UGC NET Paper 2: Geography 20th June 2019 (Previous Year Paper)

Immanuel Kant provided a philosophical foundation for Geography as a field of the scientific enterprise.

Key Points

Immanuel Kant

Primary Information:                                     

• Born in 1724 at Konigsberg in East Prussia (Russia) and passed away in 1804.
• Kant was more of an ‘armchair geographer’
• His contribution in the fields of astronomy, geology, and geography.
• He was regarded as the ‘father of exceptionalism’

Contribution:

• Kant lectured with great proficiency not only in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, physics, and mechanical sciences like mechanics, hydrostatics, and hydrokinetics but also in military sciences like fortification and pyro-techniques.
• From 1756 to 1796, Kant offered a regular course of lectures on physical geography.
• The physical geography which Kant developed was essentially ‘anthropocentric’ in nature and content.
• Empirical knowledge è (i) through pure reason, or (ii) through the senses.
• Anthropology: dealt with soul or man, physical geography: dealt with Nature.
• Classification of knowledge:
• Logical classification: on the basis of morphological similarities and gave rise to systematic sciences
• Physical classification: base is time or space. History, related to time (chronological) and Geography related to space (chorological).
• Immanuel Kant may rightly be regarded as the ‘father of exceptionalism’ as he was opposed to generalizations and believed that history and geography were methodologically different from the other sciences as they were concerned with the study of the unique and the ‘exceptional.’
• Immanuel Kant may also be credited for pioneering several other branches of geography
• Mathematical geography dealing with the shape, size, form, and movements of the earth and, its position in the solar system.
• Moral geography describing the customs and traditions of humans in different places.
• Political geography essentially studied the interrelationship between political units and their physical setup.
• Commercial geography investigated as to why one country had an abundance of some commodities but was deficient in others; a situation believed to have given rise to international trade.
• Theological geography tried to analyze the changes theological principles experienced in different spatial units.
• The principles of Kant were revived by Hettner and Hartshorne.

Important writings:

• Kant’s early works like ‘General Natural history and the Theory of the Heavens’ (1755) related to speculative astronomy.
• ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ (1781), Kant freed geography from its close bond with theology by rejecting the teleological concept.
• ‘Critique of Judgment (1798).
• ‘Anthropology from Pragmatic Point of View’ (1798), a vivid geographical description of the races and ethnic groups around the world

Ibn-Batuta is most widely travelled and wrote down his travel account for posterity.

Key Points

Ibn-Batuta (1304-1368 AD):

• Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan explorer.
• He is known for the account of his journeys called the Rihla ("Voyage"),
• The most famous travel books, the Riḥlah (Travels) on many aspects of the social, cultural, and political history of a great part of the Muslim world.
• He traveled for nearly 30 years and covered most of the Islamic world.
• He also explored West Africa, Southern, and Eastern Europe, South Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and China.

David Smith : Marxist perspective is NOT matched correctly

Panchayati Raj:

• Panchayati Raj (Council of five officials) is the system of local self-government of villages in rural India as opposed to urban and suburban municipalities.
• It consists of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) through which the self-government of villages is realized.
• They are tasked with "economic development, strengthening social justice and implementation of Central and State Government Schemes including those 29 subjects listed in the Eleventh Schedule."
• Part IX of the Indian Constitution is the section of the Constitution relating to the Panchayats.
• It stipulates that in states or Union Territories with more than two million inhabitants there are three levels of PRIs:

1. The Gram Panchayats at village level
2. The Panchayat Samiti at the block level
3. The Zila Parishad at the district level.

• In India, the Panchayati Raj now functions as a system of governance in which gram panchayats are the basic units of local administration.
• The system has three levels: Gram Panchayat (village level), Mandal Parishad or Block Samiti or Panchayat Samiti (block level), and Zila Parishad (district level).
• Currently, the Panchayati Raj system exists in all states except Nagaland, Meghalaya, and Mizoram, and in all Union Territories except Delhi.
• The Panchayats receive funds from three sources:
• Local body grants, as recommended by the Central Finance Commission
• Funds for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes
• Funds released by the state governments on the recommendations of the State Finance Commissions
• On 24 April 1993, the Constitutional (73^rd Amendment) Act of 1992 came into force in India to provide constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj institutions.
• This amendment was extended to Panchayats in the tribal areas of eight states, namely: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and Rajasthan beginning on 24 December 1996.
• This amendment contains provisions for the devolution of powers and responsibilities to the panchayats, both for the preparation of economic development plans and social justice, as well as for implementation in relation to 29 subjects listed in the eleventh schedule of the constitution, and the ability to levy and collect appropriate taxes, duties, tolls, and fees.
• The Act aims
• to provide a three-tier system of Panchayati Raj for all states having a population of over two million,
• to hold Panchayat elections regularly every five years,
• to provide seats reserved for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and women,
• to appoint a State Finance Commission to make recommendations regarding the financial powers of the Panchayats, and
• to constitute a District Planning Committee.

Therefore, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

Alluvial soil:

• It is formed by the deposition of alluvium by rivers
• This type of soil contribute greatly to agriculture
• From the foothills of the mountain towards the river valley, alluvial soil could be classified into four categories
• Bhabar
• Tarai
• Banger
• Khader

The alluvial soils vary in nature from sandy loam to clay. They are generally rich in potash but poor in phosphorous, in the Upper and Middle Ganga plain.

• Two different types of alluvial soils have developed-
• Khadar- It is the new alluvium and deposited by floods annually, which enriches the soil by depositing fine silts.
• Bhangar- It represents a system of older alluvium, deposited away from the flood plains.
• Both the khadar and bhangar soils contain calcareous concretions (Kankars).

Bhangar 

• It is old alluvial soil on the basis of age
• These are coarse in texture due to the concentration of kankar nodules and fewer amount of fine particles
• Comparatively less fertile soil as it is not renewed frequently
• They usually found in the upper reaches (about 30m above flood level) of the river valley
• They resemble terraces and composed of calcareous deposits.
• They are less prone to flooding
• Thi soil is not suitable for agricultural practices
• The drier areas of Bhangar soils exhibit saline and alkaline efflorescence

Therefore, a, c and d are true

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

Key Points

Racial differences are based on the physical attributes of humans. The inner qualities of an individual have nothing to do with the races. On a broader scale, the present-day population of India has been derived from the following racial groups and sub-groups.

Important Points

• The Negritos
• The Proto-Australoids
• The Mongoloids
• The Mediterranean
• The Western broad-headed people
• The Nordics

The philosophy of positivism DOES NOT believe in Speculation.

