World Geography Questions and Answers

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: C

The Suez Canal joins the Mediterranean Sea at Port Said to the Red Sea at Suez, cutting across the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt.

Opened in 1869 and about 193 km long, it is a sea-level canal with no locks, and it shortens the Europe–Asia voyage by some 7,000 km.

Answer: D

Puncak Jaya in the Indonesian province of Papua, at 4,884 m, is the highest peak in Oceania and the highest island peak in the world.

Mt. Wilhelm in Papua New Guinea reaches 4,509 m, Mt. Cook in New Zealand 3,724 m and Mt. Kosciuszko, the highest point of mainland Australia, only 2,228 m.

Answer: A

The Vindhya Range, running roughly east–west across central India, is the traditional dividing line between the Indo-Gangetic plain to the north and the peninsular plateau to the south.

The Aravallis lie in the north-west, the Nilgiris in the far south, and the Satpuras run parallel to and south of the Vindhyas rather than forming the divide.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The Sun, Earth and Moon are in a straight line

Spring tides occur when the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned - at new moon and again at full moon - so that the tidal pulls of the Sun and Moon act along the same line and add together. High tides are then higher and low tides lower, giving the greatest range. When the Sun and Moon are at right angles, at the first and third quarters, their effects partly cancel and the range is least; these are neap tides. Each type recurs twice a lunar month, so the cycle alternates roughly every week. The name has nothing to do with the season. It comes from the sense of springing up, and spring tides occur every fortnight throughout the year. The Moon dominates because tidal force falls off with the cube of distance, so its nearness outweighs the Sun’s far greater mass; the Sun contributes about half as much.

Answer: A

Correct answer: Condensation

Condensation is the change from vapour to liquid, and it is what forms clouds. Rising air expands and cools; cooler air holds less water vapour, so once the parcel reaches saturation the surplus vapour condenses onto microscopic particles - dust, salt, smoke - called condensation nuclei. Without those nuclei the air would simply become supersaturated. The height at which this begins is the condensation level, which is why the flat bases of fair-weather cumulus clouds all sit at the same altitude on a given day. The other three are the neighbouring stages of the water cycle: evaporation turns liquid water to vapour, transpiration releases vapour from plant leaves, and infiltration is the soaking of water down into the soil.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Botswana

The Kalahari covers most of Botswana and extends into Namibia and South Africa, roughly 900,000 square kilometres of red sand across the interior plateau of southern Africa. It is a semi-desert rather than a true one: it receives more rain than the Sahara and carries grass and acacia scrub, so it supports substantial wildlife. Its distinguishing feature is that the sand absorbs the rain that falls, leaving almost no surface water. On its northern edge lies the Okavango Delta, where a river flows inland and evaporates rather than reaching the sea, creating a vast seasonal wetland in the middle of the dry country. The San people have lived in the Kalahari for millennia. Egypt and Morocco lie within the Sahara, and Nigeria is mostly tropical savanna and forest, with only its far north approaching the Sahel.

Answer: D

Olive, maple and walnut are trees of the mid-latitude or temperate forests, which are largely deciduous broadleaf.

Rosewood, mahogany and rubber belong to the equatorial rainforest; teak, sal and bamboo to the tropical monsoon forest; and pine, fir and spruce to the cold coniferous forest further north.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Africa

The Sahara stretches across northern Africa from the Atlantic to the Red Sea, covering an area comparable to that of the United States. Larger deserts exist in Antarctica and the Arctic, but those are cold deserts.

Answer: B

Marina Beach runs along the Bay of Bengal at Chennai in Tamil Nadu. At about 13 km it is one of the longest urban beaches in the world.

Its shore shelves steeply and the undertow is dangerous, so it is a promenade rather than a bathing beach.