Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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Mackinac Island is a small island city in northern Michigan, United States. It is located where Lake Huron meets Lake Michigan, two of the Great Lakes of North America. The island covers about 4.35 square miles and is known for its natural beauty and peaceful environment. It is surrounded by limestone cliffs and rises up to 339 feet in the eastern part. A unique feature is that motor vehicles are banned, making horses the main mode of transport. Recently, the island gained attention again as a rare car-free haven in America’s car manufacturing state.

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Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki on Flores Island in Indonesia recently erupted, sending volcanic ash nearly a kilometer into the sky. It is located on Flores Island, Indonesia. The volcano is in East Nusa Tenggara province. Mount Lewotobi is part of a twin-volcano system, with Lewotobi Laki-laki (male) erupting, while Lewotobi Perempuan (female) remains inactive. Both are stratovolcanoes, formed by repeated layers of lava, making them common globally. Indonesia frequently experiences volcanic eruptions as it lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” an area prone to earthquakes, volcanic activity, and tsunamis due to active tectonic plates.

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The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island recently erupted with lava fountains reaching over 1,000 feet high. Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It is a shield-type volcano located in the southeastern part of the island of Hawaii in the state of Hawaii, United States. The volcano stands at 4,190 feet or 1,227 meters above sea level. Its summit caldera has a lava lake called Halemaʻumaʻu, believed to be the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. Its slopes join with those of Mauna Loa volcano to the west and north. Kilauea has been erupting almost continuously since 1983. Its eruptions are mostly nonexplosive and usually remain within Halemaʻumaʻu, sometimes overflowing onto the caldera floor and sides.

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The Perito Moreno Glacier, also called the ‘White Giant’, is located near El Calafate in Santa Cruz, Argentina. It lies in the Andes Mountains of South America and is part of the Los Glaciares National Park, a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. The glacier was formed about 18,000 years ago during the last Ice Age. It is now rapidly crumbling due to global warming and rising temperatures.

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India’s External Affairs Minister recently greeted Samoa on its Independence Day, celebrated every year on 1st June. Samoa is a Polynesian island nation located in the central South Pacific Ocean. It lies about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and consists of nine islands, with four inhabited. Its capital and main commercial centre is Apia, located on Upolu. Samoa gained independence from New Zealand in 1962 as the first Pacific island nation to do so.

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A Chinese ship recently ran aground due to severe weather near Thitu Island, raising alert levels among Filipino soldiers in the disputed South China Sea. Thitu Island, also called Pag-asa Island in the Philippines, lies within the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The Spratly Islands are claimed entirely by China, Taiwan, and Vietnam, and partially by Malaysia and the Philippines. Thitu is the second largest natural island in the Spratlys and the biggest of the nine occupied by the Philippines.

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Lake Natron in Tanzania is gaining global attention due to environmental threats from climate change and development projects. It is a shallow, hyper-alkaline salt lake located in the Ngorongoro District, Arusha Region, near the Kenya-Tanzania border. It is fed by the Ewaso Ng’iro River and mineral-rich hot springs. Lake Natron is listed as a Ramsar wetland site.

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Recently, two oil tankers named Adalynn and Front Eagle caught fire after a collision near the Strait of Hormuz, raising global concerns about energy security and trade stability. The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow and strategic waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman. It lies between Iran on the north and the Arabian Peninsula on the south, specifically the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Musandam region of Oman. This route is vital for global oil transport, with a large share of the world’s oil passing through it daily.

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Prime Minister of India recently visited Croatia, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to do so during his 3-nation tour after the G7 Summit in Canada. Croatia is located in Central and Southeast Europe along the eastern Adriatic Sea, giving it strategic maritime importance. Its capital is Zagreb, and it shares borders with Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Italy.

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New Zealand has recently suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands due to growing tensions over the island group’s closer ties with China. The Cook Islands are a group of 15 small islands spread over 2 million square kilometres in the South Pacific Ocean. They lie in the centre of the Polynesian Triangle, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. Geographically, they are east of Niue, Tonga, and Samoa; northeast of New Zealand; south of Kiribati; and west of French Polynesia.