World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The river is the Zaire (Congo).

The Congo, formerly called the Zaire, rises south of the equator, flows north across it, curves west and then turns south-west, crossing the equator a second time before it reaches the Atlantic Ocean.

The Nile flows north from the region of Lake Victoria and crosses the equator only once. The Amazon flows eastwards just south of the equator, and the Mississippi lies wholly in the northern hemisphere.

Answer: B

The descending order is Superior, Victoria, Michigan, Chilka.

Approximate surface areas: Lake Superior about 82,000 km², Lake Victoria about 69,000 km², Lake Michigan about 58,000 km², and Chilika lagoon in Odisha about 1,100 km² at its largest.

Superior, the largest freshwater lake by area, must come first, and Chilika, far smaller than the other three, must come last; only option (b) does both with Victoria ahead of Michigan.

Answer: D

The Grand Canyon was cut by the Colorado river.

Over some millions of years the Colorado, aided by the uplift of the Colorado Plateau, has carved the canyon in Arizona, about 446 km long and up to 1.8 km deep.

The St. Lawrence drains the Great Lakes to the Atlantic, the Missouri is the long tributary of the Mississippi, and the Ohio is the Mississippi's eastern tributary; none flows through Arizona.

Answer: A

The leading gold producer in 2023 was China.

China mined about 370 tonnes of gold in 2023, the most of any country, ahead of Australia and Russia.

Canada and the U.S.A. produced about 200 and 170 tonnes respectively, and South Africa, once the world leader, has fallen to around 100 tonnes a year.

Australia and Russia were close behind China, each producing about 310 tonnes.

Answer: B

There are seven continents: Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe and Australia. Some traditions merge Europe and Asia into Eurasia, or the two Americas into one, which is where the counts of six and five come from.

Answer: C

Kazakhstan is by far the richest of the Central Asian republics in mineral wealth, holding large reserves of oil, natural gas, coal, uranium, chromium and copper. It is the world's largest uranium producer. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are mountainous and comparatively resource-poor.

Answer: D

Wave energy is generated by wind, so it depends on the wind's intensity and strength, on how long it blows, and on the fetch. Water depth also shapes waves as they approach the shore. Currents are a separate movement of the water body itself and do not determine the strength of wave action.

Answer: D

Death Valley in California lies 86 m below sea level, the lowest point in North America. The other options belong to other continents: the Valdes Peninsula is in Argentina, Lake Eyre in Australia and Ellsworth in Antarctica.

Answer: C

A subway is an underground passage - a tunnel built beneath a road or railway so that people or trains can pass under it. A path above ground level would be an overpass or flyover.

Answer: C

Attrition is one of the four ways a river transports its load: the particles knock against each other and are worn smaller and rounder as they travel. Corrosion is chemical erosion of the bed, and deposition is the dropping of load, not its transport.