Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – August 24, 2018

Statement 1 is incorrect.

The term El Niño refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to a periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.

Statement 2 is correct.

Typical El Niño effects are likely to develop over North America during the upcoming winter season. Those include warmer-than-average temperatures over western and central Canada, and over the western and northern United States. Wetter-than-average conditions are likely over portions of the

U.S. Gulf Coast and Florida, while drier-than-average conditions can be expected in the Ohio Valley and the Pacific Northwest.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

El-nino decreases in the amount of planktons across the Peru coast. In most years trade winds flow from the southeast push warm surface water away from the coast. In its place, the cold water comes up on the surface due to upwelling. This cold water is full of nutrients and provides nourishments to planktons.

These planktons serve as food for fishes. Fishes in turn provide food to the seda birds. Due to all this, not only there is a good catch of fishes but also good collection of the Guano, the bird excreta, used as a valuable fertilizer. This is what that made Peru number one fishing nation in the world by the early 1970s.

Due to El-Nino, the trade winds reverse direction, blowing from west to east. Due to this reversal, the upwelling of the cold water gets weakened. The surface water is warm. This lowers the  nutrients available to fish and thus poses problems to the economics of fisheries.

Statement 1 is correct.

Large amounts of water are stored in the ground. The water is still moving, possibly very slowly, and it is still part of the water cycle. Most of the water in the ground comes from precipitation that infiltrates downward from the land surface.

Statement 2 is correct.

The part of rain or snow-melt water which accumulates in the rocks after seeping through the surface is called underground water or simply groundwater. After vertically going down to some depth, the water under the ground flows horizontally through the bedding planes, joints or through the materials themselves. Any limestone, dolomite or gypsum region showing typical landforms produced by the action of groundwater through the process of solution and deposition is called as Karst Topography (Karst region in the Balkans). On the other hand Sinkholes and caves are erosional landforms formed due to the action of groundwater.

Based on the past seismic history, the Bureau of Indian Standards grouped the country into four seismic zones, i.e. Zone-II, -III, -IV and V. Out of this Zone V is the most seismically active region while zone II is the least.

Broadly, Zone-V comprises of entire north-eastern India, parts of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Rann of Kutch in Gujarat, parts of North Bihar and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Zone-IV covers remaining parts of Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, Union Territory of Delhi, Sikkim, northern parts of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, parts of Gujarat and small portions of Maharashtra near the west coast and Rajasthan. Zone-iii comprises of Kerala, Goa, Lakshadweep islands, and remaining parts of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Zone-II covers remaining parts of the country.

As part of pre-disaster preparedness measure, Government of India has also completed seismic microzonation studies of some of the major cities in the country such as, Jabalpur, Guwahati, Bangalore, greater Bharuch in Gujarat, Jammu in J & K, Shillong in Meghalaya, Chennai in Tamil Nadu and Sikkim state.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

The alluvial soils are found in all the river plains across India including coastal plains.

Statement 2 is correct.

The alluvial soil is deficient in humus except the Ganga delta which is rich in humus.

Statement 3 is correct.

The alluvial soils are alkaline in drier areas.

Statement 1 is incorrect.

Use of chemical fertilizers leads to problem of soil erosion. Chemical fertilizers in the absence of organic manures are also harmful to the soil. Unless the soil gets enough humus, chemicals harden it and reduce its fertility in the long run.

Statement 2 is correct.

Terrace Farming and Regulated Forestry are popular methods of soil conservation. Contour bunding, Contour terracing, regulated forestry, controlled grazing, cover cropping, mixed farming and crop rotation are some of the remedial measures which are often adopted to reduce soil erosion.

Statement 3 is incorrect.

Shifting cultivation is an agricultural system in which a person uses a piece of land, only to abandon or alter the initial use a short time later. This system often involves clearing of a piece of land followed by several years of wood harvesting or farming until the soil loses fertility. Once the land becomes inadequat for crop prodction, it is left to be reclaimed by natural vegetation, or sometimes converted to a different long term cyclical farming practice. Without the full period of regeneration, the land does not recover from the loss of nutrients, soil erosion and deterioration of the soil structure took place.

A typical hydro plant is a system with three parts: an electric plant where the electricity is produced, a dam that can be opened or closed to control water flow, and a reservoir where water can be stored. The water behind the dam flows through an intake and pushes against blades in a turbine, causing them to turn.

The rivers flowing through the Arunachal Pradesh are perennial and have a high rate of fall making them ideal for producing hydroelectricity.

Information Technology industry is an example of footloose industry. Footloose industries are those industries which nearly remainindiffferent with locational aspects of plant. Their products are having very high value addition and smaller in size and so transportation cost is only a small fraction of total cost. These industries usually requires a very small production space, are usually less polluting and but requires highly skilled workers. Examples are: watch, camera, diamond cutting, precision electronics, etc.