constant describe the universe’s rate of expansion. The apparent linearity of Hubble’s Law implies that the universe is uniformly expanding. Albert Einstein’s mathematical description in 1905 of how the photoelectric effect was caused by absorption of quanta of light (now called photons), was in the paper named “On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light”. This paper proposed the simple description of “light quanta”, or photons, and showed how they explained such phenomena as the photoelectric effect. His simple explanation in terms of absorption of single quanta of light explained the features of the phenomenon and the characteristics frequency. Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect won him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921

Ans b
According to the Global Livestock Production and Health Atlas (GLiPHA) database of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), China has the largest number of livestock units globally, followed by India. The 17th Livestock Census (2003) has placed the total livestock population at 485 millions in India. Australia, Pakistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and New Zealand are the other countries with large numbers of livestock units.

Ans c
Ajman, or Ujman is one of seven emirates comprising the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With an area of just 260 square kilometers, Ajman is the smallest emirate by area. Its seat of government is Ajman, which is surrounded to its north, south, and east by Sharjah. Ras Al-Khaimah is one of the emirates of the United Arab Emirates. It covers an area of 656 square miles 1700 km2). Ras Al Khaimah is in the northern part of the Persian gulf. On December 2, 1971, at the Dubai Guesthouse Palace four other Emirates agreed to join and enter into a union of six Emirates called the United Arab Emirates. Ras al-Khaimah joined later, in early 1972.

Ans d
Colombo is the largest city and commercial capital of Sri Lanka. Located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawadenepura Kotte, the administrative capital of Sri Lanka, Colombo is a busy and vibrant city with a mixture of modern life and colonial buildings and ruins. It lies about 400 miles (645 kilometers) north of the Equator. Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Jakarta is located on the northwestern coast of Java Island, at the mouth of the Cillwung River on Jakarta Bay, which is an inlet of the Java Sea. Lying near the equator, Jakarta is hot and humid year-round. The City of Manila or simply Manila, is the capital of the Philippines one of the cities that make up the greater metropolitan area of Metro Manila. Manila is located approximately 500 miles north of the geo-magnetic equator. Singapore is an island nation located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It lies 137 kilometres (85 mi) north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia’s Riau Islands.

Ans b
Bigger the size of ocean (pacific), lesser the annual range of temperature.