Geomorphology Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The Alps are related with Europe.

The Alps are Europe's highest mountain system, an arc of young fold mountains stretching across France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia. Their highest peak is Mont Blanc on the French-Italian border, and they are the source of rivers such as the Rhine, Rhone and Po.

Asia's great ranges are the Himalaya and its neighbours, Australia's is the Great Dividing Range, and Antarctica's are the Transantarctic Mountains, so none of the other options fits.

Answer: A

The Cocos plate lies between Central America and the Pacific plate.

The Cocos plate is a small oceanic plate in the eastern Pacific. To the east it is subducted beneath the Caribbean and North American plates along the Middle America Trench off Central America, which gives that region its volcanoes and earthquakes. To the west it meets the Pacific plate at the East Pacific Rise.

South America faces the Nazca plate, not the Cocos plate. The Philippine and Indian plates and the Asiatic region are on the other side of the world.

Answer: D

From north to south the order is (4), (2), (3), (1).

1. Juan de Fuca plate: off Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, about 45° N.
2. Cocos plate: off Central America, roughly 0-15° N.
3. Nazca plate: off western South America, roughly 0-40° S.
4. Scotia plate: between South America and Antarctica, about 55-60° S.

The Scotia plate is the southernmost, so options that do not end with it are wrong, and the Cocos plate lies north of the Nazca plate.

Answer: A

The correct match is a-ii, b-iv, c-iii, d-i.

• Aravalli Range: Guru Shikhar (about 1,722 m) on Mount Abu, its highest point.
• Satpura Range: Dhupgarh (about 1,350 m) near Pachmarhi, its highest point.
• Western Ghats: Kalsubai (about 1,646 m), the highest peak in Maharashtra.
• Eastern Ghats: Gali Konda, a peak in the Araku region of Andhra Pradesh.

Every option agrees that a is (ii). Only option A then gives Dhupgarh to the Satpuras and Kalsubai to the Western Ghats.

Answer: A

The correct match is a-ii, b-i, c-iv, d-iii.

• Mount Whitney (4,421 m): the highest peak in the contiguous United States, in California's Sierra Nevada.
• Mount Logan (5,959 m): the highest peak in Canada, in Yukon.
• Ben Nevis (1,345 m): the highest peak in Scotland and in the British Isles.
• Mont Blanc (about 4,806 m): the highest peak of the Alps, on the France-Italy border.

Option B swaps Whitney and Logan, and options C and D put Ben Nevis or Mont Blanc in the wrong country.

Answer: D

The Narmada's characteristic feature is its Structural origin.

The Narmada flows west between the Vindhya and Satpura ranges through a rift valley, a block of land that sank between two faults. Its course was set by this geological structure rather than carved by the river in an ordinary way, which is why it flows west, in a straight line, into the Arabian Sea through an estuary.

It rises at Amarkantak, not in a glacier, and the valley is not of volcanic or wind origin, though it crosses the Deccan lava region.

Answer: D

Both statements are false, so the answer is Both 1 and 2 are false.

Statement 1 has the effect wrong: the Earth does rotate on its axis from west to east, but rotation causes day and night. The seasons come from the Earth's revolution around the Sun with its axis tilted at about 23.5 degrees.

Statement 2 swaps the causes the other way: revolution around the Sun produces the seasons and the length of the year, not day and night. Since both statements give the wrong effect, 'Only 1', 'Only 2' and 'Both true' are ruled out.

Answer: C

The pair not correctly matched is Nilgiri - Volcanic Mountain.

The Nilgiris are an uplifted block of ancient crystalline rock (they are usually classed as block mountains), not a volcano. India's only active volcano is on Barren Island.

The other pairs are standard: the Aravallis are worn-down residual mountains, the Himalayas young fold mountains, and the Satpura a block mountain between the Narmada and Tapi rift valleys.

Answer: C

The volcanic island is Barren Island.

Barren Island in the Andaman Sea is India's only active volcano, and it has erupted several times since 1991.

Lakshadweep is made of coral atolls, Majuli is a river island in the Brahmaputra, and Diu is a coastal island of limestone, so none of them is volcanic.

Barren Island lies about 135 km north-east of Port Blair in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; Narcondam, also in the Andaman Sea, is a dormant volcano.

Answer: B

The answer is that both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A.

Karst topography forms on soluble limestone. Rainwater carrying carbon dioxide dissolves the rock, so solution is the dominant process in shaping karst landforms such as sinkholes, swallow holes and caves. The reason is true.

Stalactites and stalagmites are also characteristic of karst, so the assertion is true. But they are formed by deposition: water dripping in caves loses carbon dioxide and precipitates calcium carbonate. Solution explains the caves, not the dripstone formations inside them, so the reason does not explain the assertion.