Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Geography) – April 10, 2020

Palani Hills, range of hills, an eastward extension of the Western Ghats, in southwestern Tamil Nadu state, southern India. The range is a continuation of the Anaimalai Hills in Kerala state. The Palnis are about 45 miles (70 km) wide and 15 miles (23 km) long. In the south the hills terminate abruptly in steep slopes. The upper Palnis, in the west, consist of rolling hills covered with coarse grasses; dense forests grow in the valleys. Peaks include Vandaravu, 8,376 feet (2,553 metres); Vembadi Shola, 8,221 feet (2,505 metres); and Karunmakadu, 8,042 feet (2,451 metres). The town of Kodaikanal is located in a high basin about 7,000 feet (2,150 metres) above sea level. Potatoes, beans, root crops, pears, and peaches are cultivated in and around the hill villages.

By States, Odisha alone accounts for 51% of country’s resources of bauxite followed by Andhra Pradesh (16%), Gujarat (9%), Jharkhand (6%), Maharashtra (5%) and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh (4% each). Major bauxite resources are concentrated in the East Coast bauxite deposits in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

The River Godavari is an important stream in central India, rising in the Western Ghats Mountain Range. The name of the origin is Trimbakeshwar and it is situated in the Nashik District or Subdivision in the state of Maharashtra and runs towards the east over the Deccan terrain through the Maharashtra state. The river is also named as Southern Ganges or Dakshin Ganga. The river moves into Andhra Pradesh at Kandhakurthi in Nizamabad district of Andhra Pradesh, moves past the Deccan terrain and subsequently bends to run according to a southeasterly course till it pours into the Bay of Bengal via two mouths. An important place of attraction on the riverbanks is Basara in Adilabad District. It houses a popular place of worship for Goddess Saraswati. It is also the second oldest temple for the deity in India. The biggest city on the riverbanks of the Godavari is Rajahmundry. In this place, the river has the maximum breadth (about 5 km from Rajahmundry to the other bank at Kovvur. The Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project or KLIP is a multi-purpose irrigation project on the Godavari River in Kaleshwaram, Bhoopalpally, Telangana, India.

The stratosphere is found above the tropopause and extends up to a height of 50 km. One important feature of the stratosphere is that it contains the ozone layer. This layer absorbs ultra-violet radiation and shields life on the earth from intense, harmful form of energy. The mesosphere lies above the stratosphere, which extends up to a height of 80 km. In this layer, once again, temperature starts decreasing with the increase in altitude and reaches up to minus 100°C at the height of 80 km. The upper limit of mesosphere is known as the mesopause. The ionosphere is located between 80 and 400 km above the mesopause. It contains electrically charged particles known as ions, and hence, it is known as ionosphere. Radio waves transmitted from the earth are reflected back to the earth by this layer.

The insolation received by the earth is in short waves forms and heats up its surface. The earth after being heated itself becomes a radiating body and it radiates energy to the atmosphere in long wave form. This energy heats up the atmosphere from below. This process is known as terrestrial radiation. The long wave radiation is absorbed by the atmospheric gases particularly by carbon dioxide and the other green house gases. Thus, the atmosphere is indirectly heated by the earth’s radiation. The atmosphere in turn radiates and transmits heat to the space. Finally the amount of heat received from the sun is returned to space, thereby maintaining constant temperature at the earth’s surface and in the atmosphere.