Daily Quiz #7 UPSC Prelims Marathon – November 8 , 2019

Explanation: Warm Temperate Eastern Margin Climate characterized by a warm moist summer and a cool, dry winter (one exception: winters are also moist in Natal Type).
Temperature:
•The mean monthly temperature varies between 4° C and 25° C and is strongly modified by maritime influence.
•Occasionally, the penetration of cold air (Polar Vortex) from the continental interiors may bring down the temperature to freezing point.
•Though frosts are rare they occasionally occur in the colder interiors.
Precipitation:
•Rainfall is more than moderate, anything from 60 cm to 150 cm.
•This is adequate for all agricultural purposes and hence supports a wide range of crops.
•Areas which experience this climate are very densely populated.
•There is the fairly uniform distribution of rainfall throughout the year.
•Rain comes either from convectional sources or as orographic rain in summer, or from depressions in prolonged showers in winter.
•In summer, the regions are under the influence of moist, maritime airflow from the subtropical anticyclonic cells.
•Local storms, e.g. typhoons (tropical cyclones), and hurricanes, also occur.

Explanation: Grasslands are characterized as lands dominated by grasses rather than large shrubs or trees. In the Miocene and Pliocene Epochs, which spanned a period of about 25 million years, mountains rose in western North America and created a continental climate favorable to grasslands. Ancient forests declined and grasslands became widespread. Following the Pleistocene Ice Ages, grasslands expanded in range as hotter and drier climates prevailed worldwide. There are two main divisions of grasslands:
tropical grasslands, called savannas
temperate grasslands
Temperate grasslands are characterized as having grasses as the dominant vegetation. Trees and large shrubs are absent. Temperatures vary more from summer to winter, and the amount of rainfall is less in temperate grasslands than in savannas. The major manifestations are the veldts of South Africa, the pustaz of Hungary, the pampas of Argentina and Uruguay, the steppes of the former Soviet Union, and the plains and prairies of central North America.
In Australia, the grasslands are better known as Downs and are found in the Murray-Darling basin of southern Australia.

Explanation: The Aravalli Range is a range of mountains running approximately 692 km in a southwest direction, starting in North India from Delhi and passing through southern Haryana, through to Western India across the states of Rajasthan and ending in Gujarat. Guru Shikhar, the highest peak in the Aravalli Range at 5650 feet (1722 meters) in Mount Abu of Rajasthan, lies near the south-western extremity of the Central Aravalli range, close to the border with Gujarat state.

Explanation: A full moon occurs when the side of the Moon facing Earth is fully lit up by the Sun. There are a few different types of unusual full moon types, which include blood moons, supermoons, blue moons, and harvest moons, and others.
Blood moon: One meaning of a “blood moon” is based on its red glow. This blood moon occurs during a total lunar eclipse. During a total lunar eclipse, Earth lines up between the Moon and the Sun. This hides the Moon from the sunlight. When this happens, the only light that reaches the Moon’s surface is from the edges of the Earth’s atmosphere. The air molecules from Earth’s atmosphere scatter out most of the blue light. The remaining light reflects onto the Moon’s surface with a red glow, making the Moon appear red in the night sky.
The name “blood moon” is also sometimes used for a Moon that appears reddish because of dust, smoke or haze in the sky. And it can be one of the full moons of autumn when the leaves are turning red.
Supermoon: A “supermoon” appears to us as a larger-than-usual Moon in our night sky. A supermoon looks larger just because it’s a bit closer to Earth. “Supermoon” is actually just a nickname for what astronomers call a perigean full moon – a moon that is full and at its closest point in its orbit around Earth.
Blue Moon: A blue moon is not blue in color. In fact, a blue moon does not look any different than a regular, monthly full moon.
Rather, a blue moon is special because it is the “extra” Moon in a season with four full moons. This usually only happens every two-and-a-half years. Since the 1940s, the term “blue moon” has also been used for the second full moon in a calendar month. This usually happens only every two-and-a-half years.
Harvest moon: The term “harvest moon” refers to the full, bright Moon that occurs closest to the start of autumn. The name dates from the time before electricity, when farmers depended on the Moon’s light to harvest their crops late into the night. The Moon’s light was particularly important during fall, when harvests are the largest.

Explanation: Residual mountains are those mountains which have been eroded by the agents of
degradation such as winds, rain, frost and running water. The hard rocks that are left behind are
called residual mountains.
The Sierras of central Spain and Mesas of USA are some examples of residual mountains.
Examples of Residual Mountains in India are: the Aravali hi,lls, the Nallamala hills, the Javadi
hills, the Veliconda hills, the Palkonda range, and the Mahendragiri hills.