Physical Geography Flashcards
Anticline
In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of a anticline.
The general direction of westerlies is _______ to ________ in the northern hemisphere and ______ to _______ in the Southern Hemisphere.
South West, North East,
North West, South East
They become less effective during the summer season and more effective during winter season in the northern hemisphere.
westerlies
Keibul Lamjao national park- the only floating national park in the world lies in the lake.
Loktak lake
Pangong Tso lake
Saltwater Lake
perihelion
The distance between the earth and the sun is least i.e.147.3 million km on January 3.
aphelion.
the earth moves away from the sun and on July 4, it is at the farthest point, being 152 million km from the sun.
Solstice:
Solstice Solstice is the time when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator and the sun’s rays are vertical either at the Tropic of Cancer or at the Tropic of Capricorn.
Summer Solstice:
June 21 or 22
The Sun’s vertical rays are at the Tropic of Cancer.
Winter Solstice:
On December 21 or 22 the earth travels to the opposite end of its orbit and the southern hemisphere has maximum inclination towards the sun. The sun’s vertical rays are at the Tropic of Capricorn.
Equinoxes:
March 20 or 21 and September 22 or 23The duration of day and night is exactly the same, being 12 hours, at all the parallels.
The equinox of March 21 or 22 is called the ________ and that of September 22 or 23 is known as the ___________
Vernal or spring equinox, autumnal equinox.
Ease of Doing Business Index
World Bank
Human Capital Index report
World Bank
is a river which lies entirely within the state of Rajasthan in western India.
The Banas
the length of 10 of latitude
While at the equator, it is 110.6 km at the poles, it is 111.7 km.
Monsoon Trough:
It is an elongated low-pressure area which extends from heat low over Pakistan to Head Bay of Bengal
clay is
aquiline
________ are tectonically active.
They are mostly made up of sedimentary rocks and unconsolidated and semi-consolidated deposits.
Himalayas
is an important tributary of the Ganga rising in the Darjeeling hills.
The Mahananda
Ken
- Chambal
passes through ?
UP
Diamantina Trench is situated in the
Indian Ocean.
fetch.
The distance that the wind has travelled across the open sea.
The lowermost layer of the atmosphere is known as the _________ and is the most important layer because almost all of the weather phenomena (e.g. fog, cloud, dew, frost, rainfall, hailstorm, storms, cloud thunder, lighting, etc.) occur in this layer.
Troposphere
temperature at the top of the ___________ is lowest over the equator (-70 degree celsius) and is relatively high over the poles.
temperature at the top of the tropopause is lowest over the equator (-70 degree celsius) and is relatively high over the poles.
autonomous councils which included Moran, Motok and Kamtapur Autonomous Council.
Assam
ariable winds, which are further divided into:
seasonal winds
local winds
mountain and valley breezes
land and sea breezes etc.
Indus River
It originates from a glacier near Bokhar Chu (31°15’ N latitude and 81°40’ E longitude) in the Tibetan region at an altitude of 4,164 m in the Kailash Mountain range. Hence statement 1 is correct.
In Tibet, it is known as ‘Singi Khamban.
Satluj River
It originates in the ‘Raksas tal’ near Mansarovar at an altitude of 4,555 m
in Tibet where it is known as Langchen Khambab.
It flows almost parallel to the Indus for about 400 km before entering India, and comes out of a gorge at Rupar.
It is the eastern most tributary of River Indus
Saline soils also known as ___________contain a larger proportion of sodium, potassium and magnesium,
Usara soils
The Global Initiative on Reducing Land DegradationThe Global Coral Reef R&D Accelerator Platform
recently launched at Environment Ministerial Meeting of the G20 countries.
Gandak is _______ tributary while ____________ are right bank tributaries
left bank
Yamuna and Son
Andromeda Galaxy,
nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way.
Mistral
Mistral blow from the Alps over France towards the Mediterranean Sea.
It is channeled through the Rhone valley. The velocity of the mistral is intensified by the funneling effect of the valley between the central Massif and Alps.