Key Points

The philosophy of positivism:

• The origin of positivism as a well-established philosophy can be accredited to French philosopher August Comte in the 1830s.
• Its main purpose was to distinguish science from metaphysics and religion.
• It emphasized science and the scientific method as the only source of knowledge
• August Comte published as a book with the title ‘The Course of Positive Philosophy.’ His positivist philosophy included the following five basic guidelines:
• Direct and empirically verifiable experience of reality (phenomenology).
• unified scientific method or ‘le certitude’
• ‘le precis’ or a common objective of formulating scientific theories
• ‘le utile’ an instrument of social engineering.
• ‘le relative’, scientific knowledge was never complete, unification of scientific theories
• Positivism, in Western philosophy, generally, any system that confines itself to the data of experience and excludes a priori or metaphysical speculations.
• The positivist philosophy proved to be anti-idealistic that is, it stood in contrast to anything that was abstract and essentially a mental construct.
• The positivist philosophy did not deal with the ‘normative questions’ since they could not be tested empirically and could not be established with scientific evidence.

Bernhardus Varenius:

Key Points

Primary Information:

• Born in 1622 and he passed away in 1650
• He studied philosophy, mathematics and physics at the University of Hamburg between 1640 and 1643
• First scholar who highlight on the differences in the nature and content of physical and human geography

Contributions:

• Using the terms of Bartholomew Keckermann a German philosopher, he partitioned geography into-

1. Special geography:  essentially concerned with the description of particular places on the basis of direct observations. This branch of geography was assumed to have great practical importance for governance and commerce.
2. General geography:  based on universally applicable mathematical or astronomical laws.

• He eventually gave rise to the dualisms and dichotomies between physical and human geography and, more importantly between regional (special) and systematic (universal) geography.
• He explain the world’s wind systems

Important books:

1. ‘Description Regni Laponiae et Siam’ (Regional description of Japan and Siam), 1649. The book comprised of five parts:
2. A description of Japan.
3. A description of Siam (Thailand) being translated into Latin.
4. A description of the religions of Japan.
5. Some information on the religions of Africa.
6. A short essay on the governments dealing with places and people.
7. ‘Geographia Generalis’ (1650). First attempt to combine three branches of geography—general (systematic), mathematical and physical—and, chorology (science of space). This book consisted of three parts:
8. The absolute or terrestrial part dealing with the shape and size of the earth as well as the physical geography of continents, seas and the atmosphere.
9. The relative or the cosmic part describing the relation between the earth and other celestial bodies especially the sun and its effects on global climate.
10. The comparative part focusing on the principles of navigation and the location of different places in relation to each other.

In the preface of Geographia Generalis, Varenius advocated that, the description of particular places should take into consideration the:

1. Celestial conditions—climate.
2. Terrestrial conditions—relief, soil, vegetation and biotic life.
3. Human conditions—population, settlement, trade, forms of government

Correlation coefficient:

• The correlation coefficient is a statistical measure of the strength of the relationship between the relative movements of two variables.
• The values range between -1.0 and 1.0. A calculated number is greater than 1.0 or less than -1.0 means that there was an error in the correlation measurement.
• A correlation of -1.0 shows a perfect negative correlation, while a correlation of 1.0 shows a perfect positive correlation.
• A correlation of 0.0 shows no linear relationship between the movements of the two variables.
• The coefficient of correlation is the square root of the coefficient of determination.
• The zero value of the correlation coefficient cannot estimate the value of a dependent variable.
• A value of exactly 1.0 means there is a perfect positive relationship between the two variables.
• For a positive increase in one variable, there is also a positive increase in the second variable.
• A value of -1.0 means there is a perfect negative relationship between the two variables.
• Pearson's correlation coefficient,

Therefore, c and d are true.

Aerial Photograph:

• It is the image taken by photographs from an aircraft or other flying object.
• A precision camera specifically designed for use in aircraft.
• The art, science, and technology of taking aerial photographs from an airborne platform are known as aerial photography.
• It is a central projection
• An aerial photograph is geometrically incorrect.
• The distortion in the geometry is minimum at the center and increases towards the edges of the photographs.
• The scale of the photograph is not uniform in every case.
• Enlargement/reduction does not change the contents of the photographs and can easily be carried out.
• Aerial photography holds good for inaccessible and inhospitable areas.

Image interpretation:

• It is an art of identifying images of objects and judging their relative significance.
• The principles of image interpretation are applied to obtain qualitative information from aerial photographs such as land use/land cover, topographical forms, soil types, etc.
• A trained interpreter can thus utilise aerial photographs to analyze the land-use changes.

The elements of visual image interpretation are as follows

Therefore, the shape of image interpretation is most appropriate for identifying alluvial fans and meanders on an aerial photograph

PENINSULAR PLATEAU

• The Peninsular plateau is a tableland composed of the old crystalline, igneous and metamorphic rocks.
• It was formed due to the breaking and drifting of the Gondwana land and thus, making it a part of the oldest landmass.
• The plateau has broad and shallow valleys and rounded hills.
• This plateau consists of two broad divisions, namely, the Central Highlands and the Deccan Plateau.
• The part of the Peninsular plateau lying to the north of the Narmada river covering a major area of the Malwa plateau is known as the Central Highlands.
• The Deccan Plateau is a triangular landmass that lies to the south of the river Narmada.

The correct answer is: a - iii, b - i, c - ii, d - iv

Key Points

Additional Information

• Mango Showers – Karnataka:
• Mango showers are pre-monsoon rains that occur during March and April in parts of South India, particularly in Karnataka.
• These showers help in the early ripening of mangoes, hence the name.
• Blossom Showers – Kerala:
• These are pre-monsoon showers that occur in Kerala and trigger the blossoming of coffee flowers.
• They are crucial for the coffee cultivation cycle and are eagerly awaited by farmers in the Western Ghats region.
• Norwester – West Bengal:
• Known locally as ‘Kal Baisakhi’, Norwesters are violent thunderstorms occurring in eastern India, especially in West Bengal, Bihar, and Assam during the summer months.
• They bring heavy rain, thunder, and strong winds that provide relief from the oppressive summer heat.
• Loo – Uttar Pradesh:
• The Loo is a strong, hot, and dry wind that blows during the day over the northwestern plains of India, particularly in states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana.
• It occurs during the peak summer months of May and June and can cause heat strokes.

Census of India:

• Population Census is the total process of collecting, compiling, analyzing, or otherwise disseminating demographic, economic, and social data pertaining
• The census provides information on size, distribution and socio-economic, demographic, and other characteristics of the country's population.
• It generally conducted at an interval of 10 years

• The 2011 census shows a decrease in population growth rate since 1981 in India.
• The absolute increase in urban population exceeded the absolute increase in the rural population in India. It is 9.0 crore for the rural population while 9.1 crores for the urban population.
• The sex ratio has increased in the 2011 census from 2001.
• The literacy rate has improved in the 2011 census since 2001.

