World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Asia accounts for about 30 per cent of the world's land area, roughly 44.6 million km² out of about 149 million - a larger share than any other continent.

It also holds about 60 per cent of the world's population.

Answer: A

Phosphates are the mineral group in which one or more metallic elements are combined with the phosphate radical, PO₄³⁻.

Apatite, Ca₅(PO₄)₃(F,Cl,OH), is the commonest member and the chief source of phosphate fertiliser. The other formulae listed are not the phosphate radical.

Answer: C

Aconcagua in Argentina, at 6,961 m, is the highest point in South America and the highest anywhere outside Asia.

McKinley is North America's highest, Elbrus Europe's, and Kosciuszko the highest on the Australian mainland.

Answer: B

Evaporation alone would not complete the cycle - the vapour must be carried from where it forms to where it falls. The movement of water vapour in the atmosphere is therefore the other essential process, since most rain falls far from the ocean surface it evaporated from.

Tides and currents move liquid water within the sea and add nothing to the exchange between ocean and land.

Answer: C

Mindanao is the southernmost large island of the Philippines and so lies in the Pacific Ocean, on the western side of that ocean.

Answer: C

The ionosphere is the electrically charged region of the upper atmosphere, encompassing the thermosphere and the exosphere. Solar radiation ionises the thin gas there, which is what makes long-distance radio reflection possible.

Answer: C

Regur is the local name for the black cotton soil of the Deccan, formed by the weathering of the Deccan lava. It is rich in clay, swells when wet and cracks deeply when dry, and holds moisture so well that it grows cotton without irrigation.

It covers much of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.

Answer: C

Correct answer: Rainfall

An isohyet joins points receiving equal precipitation, from the Greek hyetos, rain. Maps drawn with them - isohyetal maps - show at a glance where rainfall is concentrated, and they are the basis for estimating the average rainfall over a river catchment. On a map of India the isohyets crowd together dramatically across the Western Ghats, falling from over 2,500 mm on the windward slopes to under 600 mm on the leeward plateau within a short distance - the rain shadow made visible. The iso- family is large and worth knowing as a set: isotherms for temperature, isobars for pressure, contours for elevation, isohalines for salinity, and isoseismal lines for earthquake intensity.

Answer: C

Correct answer: The United States

The United States has been the world’s largest producer of crude oil since about 2018, ahead of Saudi Arabia and Russia. The change came from hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, which unlocked oil held in shale formations that had previously been uneconomic - chiefly the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico, the Bakken in North Dakota and the Eagle Ford in Texas. Production roughly doubled within a decade. Note the distinction from reserves: Venezuela and Saudi Arabia hold much larger proven reserves, but reserves measure what is in the ground and production measures what is lifted from it. Saudi Arabia retains the greatest spare capacity, which gives it disproportionate influence over prices through OPEC. India produces only a small fraction of what it consumes and imports over 80 per cent of its crude, which makes oil prices a direct concern for its current account and inflation.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A hygrometer

A hygrometer measures the water vapour content of the air. The classic form is the wet-and-dry-bulb pair, in which one thermometer is kept damp by a wick: evaporation cools it, and the gap between the two readings gives the relative humidity from a table. The drier the air, the faster the evaporation and the wider the gap. Note the near-identical distractor. A hydrometer, spelt with a d, measures the density of a liquid by how far it floats in it - it has nothing to do with the atmosphere, and is used to test battery acid or the sugar content of a brewing wort. A barometer measures atmospheric pressure, and an anemometer measures wind speed.