Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Environment & Geography) – July 19, 2020

A new, curious mineral has been discovered inside a diamond unearthed from a mine in South Africa.

• The mineral has been named goldschmidtite, after Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, the Norwegian scientist acknowledged as the founder of modern geochemistry.
• Goldschmidtite has an unusual chemical signature for a mineral from Earth’s mantle, according to the University of Alberta, a student of which discovered it.
• While the mantle is dominated by elements such as magnesium and iron, goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium.
• PhD student Nicole Meyer found a single grain of the mineral in the diamond, unearthed in Koffiefontein, South Africa.
• The university described it as dark green and opaque.

Rare earth elements are a group of seventeen chemical elements that occur together in the periodic table.

• The group consists of yttrium and the 15 lanthanide elements (lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium).
• Scandium is found in most rare earth element deposits and is sometimes classified as a rare earth element.
• The rare earth elements are all metals and the group is often referred to as the “rare earth metals.”
• These metals have many similar properties, and that often causes them to be found together in geologic deposits.
• They are also referred to as “rare earth oxides” because many of them are typically sold as oxide compounds.
• A large number of alloys are made more durable by the addition of rare earth metals.
• Glass, granite, marble, and gemstones are often polished with cerium oxide powder. Many motors and generators contain magnets made with rare earth elements.
• Phosphors used in digital displays, monitors, and televisions are created with rare earth oxides. Most computer, cell phone, and electric vehicle batteries are made with rare earth metals.

The costal land forms of east and west coasts of the Nation contain significantly important placer mineral deposits.

• The minerals like ilmenite, rutile, garnet, zircon, monazite and sillimanite are occurring in these deposits.
• The controls like source rock geology, coastal geomorphology effective drainage network and favorable climatic conditions favored the formation of rich placer deposits in coastal environments.
• Important deposits occur in the coastal environments of Kerala (Chavara), Tamil Nadu (Manavalakurichi, Midalam, Vayakallur), Andhra Pradesh (Kakinada, Pentakota, Bhimunipatnam, Konada – Kandivalasa – Mukumpeta – Bendi creek – Donkar), (Sanaekasangi – Gopalpur, Chatrapur, Bajarkot, Satpara and Puri) and Maharastra (Kalbadevi, Newre and Malgund).

The Union Water Ministry has excavated an old, dried-up river in Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) that linked the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.

• The “ancient buried river” as it was described at a conference organised by the Ministry, is around 4 km wide, 45 km long and consisted of a 15-metre-thick layer buried under soil.
• These paleochannels reveal the course of rivers that have ceased to exist.
• The aim is to develop it as a potential groundwater recharge source, according to officials at the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), a body under the Union Jal Shakti Ministry that coordinates the cleaning of the Ganga.

The White Island Volcano, also called Whakaari, in New Zealand has recently erupted.

• White Island is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano.
• About 70% of the volcano lies under the sea.
• It is the country’s most active volcano situated in the east coast in the Bay of Plenty.

CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency/Economy) norms aim at lowering fuel consumption (or improving fuel efficiency) of vehicles.

• CAFE is the average fuel efficiency of all vehicles produced by a manufacturer in a given period, taking into consideration the sales volume of each model.
• The government expects that a strict CAFE target will provide incentives to auto makers to produce and sell more EVs, to improve their average fuel efficiency.

India is the world’s largest emitter of anthropogenic sulphur dioxide, which is produced from coal burning, and greatly contributes to air pollution, a study claimed on August 19.

• According to an analysis of a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) data released by environmental NGO Greenpeace on August 2019, India has more than 15% of all anthropogenic sulphur dioxide (SO2) hotspots in the world detected by the OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) satellite.
• The major SO2 emission hotspots in India are Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, Neyveli and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, Talcher and Jharsuguda in Odisha, Korba in Chhattisgarh, Kutch in Gujarat, Ramagundam in Telangana and Chandrapur and Koradi in Maharashtra.
• The vast majority of plants in India lack flue-gas desulfurization technology to reduce their air pollution.
• The NASA data also highlights other hotspots across the globe, with the Norilsk smelter complex in Russia being the largest SO2 emission hotspot in the world, followed by Kriel in Mpumalanga province in South Africa and Zagroz in Iran.
• However, as per country-wise world rankings, India was found at the top position in emitting SO2 as it has the maximum hotspots.

Indian Oil (IOCL) has come up with an innovative solution to this problem by introducing a special winter-grade diesel with a low pour-point of -33 degree Celsius, which does not lose its fluidity function even in extreme winter conditions.

This winter-grade diesel also meets BIS specification of BS-VI grade and was successfully produced and certified for the first time by the Panipat Refinery.

Assam is traditionally flood prone, and the 1,055 sq km KNPTR — sandwiched between the Brahmaputra River and the Karbi Anglong Hills — is no exception.

• Among experts there is a consensus that floods are necessary for Kaziranga by virtue of its ecosystem.
• “It is a riverine ecosystem, not a solid landmass-based ecosystem,” said by Director, KNPTR, “The system won’t survive without water.”
• The entire area of Kaziranga — formed by alluvial deposits from the Brahmaputra and its tributaries — is centred around the river.

Farm forestry is a term applied to the process under which farmers grow trees for commercial and non-commercial purposes on their farm lands.

• Forest departments of various states distribute seedlings of trees free of cost to small and medium farmers.
• Several lands such as the margins of agricultural fields, grasslands and pastures, land around homes and cow sheds may be used for raising trees under non-commercial farm forestry.