Therefore, it is clear from the above table and information are written in the solution, b and d are true.

The stages of development of society hinder the social process of assimilation.

Key Points

• The social process of assimilation:
• Assimilation, in anthropology and sociology, the process whereby individuals or groups of differing ethnic heritage are absorbed into the dominant culture of a society.
• It is the process of social, cultural, and political integration of a minority into a dominant culture and society.
• It is that process by which individuals belonging to different cultures are united into one. Successful accommodation sets the stage for additional consequences of human interactions, namely assimilation.
• This implies the complete merging and fusion of two or more bodies into a single common body, a process analogous to digestion, in which we say that food is assimilated.
• Assimilation in social relationships means that the cultural differences between divergent groupings of people disappear.
• Thus, they come to feel; think, and act similarly as they absorb new common traditions, attitudes and consequently take on a new cultural identity.

Additional Information

• We see the process operating among ethnic groups which enter society with their own society’s culture.
• Assimilation is a slow and gradual process.
• Acculturation is the first step to assimilation.
• Assimilation is a universal process. It is found in every place and at all times.
• Assimilation is a two-way process. It is based on the principle of giving and take.

Key Points

The need satisfaction curve of Drewnowski:

• Drewonowski tries to depict a situation that in any the state of well-being of its citizen will determine the degree of social and economic deficiency.

• State of well being can be measured in terms of

• Affluence

• Sufficiency

• Insufficiency

• Destitution

• There is little agreement on absolutes, zero points and saturation thresholds with the possible exception of a lower-level threshold described as a “zero-level” or “survival with nil need satisfaction” by Drewnowski (1974),

• It is associated with a sub-human level of existence.

• By contrast, a “human” but a minimum level of need satisfaction is only guaranteed when “basic needs” are met.

• Once the basic need of individuals in a community is met, the state of well being is high.

Therefore, In Drewnowski's conceptual framework of the need satisfaction curve, the lowest level of living indicates Destitution.

Electoral behavior in India:

• Electoral behavior is also known as voting behavior
• It determines by various socio-economic and political factors
• The behavior of voters in the contest of election is known as electoral behavior
• According to Gordon Marshall, “ The study of voting behavior invariably focuses on the determinants of why people vote as they do and how they arrive at the decisions they make.”
• The determinants of electoral behavior can be categorized into two,
• | Socio-economic factors | Political factors | | --- | --- | | 1. Caste 2. Religion 3. Language 4. Regionalism 5. Age-sex 6. Family influence 7. Economic condition at the time of election 8. Education of the voter 9. The economic condition of the voter etc. | 1. The personality of the leader 2. Money 3. Political ideology 4. Performance of the ruling party 5. Personal and emotional association with the party 6. Political events 7. Election campaign 8. Candidate orientation etc. |

Important Points

Some important electoral behaviour:

Caste: 

• It is an important factor in Indian politics.
• Caste was actually born with the profession of one's family.
• The caste of the politician and the caste of the voter determines the voting behavior.

Religion and language: 

• Religious sentiments also influence the electoral behavior in India
• Linguistic feelings is also an important factor and it influenced by regionalism and sub-regionalism to a large extent

Money power: Economic condition of the voter can exchange ‘votes for notes’

Raster data format in GIS is compatible with satellite images.

GIS data format:

• GIS data formats can be categorized into two, spatial and attribute data format.
• Spatial data is a geographical representation of features.
• In other words, spatial data is what we actually see in the form of maps (containing real-world features) on a computer screen.
• Spatial data can further be divided into two types- vector and raster data.

Raster data format:

• Raster data is made up of pixels.
• It is an array of grid cells with columns and rows.
• Each and every geographical feature is represented only through pixels in raster data.
• There is nothing like point, line, or polygon. Easy and efficient overlaying process.
• Raster data format is compatible with remotely sensed imagery.
• If it is a point, in raster data it will be a single pixel, a line will be represented as a linear arrangement of pixels and an area or polygon will be represented by contiguous neighboring pixels with similar values.
• In raster data, one pixel contains only one value (unlike vector data where a point, a line, or a polygon may have a number of values or attributes) that’s why only one geographical feature can be represented by a single set of pixels or grid cells.
• Hence a number of raster layers are required if multiple features are to be considered (For example- land use, soil type, forest density, topography, etc.).

​

• CAD systems: it generates digital data. CAD data can serve a range of purposes—from a design plan that is printed as a drawing or submitted as a legal document, to a repository for ongoing as-built information.
• Digital Line Graph (DLG): It is a cartographic map feature represented in digital vector form that is distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). DLGs are collected from USGS maps and are distributed in large-, intermediate- and small-scale with up to nine different categories of features, depending on the scale.
• In a GIS, geographical features are often expressed as vectors, by considering those features as geometrical shapes, point, line, and polygon.

Lorenz curve is a mathematical curve that shows a visual extent of departure for any given distribution.

Lorenz curve:

• In economics, the Lorenz curve is a graphical representation of the distribution of income or of wealth.
• It was developed by Max O. Lorenz in 1905 for representing inequality of wealth distribution.
• The percentage of households is plotted on the x-axis, the percentage of income on the y-axis.
• The values are cumulative in nature.
• It can also be used to show the distribution of assets. In such use, many economists consider it to be a measure of social inequality.
• It is also useful in business modeling: e.g., in consumer finance, to measure the actual percentage y% of delinquencies attributable to the x% of people with worst risk scores.

Gini Coefficient:

• The Gini coefficient is a single number aimed at measuring the degree of inequality in a distribution.
• It was developed by the Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini and published in his 1912 paper Variability and Mutability
• It is most often used in economics to measure how far a country's wealth or income distribution deviates from a totally equal distribution.
• G = A/(A + B)
• It is also equal to 2A and to 1 − 2B due to the fact that A + B = 0.5
• Since the axes scale from 0 to 1

Homogenous population DOES NOT promote the formation of the Federal State.

Key Points

Formation of Federal State:

• A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism).

• It can be considered the opposite of another system, the unitary state.

• There are two or more levels (tiers) of government.

• Each level of government has its own jurisdiction in matters of legislation, taxation, and administration even though they govern the same citizens.

• Powers and functions of each tier of government are specified and guaranteed by the Constitution.

• The Supreme Court has been given the power to settle disputes between state governments.

• Shape, size, diversity, presence of several core areas, etc. are favorable for any kind of federal government formation.

Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

• OPEC is a permanent intergovernmental organization of 13 oil-exporting developing nations that coordinates and unifies the petroleum policies of its Member Countries.
• The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a permanent, intergovernmental Organization, created at the Baghdad Conference on September 10–14, 1960, by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
• The five Founding Members were later joined by: Qatar (1961) – terminated its membership in January 2019; Indonesia (1962) – suspended its membership in January 2009, reactivated it in January 2016, but decided to suspend it again in November 2016; Libya (1962); United Arab Emirates (1967); Algeria (1969); Nigeria (1971); Ecuador (1973) – suspended its membership in December 1992, reactivated it in October 2007, but decided to withdraw its membership effective 1 January 2020; Angola (2007); Gabon (1975) - terminated its membership in January 1995 but rejoined in July 2016; Equatorial Guinea (2017); and Congo (2018). OPEC had its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, in the first five years of its existence. This was moved to Vienna, Austria, on September 1, 1965.
• OPEC's objective is to co-ordinate and unify petroleum policies among Member Countries, in order to secure fair and stable prices for petroleum producers; an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consuming nations; and a fair return on capital to those investing in the industry.

The correct answer is 'Al-Qanun-al-Masudi'

Key Points

• Books by Al-Masudi:
• Al-Masudi was a renowned Arab historian and geographer known for his substantial contributions to historical and geographical literature.
• Kitab-Muraj-al-Dhahab: Also known as the "Book of Golden Meadows," it is a historical and geographical encyclopedia and one of Al-Masudi's most famous works.
• Kitab-Akhbar-al-Zaman: This translates to "Book of the History of Time" and is another significant work by Al-Masudi that covers various historical events and cultures.
• Kitab-al-Ausat: Known as the "Middle Book," it is also written by Al-Masudi and serves as a collection of geographical knowledge and historical data.

Additional Information

• Al-Qanun-al-Masudi:
• Al-Qanun-al-Masudi is not written by Al-Masudi. The book is actually attributed to Ibn Sina (Avicenna), a Persian polymath famous for his works in philosophy and medicine.
• The full name of the book is "Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb" or "The Canon of Medicine," which has had a significant influence on medical science in both the Islamic world and Europe.
• Other Notable Works by Al-Masudi:
• Al-Masudi authored several other influential books, including "Kitab al-Tanbih wa al-Ishraf" (Book of Admonition and Revision), which is a summary of his works and observations.
• His writings are known for their broad scope, covering diverse subjects such as anthropology, geology, and history, underlining his extensive travels and scholarly contributions.

The correct answer is: a - iv, b - iii, c - ii, d - i

Key Points

Additional Information

• Ritter – Erdkunde:
• Carl Ritter was one of the founders of modern geographical thought and co-founder of modern geography with Alexander von Humboldt.
• His major work, Erdkunde ("Geography"), focused on a regional approach and emphasized the relationship between nature and human societies.
• Ptolemy – Almagast:
• Claudius Ptolemy was a Roman scholar known for his contributions to astronomy, geography, and cartography.
• Almagast is his famous astronomical treatise which compiled earlier Greek knowledge and influenced both Islamic and European astronomy for centuries.
• Strabo – Geographica:
• Strabo was a Roman geographer and historian who lived during the early Roman Empire.
• His monumental work, Geographica, described the world known to the Romans and Greeks and aimed to provide a descriptive account of different regions.
• Hippocrates – On Air, Water, Places:
• Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote this treatise that linked environmental factors to human health and behavior.
• On Air, Water, Places is one of the earliest works suggesting that geographical and climatic factors influence human physiology and diseases.

The graph used to show the proportion of surface area representing elevation above or below datum is the Hypsometric curve.

Hypsometric curve:

• A hypsometric curve is a histogram or cumulative distribution function of elevations in a geographical area.
• Differences in hypsometric curves between landscapes arise because the geomorphic processes that shape the landscape may be different.
• When drawn as a 2-dimensional histogram, a hypsometric curve displays the elevation (y) on the vertical, y-axis, and the area above the corresponding elevation (x) on the horizontal or x-axis.
• The curve can also be shown in non-dimensional or standardized form by scaling elevation and area by the maximum values.
• The non-dimensional hypsometric curve provides a hydrologist or a geomorphologist with a way to assess the similarity of watersheds — and is one of several characteristics used for doing so.
• The hypsometric integral is a summary measure of the shape of the hypsometric curve.

Chi-square test:

• A chi-square test, also written as χ2 test, is a statistical hypothesis test that is valid to perform when the test statistic is chi-square distributed under the null hypothesis, specifically Pearson's chi-square test and variants thereof.
• Pearson's chi-square test is used to determine whether there is a statistically significant difference between the expected frequencies and the observed frequencies in one or more categories of a contingency table.
• In the standard applications of this test, the observations are classified into mutually exclusive classes.
• If the null hypothesis (that in the population there is no difference between the classes) is true, the test statistic computed from the observations follows a χ2 frequency distribution.
• The purpose of the test is to evaluate how likely the observed frequencies would be assuming the null hypothesis is true.
• Test statistics that follow a χ2 distribution occur when the observations are independent and normally distributed, which assumptions are often justified under the central limit theorem.
• There are also χ2 tests for testing the null hypothesis of independence of a pair of random variables based on observations of the pairs.
• Chi-square tests often refer to tests for which the distribution of the test statistic approaches the χ2 distribution asymptotically, meaning that the sampling distribution (if the null hypothesis is true) of the test statistic approximates a χ2 distribution more and more closely as sample sizes increase

where:

Oi = an observed count for bin i

Ei = an expected count for bin i, asserted by the null hypothesis.

• Chi-square goodness of fit test determines if a sample data matches a population.

Important Points

Goodness of fit:

• The goodness of fit of a statistical model describes how well it fits a set of observations.
• Measures of goodness of fit typically summarize the discrepancy between observed values and the values expected under the model in question

Use of Chi-square test:

• The chi-squared distribution has many uses in statistics, including:
• Confidence interval estimation for a population standard deviation of a normal distribution from a sample standard deviation.
• Independence of two criteria of classification of qualitative variables.
• Relationships between categorical variables (contingency tables).
• Sample variance study when the underlying distribution is normal.
• Tests of deviations of differences between expected and observed frequencies (one-way tables).
• The chi-square test (goodness of fit test).

Introduction:

• Mean is a measure of central tendency
• It can be categorized into three,
• Arithmetic mean
• Geometric mean
• Harmonic mean
• The arithmetic mean is extensively used in the statistics.

