Daily Quiz: UPSC Prelims Marathon (Geography) – May 22, 2020

Kalsubai Peak is located in Akola taluka of Ahmednagar district. The Kaslubai temple is situated at the topmost peak of Sahyadri mountain range of Maharashtra, it commands a beautiful view. The natural peak of Kalsubai is located 10 km away from Bhandardara dam. Kalsubaiheight is of 1646 meters and is known as one of the highest peaks in Maharashtra state.

In low latitudes, an intense depression with a low pressure centre is known as a Tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean area, as hurricanes in the Caribbean, typhoons in China and Willy-willies in Australia.

High temperature and abundant rainfall support a luxuriant tropical rain forest.In the Amazon lowlands, the forest is so dense that it is called ‘selvas’. [selvas: A dense tropical rainforest usually having a cloud cover (dense canopy)]. Unlike the temperate regions, the growing season here is all the year round-seeding, flowering, fruiting and decaying not take place in a seasonal pattern.

Damodar River.

Statement 1 is correct: The Damodar River rises in the Palamau hills of Chota Nagpur at an elevation of about 609.75 m. It flows in a south-easterly direction entering the deltaic plains below Raniganj. Near Burdwan, the river abruptly changes its course to a southerly direction and joins Hooghly about 48.27 km below Calcutta. Its slope during the first 241.35 km is about 1.89 m/km, during the next 160.9 km about 0.568 m/km and during the last 144.8 km about 0.189 m/km. The total length of the river is nearly 547 km and a total drainage area is 22,005 sq. km.

Statement 2 is incorrect: The tributaries and subtributaries of the Damodar include Konar, Barakar, Haharo, Bokaro, Ghari, Jamunia, Khadia, Guaia and Bhera. The biggest tributary of the Damodar River is the Barakar. The source of Barakar is located in the vicinity of Padma in Hazaribagh district. Subsequently, the river runs through Jharkhand prior to joining the Damodar close to Dishergarh in West Bengal. The Barakar and the Damodar get the Chota Nagpur flat terrain divided into three parts. The rivers flow through mountainous regions with enormous might, overwhelming anything that comes in their way.

The International Date Line, established in 1884, passes through the mid-Pacific Ocean and roughly follows a 180 degrees longitude north-south line on the Earth. It is located halfway round the world from the prime meridian—the zero degrees longitude established in Greenwich, England, in 1852.The International Date Line functions as a “line of demarcation” separating two consecutive calendar dates. When you cross the date line, you become a time traveler of sorts! Cross to the west and its one day later; cross back and you’ve “gone back in time.”Despite its name, the International Date Line has no legal international status and countries are free to choose the dates that they observe. While the date line generally runs north to south from pole to pole, it zigzags around political borders such as eastern Russia and Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

Since the earth makes one complete rotation of 360° in one day or 24 hours, it passes through 15° in one hour or 1° in 4 minutes. The earth rotates from west to east, so every 15° we go eastwards, local time is advanced by 1 hour. If we know G.M.T, to find local time, we merely have to add or subtract the difference in the number of hours from the given longitude, as illustrated below. A simple memory aid for this will be East-Gain-Add (E.G.A.) and West-Lose-Subtract (W.L. S.).

Mountains that have been eroded by the agents of degradation such as winds, rain, frost and running water leaving behind only the hard rocks are known as residual mountains. These hard rocks that are left behind are known as the residual mountains. Examples of Residual Mountains are Niligiri, Parasnath and Rajmahal hills in India.

Marine Deposition-These plains are found in coastal regions. Examples are the east coast of India, the estuarine banks in Netherlands coast of Germany and Denmark. In Denmark we find polders and dykes. A polder is a piece of land reclaimed from the sea or lake. The submerged land is surrounded by an embankment and drained by pumping water into canals.

Chemical weathering is caused by rain water reacting with the mineral grains in rocks to form new minerals (clays) and soluble salts. These reactions occur particularly when the water is slightly acidic. There are different types of chemical weathering, the most important are:

• Solution – removal of rock in solution by acidic rainwater. In particular, limestone is weathered by rainwater containing dissolved CO2, (this process is sometimes called carbonation).
• Hydrolysis – the breakdown of rock by acidic water to produce clay and soluble salts.
• Oxidation – the breakdown of rock by oxygen and water, often giving iron-rich rocks a rusty-colored weathered surface.

Red Sea runs between the two continents Africa and Asia. It is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean. Four African countries border the Red Sea on the western side, while two Asian countries in east. The countries that border Red Sea are:

• Egypt to the west and north, and
• Sudan, Djibouti, and Eritrea to the west.
• Yemen and Saudi Arabia in East.