Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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SpaceX recovered its Starship spacecraft nearly 24 days after its controlled splashdown in the Indian Ocean. The spacecraft was towed near Christmas Island for inspection and assessment. Christmas Island is an external territory of Australia located in the eastern Indian Ocean. It is situated about 350 km south of Java and Sumatra and around 1,550 km northwest of mainland Australia.

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US President Donald Trump has ordered US authorities to refer to Lake Ontario as “Lake America” in official US geographic naming. The change applies to US government usage only; the US cannot compel Canada to adopt the new name. Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes and is shared by the United States and Canada. The international border runs through Lake Ontario, with New York to the south and Ontario, Canada to the north. The name Ontario has Indigenous origins and is associated with the Huron word oniatarí, referring to a “lake of shining waters.”

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On 30 August 2026, US forces struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island, located in the Strait of Hormuz. Larak Island is a small Iranian island located in the Strait of Hormuz. It lies south of Hormuz Island, southeast of Bandar Abbas, and southeast of the eastern end of Qeshm Island. The island is strategically important because it is situated close to the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s major maritime chokepoints. The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman, providing a crucial maritime route for global energy transportation.

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Indonesia’s Anak Krakatau volcano erupted on September 6, 2026, sending volcanic ash across parts of western Indonesia. Anak Krakatau, meaning “Child of Krakatoa,” is located in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. It is a stratovolcano, formed by alternating layers of solidified lava and ash. The volcano sits at the convergent boundary between the Indo-Australian and Eurasian tectonic plates. Anak Krakatau is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a seismically active zone around the Pacific Ocean.

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Houthi rebels, aligned with Iran, have reportedly seized control of the Yemeni port city of Mocha (Al Mokha).
The development represents a significant strategic gain for the Houthis along Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Mocha (Mokha) Port is located in southwestern Yemen on the Red Sea coast. It lies on the Tihāmah coastal plain of Yemen. The port is located approximately 75–100 km west of Taiz. Mocha is situated near the strategically important Bab el-Mandeb Strait. Mocha has great historical significance because it was once a major coffee-exporting centre of Arabia.

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China is carrying out large-scale vegetation planting around the Taklamakan Desert to control desertification, sandstorms and wind erosion. The initiative is linked mainly to China’s Three-North Shelterbelt Program, launched in 1978. The programme has increased vegetation particularly along the edges of the desert. It is located in western China. It lies mainly within the Tarim Basin, between the Kunlun Mountains to the south and the Tian Shan Mountains to the north. It is one of the largest sandy deserts in the world. It is a cold desert, with very hot summers and extremely cold winters. The desert is famous for its vast sand dunes and extremely low precipitation.

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Nauru has announced the restoration of its traditional Indigenous name, “Naoero.” President David Adeang announced the change while addressing the United Nations General Assembly. The move is intended to honour the country’s ancestors, Indigenous language and cultural identity. The country will be referred to as Naoero, while its citizens will be called dei-Naoero. Naoero is a small island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, located in Micronesia, about 42 km south of the Equator.

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The NASA–ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite captured detailed radar observations of the Krasheninnikov volcano. The volcano erupted in 2025 after remaining dormant for nearly 500 years, with its previous known activity dating to around 1550. Krasheninnikov is an active stratovolcano located in Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. It lies within a 9 km wide caldera formed by a massive eruption 39,600 years ago. The volcano is part of the Pacific “Ring of Fire” and has two eruptive cones.

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Mayon Volcano in Albay Province, the Philippines, produced an ash plume in October 2026, bringing attention to its continuing volcanic activity. Mayon is an active stratovolcano located in Albay Province, within the Bicol Region of southeastern Luzon Island, Philippines. It is famous for its nearly perfect symmetrical cone shape and is considered the most active volcano in the Philippines. The volcano is situated immediately north of the city of Legazpi. Mayon is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region characterised by frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

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Researchers reconstructed approximately 6,000 years of monsoon history using a stalagmite recovered from Mawsmai Cave. The study was led by researchers from IIT Kharagpur and IISER Kolkata. The research examined changes in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) between 11,807 and 5,622 years ago. The findings indicate that the Indian Summer Monsoon was particularly strong during the early Holocene, approximately 11,807–7,700 years ago. Mawsmai Cave is a natural limestone cave system located in Mawsmai village near Cherrapunji (Sohra) in the East Khasi Hills district, Meghalaya.