The temperature data were recorded at Station A:

Calculation:

Therefore, the mean monthly temperature is 25°C

Key Points

Hence, the correct sequence is Karakoram, Ladakh, Zanskar, Pir Panjal

 Himalayas

• The Himalayas are one of  the most complex mountain systems in the world. It forms a barrier between the Tibetan plateau and the Indian subcontinent.
• The mountain Himalaya includes the highest mountain peaks in the world. The ranges of the Himalayas are separated by deep valleys. Thus they create a highly dissected topography.
• These mountain ranges run in a west-east direction from the Indus to the Brahmaputra.
• The altitudinal variations are greater in the eastern half than those in the western half.
• Spreading over Kashmir and northern Pakistan, the western Himalayan system splits into three distinct ranges, which are, from south to north, the Pir Panjal Range, the Zaskar Range, and the Ladakh Range. Farther north is the Karakoram Range, which is a separate system adjoining the Himalayas.
• The Himalaya consists of three parallel ranges in its longitudinal extent. A number of valleys lie between these ranges. The northern most range is known as the Great or Inner Himalayas or the ‘Himadri’. It is the most continuous range consisting of the loftiest peaks with an average height of 6,000 metres.
• The range lying to the south of the Himadri forms the most rugged mountain system and is known as Himachal or lesser Himalaya. The ranges are mainly composed of highly compressed and altered rocks. The altitude varies between 3,700 and 4,500 metres and the average width is of 50 Km.
• While the Pir Panjal range forms the longest and the most important range, the Dhaula Dhar and the Mahabharat ranges are also prominent ones.

This range consists of the famous valley of Kashmir, the Kangra and Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh. This region is well known for its hill stations.

Strabo was a Roman geographer.

Key Points

Strabo (64-20 BC):

• Roman scholar considered as the ‘Father of regional geography’
• Wrote a seventeen volume work ‘Geographia’ (an encyclopedic description of the world known to the Greek)
• This book laid down a strong foundation for chronological setting in geography
• He gave the correct explanation of the floods of the Nile
• Writer of 43 volume ‘Historical Memoir’
• He examines the detailed work of Eratosthenes and discusses various changes introduced by him in the map of the world

Kenneth Boulding provides the concept of the image to geographical studies.

Key Points

Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993):

• He was born in Liverpool, England, and known as an American economist.
• Some of his important works are as follows,
• Economic analysis, 1966
• The Image, 1956
• The Organizational Behaviour, 1953
• The Image contains the ultimate Bouldingism

The Image:

• The central question of The Image is what determines our subjective knowledge.
• Since human behavior depends on the image, knowledge that the individual believes to be true, an answer to this question is a prerequisite for an adequate theory of behavior.
• Boulding answers that all knowledge is a series of images and that since the image is built up as a result of all past experiences of the possessor, knowledge is organic.
• It grows and accumulates. Images are revised as new information is received. In fact, the meaning of new information is the change it produces in the image.
• Knowledge for Boulding is the main hope for humanity.
• The growth of knowledge is anti-entropic; it brings order out of what was previously chaos. And, unlike other resources, knowledge is not used up.
• Kenneth Boulding, an economist and systems theorist, introduced the concept of "the image" in the sense of cognitive representations or mental models that individuals or societies have of the world. This is indeed relevant to geographical studies.

Carl Ritter (1779-1859):

• One of the founders of modern geographical ideas
• He considered geography was an empirical and descriptive science
• He declared Geography as the Earth Science, the properties of the place in relation to the temporal, formal, and physical characteristics.
• He claimed that the central theory of geography is 'the relationship of all events and the nature of nature to humankind'.

Contributions:

• Erdkunde (published in 1817), making geography 'Anthropocentric'
• The principle of unity in diversity: every naturally bound area is unity in relation to climate, production, culture, population, and history.

Ritter as a teleogist:

• Ritter was a teleologist; his geography seemed to be an attempt to interpret philosophically that which science could not explain.
• He even sought to construct ‘a law of the arrangement’ of the parts of each continent to the whole.
• Ritter had a vision of an ordered and harmonious universe.
• In short, Ritter gave a systematic frame to geography which remained valid for the future scholars for number of centuries.
• With the death of Humboldt and Ritter in 1859, the classical period of geography came to an end.

Therefore, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)

Agricultural intensity:

• Agricultural intensification is a process of raising land productivity over time through increases in inputs of one form or another on a per unit area basis.
• It is the average annual number of crop harvests on the same field each year, is calculated as the ratio of the sum of the area harvested per year to total cropland.
• It is defined as the ratio of inputs and outputs within an agricultural system
• The formula is, Cropping intensity = (Gross cropped area/net cropped area) * 100

Therefore the correct sequence is Maharashtra → Assam → Bihar → Uttar Pradesh

The descending order having a high concentration of population distribution according to Census 2011 data is Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal.

Census of India,2011:

• In India, the census 2011 is the seventh census after independence
• It was conducted over 28 states and 6 union territories.
• Some of the major aspects are population, sex ratio, and literacy percentage, etc.

Aerial Photograph:

• It is the image taken by photographs from an aircraft or other flying object.
• A precision camera specifically designed for use in aircraft.
• The art, science, and technology of taking aerial photographs from an airborne platform are known as aerial photography.
• It is a central projection
• An aerial photograph is geometrically incorrect.
• The distortion in the geometry is minimum at the centre and increases towards the edges of the photographs.
• The scale of the photograph is not uniform in every case.
• Enlargement/reduction does not change the contents of the photographs and can easily be carried out.
• Aerial photography holds good for inaccessible and inhospitable areas.

The ideal time to obtain an aerial photograph:

• This is the Consideration of shadow effects.
• The sun's elevation angle above the horizon is a function of latitude, the season of the year, and the time of the day.
• When extensive shadowing is not wanted, ground scenes should be photographed within about two hours of local apparent noon (solar noon).
• A consequence of selecting the wrong combination of season and time of day is a phenomenon known as a hotspot or sunspot. A loss of photographic detail with overexposed areas.
• Hotspots are most likely to occur with certain sun-angles, at a lower latitude, at higher flight altitudes, and with wide-angle lenses. After the season and latitude of photography have been determined, it is possible to calculate and thus avoid those times when hotspots will likely occur.

Therefore it is clear that the ideal time of the day to obtain an areal photograph is when the sun is low oblique (before and afternoon).

In a fold, if both limbs are parallel as well as horizontal to each other, it would be a case of a Recumbent fold.

