Daily Quiz #13 UPSC Prelims Marathon – November 15 , 2019

Explanation: The Gulf Stream strong current of warm water influences the climate of the east coast of Florida, keeping temperatures there warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than the other southeastern states. Since the Gulf Stream also extends toward Europe, it warms western European countries as well.
In fact, England is about the same distance from the equator as cold regions of Canada, yet England enjoys a much warmer climate. If it weren’t for the warm water of the Gulf Stream, England would have a much colder climate.

Explanation: Warm, dry weather is created by anticyclones or high pressure systems. Depressions or low pressure systems bring changeable weather conditions. They may bring windy conditions, but they usually bring rainfall too.
A low pressure system, also known as a depression occurs when the weather is dominated by unstable conditions. Under a depression air is rising, forming an area of low pressure at the surface. This rising air cools and condenses and helps encourage cloud formation, so the weather is often cloudy and wet. In the Northern Hemisphere winds blow in anticlockwise direction around a depression. Isobars are normally closely spaced around a depressions leading to strong winds.

Relief rainfall forms when air rises over high land, cools and condenses. Relief rainfall is therefore common in higher parts of the UK. Rainfall caused by the Sun heating up the air is called convectional rainfall. Relief rainfall, also known as orographic rainfall, occurs in areas where land increases in height. It is very common on the west coast of the United Kingdom due to the prevailing weather coming from that direction.
Relief rainfall is formed when the air cools as it rises over relief features in the landscape such as hills or mountains. As the air rises, it cools, condenses and forms rain.
In the UK prevailing winds from the west lead to air rising over upland areas such as the Pennines. As the result of this rainfall totals of over 1,600 mm per year occur in the west of the UK. The downwind or leeward slope receives a small amount of rainfall in comparison.

Explanation: A desert is an area that receives little precipitation. Deserts can be hot or cold. Most deserts are quite barren as the dry conditions are too hostile to most plant and animal life. Desert flora and fauna have special adaptations that help them survive the harsh environment. Humans also dwell in desert areas. Traditionally, they have led nomadic lives. According to estimates, about one-third of the terrestrial surface area of the Earth is either arid or semi-arid.
The Kalahari Desert is a vast, semi-arid savanna found in southern Africa. The Kalahari covers a land surface of about 360,000 square miles. It covers parts of Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. The desert has large areas that are covered with red sand without permanent surface water drainage. It has seasonally inundated pans (dry basins or beds), dry valleys and salt pans. The Okavango is the only permanent river in the Kalahari Desert. It flows to a delta in the northwest of the desert. The Kalahari Desert is home to some vegetation, mostly in the form of desert plants such as certain cactus species and shrubs.

Explanation: Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest in our solar system. It is the only planet that we know of that can house living things, from plants to animals to humans – even though it has not always been able to do so. The Earth’s atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, with traces of argon, carbon dioxide and water. There was probably a very much larger amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere when the Earth was first formed, but it has since been almost all incorporated into carbonate rocks and to a lesser extent dissolved into the oceans and consumed by living plants.