It is very cold and dry at a high speed. It brings blizzards into southern France. It is a harmful wind.
Tropical Cyclones direction
East to West
Harmattan:
The warm and dry winds blowing from north-east and east to west in the eastern parts of the Sahara desert are called Harmattan.
Harmattan
These winds become extremely dry because of their journey over the Sahara desert. The weather becomes suddenly dry and pleasant at the arrival of Harmattan as the relative humidity of the air is remarkably reduced due to the high temperature and hyper aridity of Harmattan. This is why it is known as ‘doctor winds’ in the Guinea coastal area of western Africa.
Foehn
Foehn winds are warm and dry, gusty wind that periodically descends the leeward slopes of nearly all mountains and mountain ranges. The name was first applied to a wind of this kind that occurs in the Alps, where the phenomenon was first studied.
Sirocco is a Mediterranean wind that comes from the Sahara and can reach hurricane speeds in North Africa and Southern Europe, especially during the summer season.
Mistral
Mistral is one of the local names given to those winds that blow from the Alps over France towards the Mediterranean Sea. It is channeled through the Rhone valley. The velocity of the mistral is intensified by the funneling effect of the valley between the central Massif and Alps. It is very cold and dry at a high speed. It brings blizzards into southern France.
characteristics of the tropical zone?
- Doldrums
- Equatorial Westerlies
- Trade winds
MEIS was introduced in the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) for the period 2015-2020.
duty credit scrips to exporters.
Scandinavia
Norway and Sweden, with the addition of Denmark.
asthenosphere.
The mantle contains a weaker zone called asthenosphere. It is from this that the molten rock materials find their way to the surface
Converging plates can be oceanic, continental, or one of each. If at least one is ________it will subduct. A subducting plate creates volcanoes. T
oceanic,
The___________ of Antarctica is the largest body of floating ice.
Ross Ice Shelf
It is the continent with the highest mean elevation in the world.
Antarctica
(one nation – one digital platform), TV (one class-one channel),
DIKSHA
(online MOOCs on various topics)
SWAYAM
(an online platform for exam preparation),
IITPAL
(through community radio and CBSE Shiksha Vanipodcast) and study materials for differently-abled students developed by NIOS.
AIR
Weather Fronts
Large difference in air temperature across the front.
- Bending isobar
- Abrupt shift in wind direction
- Cloudiness and precipitation
All ocean currents follow the ___________ direction in the northern hemisphere.
clockwise
____________ is that they can travel only through solid materials
S-waves
2,900 km. Beyond this depth, ______ disappear and _________ travel with reduced velocity. It is because ________ begins at a dept of 2900 km.
S-waves, P-waves
molten core
_________ do not travel through liquids (they are attenuated)
S-waves
Mohorovicic discontinuity.
In between the crust and the mantle
There are two types of crust; oceanic and continental. Oceanic crust is denser and thinner and mainly composed of __________. Continental crust is less dense, thicker, and mainly composed of __________
basalt
granite.
The upper portion of the mantle is called
asthenosphere.
The core- mantle boundary is located at the depth of 2,900 km. It is called the _______________
Gutenberg Discontinuity.
The discontinuity between the upper Core and the lower Core is called as_________________
Lehmann Discontinuity.
Recently the Ministry of Defence signed contracts for the supply of Six Pinaka Regiments to the Indian Army. Pinaka is a
Multibarrel rocket launch (MBRL) system
Jet streams are narrow bands of the strong wind that generally blow from ___________
west to east.
Jet streams develop where
air masses of differing temperatures meet.
The extent of jet stream narrows down during
summer
ring-shaped coral reef,
Atoll
Fast Tag
makes use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags
Shield Volcano
gentle upper slopes
somewhat steeper lower slopes.
Shield volcanoes are composed almost entirely of relatively thin lava flows built up over a central vent. They are formed by low viscosity basaltic magma that flows easily down slope away from the summit vent.
Calderas are a common feature on shield volcanoes.
Very little pyroclastic material is found within a shield volcano,
In spring tides,
the high tides are higher than normal, while the low tides are lower than normal.