Fold:

• Horizontal movements are produced by forces of compression and tension.
• Folding is the bending of rock strata due to compression.
• Folding on large scale results in mountain building generally referred to as orogeny.
• The parts of a fold are as follows,

• Fault: In geology, a fault is a planar or gently curved fracture in the rocks of the Earth’s crust, where compressional or tensional forces cause relative displacement of the rocks on the opposite sides of the fracture.
• Main Components of a Fault:
• The fault plane: The fault plane is where the action is. It is a flat surface that may be vertical or sloping.
• The fault trace: The line it makes on the Earth's surface is the fault trace.
• The hanging wall and the footwall: the fault plane is sloping, as with normal and reverse faults, the upper side is the hanging wall and the lower side is the footwall. When the fault plane is vertical, there is no hanging wall or footwall.
• Strike and its dip: The strike is the direction of the fault trace on the Earth's surface. The dip is the measurement of how steeply the fault plane slopes.
• Fault Scrap: an actual surface of fault displacement may stand up unmodified by erosion as in escarpment or cliff. It is called a ‘Fault Scrap’. In this case, the escarpment faces towards the downthrow side.
• Fait Line Scrap: Fault frequently brings together resistant and non-resistant rocks. The resistant rock will stand out prominently as a ridge along a fault zone. Such ridges that will generally face the upthrow side of the faults are called the ‘Fault Scrap Side’.
• Fault Control or Streams: Streams may be guided in the direction and course of their flow by faulting such stream, which may follow a straight line or make approximately right angle turns

Strike and Dip:

• Strike.  the orientation of the horizontal line within a plane.  While there is an infinite number of horizontal lines within a plane, they will all be parallel and share the same orientation.  For a horizontal plane, the strike is undefined.
• Dip direction:  The dip direction will be orthogonal to the strike direction. Water will flow down the plane in this direction.
• Apparent dip: if you attempt to measure dip and are not orthogonal to the strike direction, the measured value will be smaller
• Dip: steepest angle from the horizontal of a plane.  A horizontal plane has a dip of 0, and a vertical plane a dip of 90.  The larger the dip, the steeper the plane.
• DIP is the acute angle that a rock surface makes with a horizontal plane.
• STRIKE is the direction of the line formed by the intersection of a rock surface with a horizontal plane.
• Strike and dip are always perpendicular to each other on a map

Therefore, The direction of a dip in reference to strike is always at the Right angle.

The correct answer is the USA.

Key Points

Mount St. Helens:

• Mount St. Helens (known as Lawetlat'la to the Indigenous Cowlitz people, and Loowit or Louwala-Clough to the Klickitat).
• It is an active stratovolcano located in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
• It is 50 miles (80 km) northeast of Portland, Oregon, and 96 miles (154 km) south of Seattle.
• Mount St. Helens takes its English name from the British diplomat Lord St Helens, a friend of explorer George Vancouver who made a survey of the area in the late 18^th century.
• The volcano is located in the Cascade Range and is part of the Cascade Volcanic Arc, a segment of the Pacific Ring of Fire that includes over 160 active volcanoes.
• It is well known for its ash explosions and pyroclastic flows.
• Prior to 1980, Mount St. Helens had the shape of a conical, youthful volcano sometimes referred to as the Mount Fuji of America.
• During the 1980 eruption, the upper 400 m (1,300 ft) of the summit was removed by a huge debris avalanche, leaving a 2 x 3.5 km (1.2 x 2.2 mi) horseshoe-shaped crater now partially filled by a lava dome and a glacier.
• It is primarily an explosive dacite volcano

Therefore, it is evident that Mount St. Helens is located in the USA.

Circum-Pacific Volcanic belt:

• The Ring of Fire also referred to as the Circum-Pacific Belt, is a path along the Pacific Ocean characterized by active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes.
• The Ring of Fire is stretched to approximately 40,000 kilometers (24,900 miles) tracing boundaries between several tectonic plates including the Pacific, Juan de Fuca, Cocos, Indian-Australian, Nazca, North American, and Philippine Plates.
• The chain runs up along the western coast of South and North America, crosses over the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, runs down the eastern coast of Asia past New Zealand, and into the northern coast of Antarctica.
• Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, Canada, Russia, Japan, Philippines, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, New Zealand, and Antarctica are some of the important places located in the ring of the fire.
• There are 512 active volcanoes.

​

Conclusion:

• It is evident that the Circum-Pacific Belt is located along the coastal area of the Pacific ocean.
• So it includes the western part of North America and the eastern part of Asia.
• The Aleutian Islands are located in the western part of North America and an island in the North Pacific.
• Mindanao island and Sakhalin island are both located in the Eastern part of Asia along the Pacific ocean.
• Only the Azores islands are located in the Atlantic Ocean.

Therefore, the Azores islands are NOT a part of the Circum-Pacific Volcanic belt.

Block disintegration is generally dominant in Greater Himalayas as a process of weathering.

Weathering:

• Weathering is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, water, and biological organisms.
• Weathering occurs in situ (on-site), that is, in the same place.
• Weathering is a result of exogenetic forces.
• It can be physical and chemical weathering.
• Physical or mechanical weathering happens when a rock is broken through the force of another substance on the rock such as ice, running water, wind, rapid heating/cooling, or plant growth.
• Chemical weathering occurs when reactions between a rock and another substance dissolve the rock, causing parts of it to fall away.

Physical or mechanical weathering:

Physical or mechanical weathering:

Down-warping is produced on account of Crustal bending.

Crustal bending:

• It is a type of didastrophic force. The up wrapping and doun wraping comes under epeirogenic forces.
• The compressional force causes crustal bending leading to the formation of fields or crustal warping leading to local rise or subsidence of crustal parts.
• When horizontal forces work face to face, the crustal rocks are bent due to resistant compressional and tangential forces.
• It is in two ways: warping and folding
• A combination of episodic up warping and down warping of the continental blocks or global (eustatic) changes in sea level or both, coupled with normal changes in the rate of sediment supply that occurs along coasts traversed by major laterally meandering river systems, may have been the cause.

Geomorphic processes:

• The creation, destruction, recreation, and maintenance of geomaterials and various relief features are the results of the various forces affecting the crust and involves in geological processes.
• There are two types of forces responsible for those geological processes,
• Endogenetic forces: forces coming from within the earth
• Exogenetic forces: originated from the natural mediums known as geomorphic agents
• Endogenetic forces can be divided into two,
• Diastrophic forces: the forces responsible for the formation of the meso-level relief features i.e. mountain, plateaus, plains, etc. and operate very slowly on the earth's surface both vertically and horizontally. These forces are two  types: epeirogenic movements and orogenic movements
• Sudden forces: these are associated with sudden and rapid events also known as extreme events on the surface of the earth. For example volcanic eruption, earthquake

Mid-Atlantic ridge is an example of the constructive margin of lithospheric plates.

