Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon – December 14, 2018

In terms of institutions, UNCLOS created the Hamburg- based International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), the Kingston, Jamaica-headquartered International Seabed Authority (ISA) and the CLCS for

global ocean governance. ITLOS is tasked with the peaceful settlement of contentious issues submitted to it by member states while the CLCS is mandated to scientifically determine the maritime boundaries of states relating to the continental shelf. The ISA is designated to oversee exploitation of resources in the deep sea area. UNCLOS provides four options for member states to peacefully settle disputes  through ITLOS, the International Court of Justice, an arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VII of UNCLOS, and a special arbitral tribunal constituted in accordance with Annex VIII of UNCLOS for one or more of the categories of disputes specified such as fisheries, marine pollution etc. A state party may choose one or more of the options stated above.

Statement 1 and 3 are correct:

IONOSPHERE

(i) This is the fourth layer of the atmosphere. It is located above the mesosphere.

(ii) This layer spreads upto the height of 400 kms. From the surface of the earth. The width of this layer is about 300 kms.

(iii) The temperature starts increasing again with increasing height in this layer.

(iv) Electrically charged currents flows in the air in this sphere. Radio waves are reflected back on the earth from this sphere and due to this radio broadcasting has become possible.

Note: Meteors or falling stars occur in the MESOSPHERE

Statement 1 and 2 are correct:

El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. El Nino is the “warm phase” of a larger phenomenon called the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). El Niño has an impact on ocean temperatures, the speed and strength of ocean currents, the health of coastal fisheries, and local weather from Australia to South America and beyond. El Niño events occur irregularly at two- to seven- year intervals. However, El Niño is not a regular

cycle, or predictable in the sense that ocean tides are. During an El Niño event, westward-blowing  trade winds weaken along the Equator.These changes in air pressure and wind speed cause warm surface water to move eastward along the Equator, from the western Pacific to the coast of northern South America. These warm surface waters deepen the thermocline, the level of ocean depth that separates warm surface water from the colder water below. During an El Niño event, the thermocline can dip as far as 152 meters (500 feet).

This thick layer of warm water does not allow normal upwelling to occur. Without an upwelling of nutrient-rich cold water, the euphotic zone of the eastern Pacific can no longer support its normally productive coastal ecosystem. Fish populations die or migrate. El Niño has a devastating impact on Ecuadorian and Peruvian economies.

Statement 3 and 4 are incorrect:

El Niño also produces widespread and sometimes severe changes in the climate. Convection above warmer surface waters bring increased precipitation. Rainfall increases drastically in Ecuador and northern Peru, contributing to coastal flooding and erosion. Rains and floods may destroy homes, schools, hospitals, and businesses. They also limit transportation and destroy crops. As El Niño brings rain to South America, it brings droughts to Indonesia and Australia. These droughts threaten the region’s water supplies, as reservoirs dry and rivers carry less water. Agriculture, which depends on water for irrigation, is threatened.

The prominence of local winds around the Medi-terranean Sea:

Many local winds, sonic hot, others cold arc common around the Mediterranean Sea. The causes are many and varied. The topography of the region with the high Alps in the north, the Sahara desert in the south, continental interiors in the east and the open Atlantic on the west gives rise to great differences in temperature, pressure and precipitation. Thus, plays an important role in determining the Mediterranean type of climate. Some of the major winds which blows around the

Mediterranean Sea are:

1. Mistral: Mistral is a cold wind from the north, rushing down the Rhone valley in violent gusts between 40 and 80 miles per hour. The velocity of the Mistral is intensified by the funneling effect in the valley between the Alps and the Central Massif [Plateau in France].
2. Sirocco: This is a hot, dry dusty wind which originates in the Sahara Desert. The Sirocco blows outwards in a southerly direction (south to north) from the desert interiors into the cooler Mediterranean Sea. After crossing the Mediterranean Sea, the Sirocco is slightly cooled by the absorption of the water vapour. Its scorching heat withers [To dry up or shrivel from loss of moisture] vegetation and crops. This may be ‘blood rain’ because the wind is carrying the red dust of the Sahara Desert.
3. Bora: Occurs along the eastern shore of the Northern Adriatic and is similar in some respects to the Mistral. It is a NE wind occurring chiefly in winter, when it may attain gale force. Violent gusts and squalls, sometimes reaching 100 knots, occur on the eastern side of the Adriatic constituting a danger to shipping, especially as they often set in with little or no warning.

Note: Simoom is a strong, dry, desert wind that blows in the Sahara, Israel, Jordan, Syria, and the desert of Arabia.

The Caspian Sea and Lake Baikal were formed by the movement of tectonic plates. Great Lakes, were created primarily by glaciers.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Seasons are determined by the inclination of the Earth’s rotation axis.

Statement 2 is correct.

After the March equinox, the sun’s path gradually drifts northward. By the June solstice, vertical days from sun fall on tropic of cancer (23.5 N).This is the northern most point of vertical rays of sun. Then the sun’s path gradually drifts southward. The southward drift then continues until the December solstice This is the southernmost point of vertical rays of sun. ie tropic of Capricorn.(23.5 S) .The sun rays will be vertical in between the tropics.

Statement 3 is correct.

Earth revolves about its axis once every 24 hours. In other words, the Sun completes its apparent revolution of 360 degree in 24 hours. This means that the Sun crosses each of the 360 meridians of longitude once every 24 hours.

All the above statements are correct. An anti- cyclone is a wind system which has high air- pressure at centre and low at outer margin, with the wind flowing clockwise around it in the Northern Hemisphere, and counter-clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, they are high pressure system, more common in subtropical high pressure belt but practically absent in equatorial region. They are associated with rainless fair weather. The outward movement of wind from the high pressure centre keeps limited scope for disturbance.