World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Correct answer: The continuous transformation of rock between igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic forms

The rock cycle is the set of processes by which rock is continually converted from one of the three classes into another, with no beginning or end. Magma cools to form igneous rock. Weathering and erosion break it into sediment, which is transported, deposited, compacted and cemented into sedimentary rock. Burial under heat and pressure converts that into metamorphic rock. Further heating melts it back to magma, and the cycle begins again. The important point is that the route is not fixed. Any rock type can become any other: metamorphic rock can be eroded into sediment without ever melting, sedimentary rock can be melted directly, igneous rock can be metamorphosed. The cycle is driven by two energy sources - the Earth’s internal heat, which powers plate tectonics, melting and metamorphism, and solar energy, which powers weathering, erosion and transport. One consequence is that the rock beneath our feet has been recycled many times, which is why almost no crust survives from the Earth’s first few hundred million years.

Answer: B

The Pacific is the largest ocean, covering about 165 million km² - about a third of the Earth's surface, and more than the Atlantic and Indian oceans together.

It also holds the deepest point on the planet, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench.

Answer: A

An equinox is a date on which day and night are of equal length everywhere on Earth. The word comes from the Latin for 'equal night'.

It happens twice a year, about 20 March and 23 September, when the Sun is directly overhead at the equator.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Pacific

El Niño is an unusual warming of surface waters in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, recurring irregularly every two to seven years. Normally the trade winds push warm water westward, allowing cold, nutrient-rich water to well up off South America. During an El Niño those winds slacken or reverse, the warm pool spreads back east, and the upwelling shuts down - which collapses the Peruvian anchovy fishery, the effect that gave the phenomenon its name among local fishermen, who noticed it appearing around Christmas. Its consequences are global: drought in Australia and Indonesia, heavy rain in Peru and Ecuador, and a weakened Indian monsoon, which is why the Indian Meteorological Department watches it closely. Its cold counterpart is La Niña, and the pair together with the associated pressure seesaw are known as the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, or ENSO.

Answer: D

Human geography covers all three fields. It studies society and culture as they are distributed in space, human behaviour and urban systems, and the economic and political organisation of territory.

Its unifying concern is the relationship between people and place, so all of the listed themes fall within it.

Answer: A

The Big Bang theory explains the origin of the universe: it holds that all matter, energy, space and time began in an extremely hot, dense state and have been expanding ever since.

Its two strongest supports are the redshift of distant galaxies, which shows the expansion, and the cosmic microwave background, the cooled remnant of the early radiation.

Answer: A

The Strait of Gibraltar is the narrow channel between Spain and Morocco that joins the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 13 km across at its narrowest and is one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Answer: D

All three are shallow, marginal seas of the Atlantic basin: the Caribbean and Mediterranean, the Baltic and Arctic, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Each lies over continental shelf or a partly enclosed basin rather than over true deep ocean floor, so the combined choice is correct.

Answer: C

The Pyrenees lie in Europe, forming the border between France and Spain for about 430 km from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean.

Their highest peak, Pico de Aneto, reaches 3,404 m, and the small state of Andorra lies among them.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Isobars

Isobars join points of equal pressure, and they are what gives a weather chart its familiar look. Their spacing carries the important information: closely packed isobars mean a steep pressure gradient and therefore strong winds, while widely spaced ones mean light winds. Closed rings mark centres of high or low pressure, and in the northern hemisphere air spirals anticlockwise into a low and clockwise out of a high. The prefix iso-, from the Greek for equal, generates a whole family of such lines. Isotherms join places of equal temperature, isohyets places of equal rainfall, and contours places of equal height above sea level.