• Plate: the solid crustal layers or the lithospheric slabs
• Plate margin: these are the marginal part of the plate
• Plate boundary: these are the zone of motion between two plates
• There are three types of plate margins,
• Constructive plate margin
• Destructive plate margine
• Conservative plate margine

The constructive plate margin:

• The boundary between two divergent plates
• Occurs when plates move apart.
• Volcanoes are formed as magma wells up to fill the gap, and eventually, a new crust is formed.
• Most of these plate margins are under the oceans.
• An example of a constructive plate boundary is the mid-Atlantic Ridge.
• As the plates move apart, magma rises from the mantle to the Earth’s surface. The rising magma forms shield volcanoes.

San Andreas Fault:

• The San Andreas Fault is the sliding boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate.

• The San Andreas Fault is a continental transform fault that extends roughly 1,200 kilometers (750 mi) through California.

• It slices California in two from Cape Mendocino to the Mexican border.

• San Diego, Los Angeles, and Big Sur area on the Pacific Plate. San Francisco, Sacramento, and the Sierra Nevada are on the North American Plate.

• San Andreas Fault Zone (SAFZ) started moving about 28-30 million years ago and has horizontally slipped (transform motion) a total of about 300-350 km (186-220 mi)since it began moving.

• The relative motion between these two tectonic plates is 50 mm/yr (about 2 inches/yr).

• Its motion is right-lateral strike-slip (horizontal).

• Crustal blocks may also move sideways past each other, usually along nearly-vertical faults. This ‘strike-slip’ movement is described as sinistral when the far side moves to the left, and dextral, when the far side moves to the right.

• Plate margin: these are the marginal part of the plate

• Plate boundary: these are the zone of motion between two plates

Avalanches: An avalanche can be simply defined as a mass of snow that moves quickly down a mountain.

From the above discussion, we can say that Slab avalanches are most destructive in nature.

Correct matching is a - iv, b - i, c - ii, d - iii

The correct answer is 'Warm front'

Key Points

• Warm Front:
• A warm front occurs when a warm air mass moves over a cold air mass.
• Since the warm air is lighter, it rises gently over the denser cold air mass.
• As the warm air rises, it cools adiabatically, leading to condensation and cloud formation.
• Prolonged and steady precipitation occurs, typically in the form of drizzle or light rain, spread over a wide area ahead of the front.
• This frontal uplift mechanism characterizes the early stages of mid-latitude cyclones.

Additional Information

• Stationary Front:
• A stationary front forms when two air masses (cold and warm) meet but neither displaces the other.
• It is characterized by gentle winds and prolonged overcast skies with intermittent precipitation.
• However, it lacks the consistent uplift and systematic precipitation of a warm front.
• Cold Front:
• In a cold front, cold air displaces warm air by forcefully lifting it.
• This leads to rapid cooling, formation of cumulonimbus clouds, and often intense but short-lived rainfall or thunderstorms.
• While uplift occurs, it is more violent and not gradual like in a warm front.
• Occluded Front:
• An occluded front occurs when a cold front overtakes a warm front, causing the warm air to be lifted off the ground entirely.
• It usually results in complex weather patterns, often combining characteristics of both warm and cold fronts.
• However, it is not the initial stage where warm air starts to rise and condense.

Important Points

• Frontal uplift is one of the main mechanisms for cloud formation and precipitation in mid-latitude regions.
• Warm fronts are typically associated with nimbostratus and altostratus clouds, whereas cold fronts produce cumulonimbus clouds.
• The weather sequence in a warm front is more prolonged and less intense compared to a cold front.

Ekman transport occurs in the Upper-ocean.

Key Points

Ekman transport:

• The net transport of water due to coupling between wind and surface waters is known as Ekman transport.

• The wind blows across the ocean and moves its waters as a result of its frictional drag on the surface.

• Water in the ocean can be divided roughly into three regions based on density: surface water, the pycnocline, and deep water.

• The top-most layer is driven by wind.

• Motion in this layer drives flow in the layer below, and so on, such that wind-driven motion at the top, ultimately, drives flow in all of the layers below.

• Ekman transport, forming convergence and divergence zones of surface water.

• Ekman transport is part of Ekman motion theory, first investigated in 1902 by Vagn Walfrid Ekman.

• Winds are the main source of energy for ocean circulation, and Ekman Transport is a component of wind-driven ocean currents.

• Ekman transport occurs when ocean surface waters are influenced by the friction force acting on them via the wind.

• This phenomenon was first noted by Fridtjof Nansen, who recorded that ice transport appeared to occur at an angle to the wind direction during his Arctic expedition during the 1890s.

A halocline refers to a significant change in Salinity.

Key Points

Halocline:

• In oceanography, a halocline (from Greek hals, halos 'salt' and klinein 'to slope') is a cline, a subtype of chemocline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water.

• Because salinity (in concert with temperature) affects the density of seawater, it can play a role in its vertical stratification.

• Increasing salinity by one kg/m3 results in an increase of seawater density of around 0.7 kg/m3.

• Halocline may be present -zone of rapid change of salinity with water depth

• Halocline refers to a zone of sharp salinity change in the vertical section of the oceans, generally between 300-1000m depth.

• Maximum salinity is found in the upper layers of oceanic water.

• Salinity decreases with increasing depth.

• Thus, the upper zone of maximum salinity and the lower zone of minimum salinity is separated by a transition zone known as the halocline.

1. Thermocline – A cline based on the difference in water temperature,
2. Chemocline – A cline based on the difference in water chemistry,
3. Pycnocline – A cline based on the difference in water density.

Albedo:

• Albedo Latin: albedo, meaning 'whiteness‘
• The term albedo was introduced into optics by Johann Heinrich Lambert in his 1760 work Photometria.
• It is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that reflects all incident radiation.
• Surface albedo is defined as the ratio of radiosity to the irradiance (flux per unit area) received by a surface.
• The average albedo of the Earth from the upper atmosphere, its planetary albedo, is 30–35% because of cloud cover, but widely varies locally across the surface because of different geological and environmental features.

Key Points

• The ocean surface has a low albedo, as do most forests
• The desert areas have some of the highest albedos among landforms.
• Most land areas are in an albedo range of 0.1 to 0.4.
• The average albedo of Earth is about 0.3.
• Any albedo in visible light falls within a range of about 0.9 for fresh snow.

From the above table, we can easily understand that the fresh snow has the highest albedo and forest cover has the lowest albedo.

La Nina:

• La Niña is caused by a build-up of cooler-than-normal waters in the tropical Pacific, the area of the Pacific Ocean between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
• Unusually strong, eastward-moving trade winds and ocean currents bring this cold water to the surface, a process known as upwelling.
• La Nina means Little Girl in Spanish.
• La Nina is also sometimes called El Viejo, anti-El Nino, or simply "a cold event."
• La Nina has the opposite effect of El Nino.
• During La Nina events, trade winds are even stronger than usual, pushing more warm water toward Asia.
• Off the west coast of the Americas, upwelling increases, bringing cold, nutrient-rich water to the surface.
• These cold waters in the Pacific push the jet stream northward.
• This tends to lead to drought in the southern U.S. and heavy rains and flooding in the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
• During a La Nina year, winter temperatures are warmer than normal in the South and cooler than normal in the North.
• La Nina can also lead to a more severe hurricane season.
• During La Nina, waters off the Pacific coast are colder and contain more nutrients than usual.
• This environment supports more marine life and attracts more cold-water species, like squid and salmon, to places like the California coast.

