World Geography Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Water and land divide the Earth's surface in the ratio 70.8 per cent to 29.2 per cent.

That is about 361 million km² of ocean against 149 million km² of land, out of a total surface of 510.94 million km².

Answer: D

The heavy afternoon rains of the equatorial belt are convectional. Intense midday heating makes moist surface air rise rapidly, and as it cools it builds towering cumulonimbus cloud that breaks in a downpour, usually between two and four in the afternoon.

The pattern repeats almost every day, which is why the equatorial regions have no dry season.

Answer: D

The lowest point in Europe is the surface of the Caspian Sea, about 28 m below sea level.

Despite its name the Caspian is a lake - the largest enclosed body of water in the world - with no outlet to any ocean.

Answer: D

Mount Kosciuszko in New South Wales, at 2,228 m, is the highest point on the Australian mainland.

It is much the lowest of the Seven Summits, which is why some lists replace it with Puncak Jaya in Indonesia, at 4,884 m, as the high point of Oceania.

Answer: A

Angel Falls in Venezuela is the highest waterfall in the world, dropping 979 m from the Auyán-tepui plateau - so far that much of the water disperses into mist before reaching the bottom.

Tugela in South Africa is second at 948 m; Kaieteur in Guyana is far lower but carries a much greater volume.

Answer: A

The Dead Sea lies in the Jordan Rift Valley between Israel and Jordan, with the West Bank on part of its western shore.

Its surface, about 430 m below sea level, is the lowest land elevation on Earth, and the lake continues to fall as the Jordan's water is drawn off upstream.

Answer: D

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 between the internationally recognised, Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Cypriot north, recognised only by Turkey.

A United Nations buffer zone runs between them, through the capital Nicosia.

Answer: A

Mount Everest, at 8,849 m, is the highest point on Earth, standing on the Nepal–Tibet border in the Greater Himalaya.

K2 in the Karakoram is second at 8,611 m, Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest at 5,895 m, and the Ellsworth Mountains hold Antarctica's highest peak.

Answer: C

Sakhalin, the long island north of Japan, is administered by Russia but its ownership has been contested with Japan for two centuries.

Japan held the southern half from 1905 to 1945; the Soviet Union took the whole island at the end of the Second World War, and no peace treaty has ever settled the matter.

Answer: A

Vatican City is the smallest state in the world by population, with about 800 residents, and by area, at 0.44 km².

San Marino has about 34,000 people, the Maldives about 520,000 and Singapore about 5.6 million.