Test: Geography- 6 - UPSC MCQ

Chemically, the black soils are rich in lime, iron, magnesia and alumina. They also contain potash. But they lack in phosphorous, nitrogen and organic matter.
Laterite soil – With rain, lime and silica are leached away, and soils rich in iron oxide and aluminium compound are left behind. These soils are poor in organic matter, nitrogen, phosphate and calcium, while iron oxide and potash are in excess.

Red soil develops on crystalline igneous rocks in areas of low rainfall in the eastern and southern part of the Deccan Plateau. Along the piedmont zone of the Western Ghat, long stretch of area is occupied by red loamy soil. Yellow and red soils are also found in parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh and in the southern parts of the middle Ganga plain. The soil develops a reddish colour due to a wide diffusion of iron in crystalline and metamorphic rocks. It looks yellow when it occurs in a hydrated form. The fine-grained red and yellow soils are normally fertile, whereas coarse-grained soils found in dry upland areas are poor in fertility. They are generally poor in nitrogen, phosphorous and humus.

Blizzards come under the category of atmospheric natural disasters. Here is a detailed explanation:
Definition of Blizzards:
Blizzards are severe winter storms characterized by strong winds, low temperatures, and heavy snowfall. They often result in poor visibility, making travel and outdoor activities extremely dangerous.
Explanation:
Blizzards are caused by a combination of atmospheric factors, making them fall under the category of atmospheric natural disasters. Here's a breakdown of the reasons why blizzards are considered atmospheric:
1. Atmospheric Conditions:
- Blizzards occur when a low-pressure system brings cold air from the Arctic or polar regions into an area with moist air.
- The clash between warm and cold air masses creates a turbulent atmosphere, leading to blizzard conditions.
2. Wind:
- Blizzards are characterized by strong winds, often exceeding 35 miles per hour.
- These winds create blinding snowstorms, reducing visibility to near-zero levels.
3. Snowfall:
- Blizzards are associated with heavy snowfall, typically accumulating several inches or even feet of snow.
- The combination of strong winds and snowfall can lead to snowdrifts, making travel and transportation extremely difficult.
4. Impact and Danger:
- Blizzards pose significant risks to human life and infrastructure.
- The combination of low temperatures, wind chill, and reduced visibility can lead to hypothermia, frostbite, accidents, and power outages.
In conclusion, blizzards are an atmospheric natural disaster due to their dependence on atmospheric conditions, strong winds, heavy snowfall, and the associated risks they pose to human life and infrastructure.

• Important tributaries of Kaveri river are Shimsa, Hemavathi, Honnuhole, Arkavathi, Kapila, Lakshmana Theertha, Kabini, Lokapavani, Bhavani, Noyil and Amravati.
• Manjra is the tributary of Godavari River.
• Bhima and Koyna are the tributaries of Krishna River.

Submergent Coasts are those that have been flooded by ocean waters because of a relative rise in the elevation of sea level at that location. The rise in sea level can be either the result of an increase in the volume of water in the ocean basins or the result of the land surface sinking, both of which create an apparent rise in the elevation of sea level. Features of a submergent coastline are drowned river valleys or rias and drowned glaciated valleys or fjords.

Estuaries are often the drowned mouths of rivers.
The Western Coastal Plains of the Indian subcontinent are examples of submergent coastline.
Emergent coasts are a result of local tectonic uplift of the land surface or a fall in the elevation of sea level because of a reduction in the water volume of ocean basins. Quite often, emergent coasts have rocky coastlines with cliffs and nearly flat platforms that extend inland where older coastal plains have been tectonically raised and are now elevated above the modern land and water interface.

The emergent coastline may have several specific landforms:

• Raised beach
• Wave cut platform
• Sea cave

The Yangtze River is the third longest worldwide and the longest river in the Asia with a length of 6,300 km. The other long Asian rivers are the Yellow River, River Mekong and Brahmaputra and Indus Rivers.

The Great Lakes also called the Laurentian Great Lakes and the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of interconnected freshwater lakes located primarily in the upper mid-east region of North America, on the Canada–United States border, which connect to the Atlantic Ocean through the Saint Lawrence River. They consist of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario.

It is located in the Nilgiri hills, within Palakkad District of Kerala.

Important Tributaries of Godavari River – Penganga, Wainganga, Wardha, Pranahita, Manjra, Maner etc.

Justification:
Devprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi
Vishnuprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Dhauliganga
Rudraprayag –   Confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini
Karanprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Pindar

AOSIS is a coalition of 44 small island and low-lying coastal developing states, including five observers. As a voice for the vulnerable, its mandate is more than amplifying marginalised voices as it also advocates for these countries’ interests. In terms of size, AOSIS closely resembles the countries it represents on the global stage, but often punches far above its weight, negotiating historic global commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions, among other achievements.

To achieve its goals, AOSIS often draws on partnerships, including with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Commission, to bolster its capacity to effectively influence climate negotiations, some of the most complex and difficult in the world. AOSIS also makes vital contributions by helping its members to pool their resources and amplify their collective voice in climate talks. This goes beyond just speaking up to securing ambitious agreements with tangible benefits for vulnerable communities.

Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) is an initiative aimed at setting up of Compressed Bio-Gas production plants and make it available in the market for use in automotive fuels by inviting Expression of Interest from potential entrepreneurs.
The initiative was launched in October 2018 by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in association with Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) Oil Marketing Companies (OMC)

European Union (EU) has become the first multilateral bloc to declare climate emergency.
Similar climate emergency declarations have already been made in several EU member states, including Spain, France and the United Kingdom. Outside Europe Canada, Argentina and Bangladesh have declared a climate emergency.

• Launched in 2000, Unesco Asia-Pacific awards for cultural heritage conservation programme is aimed at acknowledging the efforts taken to restore and conserve historical structures without affecting their heritage value in the region comprising 48 countries.
• The awards are classified under four categories — Award of Excellence, Awards of Distinction, Awards of Merit and Award for New Design in Heritage Context.
• They are being given to encourage the efforts of all stakeholders and the public in conserving and promoting monuments and religious institutes with rich heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.

Mumbai has won maximum recognitions since the inception of the awards in 2000 – the most for any city in India.

• Carbon offsetting allows a country to help reach its own emissions reduction targets by funding emission reductions in another country. Companies are also increasingly using carbon credits to offset their emissions.
• The first major offsetting scheme, the U.N.s clean development mechanism (CDM), was set up under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in which 190 countries agreed country-by-country emission reduction targets.
• The scheme was designed to help fund emission reduction projects in developing countries, while also providing offset credits to the developed world to help meet its Kyoto targets.
• Carbon offset schemes cover all greenhouse gases but are measured in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent and can be awarded carbon credits.
• More than 8,100 projects in 111 countries have registered with the CDM scheme, which has handed out over 2 billion carbon credits, called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs), representing 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide reduction.
• Projects registered under the scheme range from capturing and using methane gasses in pig manure to create electricity to replacing traditional wood and coal burning cookstoves with cleaner alternatives such as ethanol. Offsets can be bought by individuals, companies or countries.

• The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), also known as the Indian Niño, is an irregular oscillation of sea-surface temperatures in which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the ocean.
• A 2009 study has demonstrated a significant correlation between the IOD and drought in the southern half of Australia, in particular the south-east.
• During the Positive IOD, the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean off Sumatra in Indonesia becomes colder than normal while the western tropical part of the Indian Ocean near the African coast becomes unusually warm. This is beneficial for the monsoon.
• During the Negative IOD the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean off Sumatra in Indonesia becomes abnormally warm while the western tropical part of the ocean near the African coast becomes relatively colder. This effect obstructs the progression of monsoon over India.

Pattern of Wind Direction in Cyclones and Anticyclones

• A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics.
• This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the oceanic crust and create magma where two tectonic plates meet at a divergent boundary.
• The mid-ocean ridges of the world are connected and form a single global mid-oceanic ridge system that is part of every ocean, making the mid-oceanic ridge system the longest mountain range in the world, with a total length of about 60,000 km.

Qatar has one land border. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the south.

The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Peninsula. It is considered an Eastern boundary current due to the influence of the North American coastline on its course. It is also one of five major coastal currents affiliated with strong upwelling zones, the others being the Humboldt Current, the Canary Current, the Benguela Current, and the Somali Current. The California Current is part of the North Pacific Gyre, a large swirling current that occupies the northern basin of the Pacific.

Kochi is a major port city on the south-west coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. Called the Queen of the Arabian Sea, Kochi was an important spice trading centre on the west coast of India from the 14th century onward.

The factors affecting Ocean Salinity are:

• The salinity of water in the oceans depend mainly on evaporation and precipitation. Precipitation is inversely related to salinity. Higher the precipitation, lower the salinity and vice-versa.
• Wind influences salinity of an area by transferring water to other areas.
• Salinity in coastal regions is influenced by the fresh water flow from rivers, and in Polar Regions by the processes of freezing and thawing of ice.
• The ocean currents also contribute to the salinity variations.

There are three main reasons for the excessive cold in north India during this season :
(i) States like Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan being far away from the moderating influence of sea experience continental climate.
(ii) The snowfall in the nearby Himalayan ranges creates cold wave situation; and
(iii) Around February, the cold winds coming from the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan bring cold wave along with frost and fog over the north-western parts of India.

• The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), known by sailors as the doldrums, is the area encircling Earth near the Equator, where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge.
• The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is a low pressure zone located at the equator, it is a zone where air tends to ascend. In July, the ITCZ is located around 20°N-25°N latitudes (over the Gangetic plain), sometimes called the monsoon trough. This monsoon trough encourages the development of thermal low over north and northwest India. Due to the shift of ITCZ, the trade winds of the southern hemisphere cross the equator between 40° and 60°E longitudes and start blowing from southwest to northeast due to the Coriolis force. It becomes southwest monsoon. In winter, the ITCZ moves southward, and so the reversal of winds from northeast to south and southwest, takes place. They are called northeast monsoons.

Mountains also cause air to rise. As the wind blows across a mountain range, air rises and cools and clouds can form on the windward side. This is why windward sides of mountain ranges tend to get heavy precipitation.
When the air sinks on the leeward side of the mountain range, it is usually much drier and warmer than it was to begin with.