Natural Resources Questions and Answers

Answer: B

ISRO's sensor is LISS, the Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor.

LISS cameras were developed by ISRO and flown from IRS-1A (1988) onwards, in successive versions (LISS-I to LISS-IV), to map land use, forests, water and crops for resource management.

MSS and TM (Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper) are sensors of the American Landsat satellites. AVHRR flies on NOAA weather satellites, and CZCS (Coastal Zone Color Scanner) flew on NASA's Nimbus-7. None was developed by ISRO.

Answer: B

The 3 R's stand for Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

The order reflects the priority. Reduce the use of resources and the creation of waste in the first place. Reuse items as they are, again and again, before discarding them. Recycle materials such as paper, plastic, metal and crop residues into new products or compost when they can no longer be reused.

The other options mix in words that are not part of the standard three: replace, refuse, rebuild, restore and reapply. 'Refuse' is sometimes added in longer lists of five or more R's, but the classic 3 R's are reduce, reuse and recycle.

Answer: A

The fossil fuel is coal.

A fossil fuel is formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals buried for millions of years under heat and pressure. Coal formed in this way from the plant matter of ancient swamp forests, and petroleum and natural gas are the other main fossil fuels.

Solar energy is a renewable source of energy, not a fuel formed from fossils. Quartz is a mineral made of silica and does not burn. Lava is molten rock erupted from a volcano, not a fuel.

Answer: D

Preparing a hazard-zoning map for landslide-prone regions needs all of the listed investigations together. The structural and lithological settings show which rocks, joints, faults and dips make slopes weak. The geomorphic features show slope angle, shape and signs of earlier instability. The seismicity of the region shows how often earthquakes can trigger slides. Since each of these is part of a comprehensive hazard assessment, the answer is all of the above, not any single factor.

Answer: A

The cumulative probability distribution for the epoch-dependent seismic hazard map is F_max t_ep = exp{-Nt(1 - F_ap)}, the first formula. It follows the Poisson model for earthquake occurrence: with a mean rate N per year, the probability that the peak acceleration stays at or below the specified value over the exposure period is the exponential of minus the rate of exceedances times the time. The second formula multiplies by t_ep instead of putting it on the left, and the third raises the term to the power N, which does not follow from the Poisson model. Since only the first is correct, 'all of the above' is also wrong.

Answer: D

Pitchblende is an ore of uranium. It is a massive, pitch-black variety of uraninite, mostly uranium oxide, and was the source from which radium and polonium were first isolated by the Curies. Nickel comes mainly from pentlandite and laterites, chromium from chromite, and molybdenum from molybdenite. None of these is associated with pitchblende, which is the principal ore of uranium.

Answer: B

Copper is a chalcophile element in Goldschmidt's geochemical classification, meaning that it has an affinity for sulphur and occurs mainly as sulphide minerals such as chalcopyrite and chalcocite. Siderophile elements, such as iron, nickel and gold, associate with metallic iron. Lithophile elements, such as silicon, aluminium and calcium, concentrate in silicate rocks, and atmophile elements, such as nitrogen and the noble gases, concentrate in the atmosphere. Copper belongs to the sulphide-loving group.

Answer: C

Endogeic earthworms live in the mineral soil, ingest large quantities of soil together with organic matter and mix it, which loosens and aerates degraded ground and builds humus, so they are the category used for wasteland reclamation. Epigeic worms live in surface litter and are used for composting and vermiculture, and anecic worms make deep vertical burrows but feed on litter pulled down from the surface. So endogeic is the answer and 'none of the above' is wrong.

Answer: B

Heating values per unit mass run from hydrogen, at about 120 to 140 MJ per kg, through natural gas at about 50, petroleum at about 42 to 45 and coal at about 24 to 30. So the descending order is hydrogen, natural gas, petroleum, coal. The first option reverses the whole order, the third puts coal above natural gas and petroleum, and the fourth places hydrogen last although it has by far the highest energy per kilogram.

Answer: B

Plutonium-239 is the isotope that natural ore does not contain in any significant quantity. It is made in reactors when uranium-238 captures neutrons, and only traces occur in uranium ore. Natural uranium ore contains uranium-238 (about 99.3 percent) and uranium-235 (about 0.7 percent), and thorium ore contains thorium-232, so the isotopes in the other three options are all found naturally in radioactive ores.