WHY spring tides?
When the sun, the moon and the earth are in alignment
ONGC Videsh
Colombia
Vietnam
Brazil
Why does the Tamil Nadu coast remain dry during southwest monsoon?
It is situated parallel to the Bay of Bengal branch of southwest monsoon
It lies in the rainshadow area of the Arabian Sea branch of the south-west monsoon.
Equatorial Counter Current
It transports water against the mean westward wind stress in the tropics.
There are two main types of ocean currents:
currents driven mainly by wind and currents mainly driven by density differences.
Madden Julian Oscillation,
eastward moving ‘pulse’ of clouds, rainfall, winds and pressure near the equator that typically recurs every 30 to 60 days.
It is linked with enhanced and suppressed rainfall activity in the tropics and is very important for the Indian monsoonal rainfall.
MJO
MJO is divided into ________ with each phase roughly last for 7 to 8 days.
1-8 phases
Arete, Cirque, Horns
Erosional landforms formed by glaciers.
Angola Current
is a temporary ocean surface current. It is an extension of the Guinea Current, flowing near western Africa’s coast.
Benguela Current
is the broad, northward flowing ocean current that forms the eastern portion of the South Atlantic Ocean gyre.
Antilles Current
is a highly variable surface ocean current of warm water that flows northeasterly past the island chain that separates the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
Guinea Current
is a slow warm water current that flows to the east along the Guinea coast of West Africa.
Thermosphere, Ionosphere is part of this layer
helps in radio transmission.
- The International Space Station and satellites orbit in Thermosphere.
- Aurora’s are observed in lower parts of the Thermosphere.
The term ‘basket of eggs
’ topography refers to Drumlins which is a depositional landform formed by glaciers.
Karst topography
roduced by the action of groundwater through the processes of solution and deposition.
Columbia – Snake Plateau Colorado Plateau Deccan Plateau Kimberley Plateau Mexican Plateau Laurentian Plateau Bolivian Plateau (or Altiplano Plateau) Anatolian Plateau
Columbia – Snake Plateau (USA) Colorado Plateau (USA) Deccan Plateau (India) Kimberley Plateau (Australia) Mexican Plateau (Mexico) Laurentian Plateau (Canada) Bolivian Plateau (or Altiplano Plateau) (Bolivia) Anatolian Plateau (Turkey)
Mercalli scale
is a seismic intensity scale used for measuring the intensity of shaking produced by an earthquake. It measures the effects of an earthquake at a given location. It measures the intensity of an earthquake by observing its effect on people, the environment and the earth’s surface. It is a linear measurement.
Richter scale i
s a quantitative measure of an earthquake’s magnitude (size). The earthquake’s magnitude is determined using the logarithm of the amplitude (height) of the largest seismic wave calibrated to a scale by a seismograph. The Richter Scale measures the energy released by an earthquake using a seismograph.
Hot Spot Volcanism?
They refer to the volcanic activity that occurs within the tectonic plates.
- They are formed when hot magma from mantle plumes is pushed through the Earth’s crust.
- Reunion Islands were formed by the Hotspot volcanic activity.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands:
The Andaman and Nicobar islands are of tectonic origin.
- The islands are an elevated portion of submarine mountains.
Tornadoes come from the energy released in a
Tornadoes come from the energy released in a thunderstorm.
Tornadoes generally occur in
middle latitudes.
break in the monsoon.
During the south-west monsoon period after having rained for a few days, if rain fails to occur for one or more weeks, it is known as break in the monsoon.
________________leads to delay or complete failure of monsoon and not break in the monsoon.
The occurrence of El-Nino
real-time market of electricity on the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX).
- It is the first and largest energy exchange in India providing an automated trading platform for physical delivery of electricity.
- It also allows for trading of Renewable Energy Certificates and Energy Saving Certificates.
- It is regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC)
convergent boundaries called
subduction zones
- Indra
- Malabar
- Milan
- Indra Russia
- Malabar Australia
- Milan Sri Lanka
