INSIGHTS REVISION TEST for Preliminary Exam 2018: Test – 66 (Geography)

Answer: (a)

Justification:

Mountains also cause air to rise. As the wind blows across a mountain range, air rises and cools and clouds can form on the windward side. This is why windward sides of mountain ranges tend to get heavy precipitation.

When the air sinks on the leeward side of the mountain range, it is usually much drier and warmer than it was to begin with

Answer: (b)

Justification:

An anticyclone (that is, opposite to a cyclone) is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States National Weather Service’s glossary as “a large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere”. Effects of surface-based anticyclones include clearing skies as well as cooler, drier air.

Answer: (a)

Justification:

A batholith is a very large mass of intrusive igneous rock that forms and cools deep in the Earth’s crust. An igneous rock is a type of rock formed through the cooling of lava or magma. The term ‘batholith’ comes from the Greek words bathos, meaning ‘depth,’ and lithos, meaning ‘rock.’ In order for an intrusion to be called a batholith, the exposed area showing at the Earth’s surface should be at least 100 square kilometers, though ssome of these formations are much larger than that.

Answer: (c)

Justification:

Loam is soil composed mostly of sand (particle size > 63 µm), silt (particle size > 2 µm), and a smaller amount of clay (particle size < 2 µm). By weight, its mineral composition is about 40–40–20% concentration of sand-silt-clay, respectively. These proportions can vary to a degree, however, and result in different types of loam soils: sandy loam, silty loam, clay loam, sandy clay loam, silty clay loam, and loam. Loam soils generally contain more nutrients, moisture, and humus than sandy soils, have better drainage and infiltration of water and air than silt and clay-rich soils, and are easier to till than clay soils.

Answer: (d)

Justification:

A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics.

This uplifting of the ocean floor occurs when convection currents rise in the mantle beneath the oceanic crust and create magma where two tectonic plates meet at a divergent boundary.

The mid-ocean ridges of the world are connected and form a single global mid-oceanic ridge system that is part of every ocean, making the mid-oceanic ridge system the longest mountain range in the world, with a total length of about 60,000 km.

Answer: (a)

Justification:

The California Current is a Pacific Ocean current that moves southward along the western coast of North America, beginning off southern British Columbia and ending off southern Baja California Peninsula. It is considered an Eastern boundary current due to the influence of the North American coastline on its course. It is also one of five major coastal currents affiliated with strong upwelling zones, the others being the Humboldt Current, the Canary Current, the Benguela Current, and the Somali Current. The California Current is part of the North Pacific Gyre, a large swirling current that occupies the northern basin of the Pacific.

Answer: (a)

Justification:

The general east-west trend of the Himalayas terminates suddenly at its western and eastern extremities and the ranges are sharply bent southward in deep knee-bend flextures which are called syntaxial bends. Western syntaxial bend is near Nanga Parbat and eastern syntaxial bend is near Namcha Barwa

Answer: (c)

Justification:

The Nilgiri, far south in Tamil Nadu is the meeting place of the Western Ghats, the Eastern Ghats and the Southern hills, rising abruptly from the surrounding areas, it has the highest peak of Doddabeta ( 2,637 m ) and Udagammdulam (Ooty) hill station.

Answer: (b)

The Bhabar belt is a narrow belt about 8-16 km wide running in east-west direction along the foot of the Shivaliks with a remarkable continuity from the Indus to the Teesta. Rivers descending from the Himalayas deposit their load along the foothills in the form of alluvial fans.

Answer: (d)

Justification:

A Western Disturbance is an extratropical storm originating in the Mediterranean region that brings sudden winter rain to the northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is a non-monsoonal precipitation pattern driven by the westerlies. The moisture in these storms usually originates over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.Extratropical storms are a global phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere, unlike their tropical counterparts where the moisture is carried in the lower atmosphere.

Answer: (a)

Justification:

The Ten Degree Channel is a channel that separates the Andaman Islands and Nicobar Islands from each other in the Bay of Bengal. Ten degrees Channel which lies between Little Andaman Island and the Car Nicobar.

Answer: (b)

Justification:

Devaprayag –  Confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi

Vishnuprayag – Confluence of Alaknanda and Dhauliganga

Rudraprayag –   Confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini

Karanprayag –  Confluence of Alaknanda and Pindar

Answer: (c)

Answer: (b)

Justification:

Replacement level fertility is the number of children a woman should have to replace herself and her mate for a stable population, and [it] has been fixed at 2.1 globally due to child mortality. A stable population is that where fertility and mortality are constant. The provisional Census 2011 figures suggest that two contrasting demographic “nations” are emerging in the country with all four south Indian States — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu — already having achieved the replacement level fertility of 2.1 children per women required to initiate the process of population stabilisation, while the four large north Indian States — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — have still a long way to go before they achieve the required level.

Answer: (a)

Answer: (c)

Answer: (d)

Answer: (c)

Answer: (b)

Answer: (c)