World & Physical Geography MCQs

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Venus was the first planet to have its motions plotted across the sky, as early as the second millennium BC.

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Intrusive igneous rocks are formed from magma that cools and solidifies within the crust of a planet, surrounded by pre-existing rock (called country rock); the magma cools slowly and, as a result, these rocks are coarse-grained. Granite is the example of Intrusive Igneous rock.

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Approximately 97% of the Earth’s water is in the form of oceans. The remaining 3% is found in the form of fresh water, which is distributed among the Earth’s lakes, rivers, and underground aquifers.

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Radiation from Sun comes to earth in the form of smaller waves and earth being cooler body, gives off energy in the form of long-wave. These are then radiated back to the atmosphere. This this Long-Wave Radiation from the earth’s surfaces heats the lower layers of the atmosphere. The Atmospheric conduction occurs at the interface of (zone of contact between) the atmosphere and the earth’s surface. However, it is actually a minor method of heat transfer in terms of warming the atmosphere since it affects only the layers of air closest to the earth’s surface. This is because air is a very poor conductor of heat. ‘ When the pockets of air near the surface are heated, they expand in volume, become less dense than the surrounding air, and therefore rise. This vertical transfer of heat through the atmosphere is called convection, and is the same type of process by which heated water circulates in a pan while heating. The currents set into motion by the heating of a fluid (liquid or gas) make up a convectional system. Most vertical transfer of heat within the atmosphere & Oceans occurs via Convection and is a major cause of clouds and precipitation.

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The Ninety East Ridge is an 5500 km long, north-south-oriented, submarine volcanic ridge in the eastern Indian Ocean that formed from magmatism associated with the deep seated Kerguelen mantle plume as the Indian plate drifted rapidly northward during the Late Cretaceous.

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Horst and graben refer to regions that lie between normal faults and are either higher or lower than the area beyond the faults. While a horst represents a block pushed upward relative to the blocks on either side by the faulting, and a graben is a block generally long compared to its width that has been lowered relative to the blocks on either side due to the faulting. 

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The four seasons happen because of the tilt of the Earth’s axis. At different times of the year, the sun’s rays hit different parts of the globe more directly. The angle of the Earth’s axis tilts the Northern Hemisphere towards the sun during the summer.

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Mars is the only planet with similar day time temperatures and an atmosphere similar to earth. The most relevant condition for presence of life on Mars is occurrence of ice caps and frozen water.

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In the west of China, there are two types of climate, temperate continental climate and plateau climate and highland climate. Most regions are cold and dry in winter and have a warm and rainy climate in summer. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the southwest has a highland climate with a low temperature throughout the year.

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The Steady state theory is an alternative to the Big Bang theory of the evolution of the universe. This theory is proposed by Herman Bondi, Thomas Gold and Sir Fred Hoyle. According to this theory, the universe though expanding, does not change its look over time.