Therefore, it is clear that An abnormal accumulation of cold water in the central and eastern Pacific resulting in very strong trade winds is related to the La Nina effect.

Airmass: According to  Barry and Chorley (1968), 'An airmass may be defined as a large body of air whose physical properties, especially temperature, moisture content and lapse rate (of temperature) are more or less uniform horizontally for hundreds of kilometres.

Key Points

Characteristics of airmass:

• Airmass is an extensive body of air
• It is fairly homogenous physical properties
• Airmass is associated with light divergent winds
• The boundary between two airmasses is known as a front
• The thermal nature of the airmass is determined by the temperature characteristics of the airmass
• The properties (temperature and moisture content)   an air mass acquires in its source region  are  dependent  upon  a number of factors—the time of   year (winter or summer), the nature of the underlying surface (whether and, water or ice-covered), and the length of time it remains over its source region, etc

The correct answer is Temperature anomaly.

The difference between the mean temperature of any place and the mean temperature of its latitude is called Temperature anomaly.

Key Points

Temperature anomaly:

• Temperature varies even along the same parallel of latitude, land and water contrasts, prevailing winds, and ocean currents.
• The difference between the mean temperature of any place and the mean temperature of its parallel is called the temperature anomaly or thermal anomaly.
• The anomaly is said to be negative when the temperature at a place is less than the expected temperature of the latitude.
• The anomaly is positive when the temperature at a place is more than the expected temperature of the latitude.
• In climate change studies, temperature anomalies are more important than absolute temperature.
• A temperature anomaly is a difference from an average, or baseline, temperature.
• The baseline temperature is typically computed by averaging 30 or more years of temperature data.
• A positive anomaly indicates the observed temperature was warmer than the baseline, while a negative anomaly indicates the observed temperature was cooler than the baseline.
• When calculating an average of absolute temperatures, things like station location or elevation will have an effect on the data (ex. higher elevations tend to be cooler than lower elevations and urban areas tend to be warmer than rural areas).
• However, when looking at anomalies, those factors are less critical. For example, a summer month over an area may be cooler than average, both at a mountain top and in a nearby valley, but the absolute temperatures will be quite different at the two locations.
• Using anomalies also helps minimize problems when stations are added, removed, or missing from the monitoring network.

The correct matching is,

• Salinity, along with temperature, determines the density of seawater, and hence its vertical flow patterns in the thermohaline circulation.
• Salinity records the physical processes affecting a water mass when it was last at the surface.
• precipitation/evaporation – salts excluded from the vapour.
• freezing/thawing – salts excluded from the ice
• Salinity can be used as a conservative (unchanging) tracer for determining the origin and mixing of water types.
• Isohaline - lines of equal salinity
• Due to variations in precipitation and evaporation
• Highest salinity - between 20°-30° north and south of the equator (evaporation exceeds precipitation)
• Lower salinity - at equator and poleward of 30° (precipitation exceeds evaporation)
• Halocline may be present -zone of rapid change of salinity with water depth
• Water stratification (layering) – more pronounced between 40°N and 40°S
• Salinity decreases from the mid-latitudes to high latitudes.
• The surface salinity of oceans decreases on either side of the tropics.

Therefore, Both (A) and (R) are true, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A).

Fujita scale of measurement refers to tornado severity and damage.

Key Points

Fujita scale:

• It is a  scale used to assess the severity and the damage caused by Tornado.
• It was devised by T. Theodore Fujita in the late 1960s.
• The scale measures the severity on the basis of the wind velocity and the damage done by the tornado.

• The Enhanced F-scale was implemented in February 2007.
• In the Fujita scale, the wind speed is not measured rather it is estimated after the tornado is over.
• Primarily the tornado can be categorized into three, weak tornado, strong tornado, and violent tornado.

Precipitation effectiveness and thermal efficiency are the basis of Thornthwaite's classification of climates.

Key Points

Thornthwaite's classification of climates:

• Thornthwaite climate classification scheme for describing climates devised in 1931, the full scheme in 1933 and revised in 1948
• Charles Warren Thornthwaite (1889–1963) was an American climatologist which divides climates into groups according to the vegetation characteristic of them.
• His scheme was complex and empirical
• Here he used some factors like precipitation effectiveness, temperature effectiveness, potential evapotranspiration or thermal efficiency index, moisture index, aridity, and humidity indices.
• He tried to draw an indication by natural vegetation for the climate of a region.
• Here he considered two factors
• Precipitation effectiveness: (monthly precipitation)/(monthly evaporation)
• Temperature effectiveness:

Key Points

Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF):

• A glacial lake outburst is a natural event that results in floods and catastrophic changes in the surface of the earth.
• Glacial lakes are formed when a glacier retreats, leaving the debris mass at the glacier- the end moraine exposed.
• The water dammed by a glacier or moraine is called a glacial lake. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine
• The glacial lake outburst can occur due to the following reasons,
• Heavy rainfall and an increase in the volume of water in the lake
• Release of the glacier or removal of the moraine
• Climatic change
• Global warming
• Black carbon and greenhouse effect
• Excessive rainfall
• Landslide and erosion
• Melting of glacial ice
• Earthquake in the mountainous region
• Volcanic eruption
• Landslide
• A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a release of meltwater from a moraine- or ice-dam glacial lake due to dam failure. GLOFs often result in catastrophic flooding downstream, with major geomorphic and socioeconomic impacts.

GLOFs have three main features:

• They involve sudden (and sometimes cyclic) releases of water.

• They tend to be rapid events, lasting hours to days.

• They result in large downstream river discharges (which often increase by an order of magnitude).

• Marginal lake: these are formed when the water dammed by the front of a glacier

• Sub glacial lake: the water body formed when it capped by a glacier.

So, it is clear that (a), (b), and (c) are correct about ​glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF).

Cloud burst is a meteorological hazard.

Key Points

Meteorological hazard:

• Meteorological hazards are hazards related to atmospheric patterns or conditions and are generally caused by weather factors such as precipitation, temperature, wind speed, and humidity.
• These cause some weather-related events, such as floods, droughts, landslides, tides, sea-level rise, wind, snow, frost, extreme temperature, hail, lightning and fire.

Some of the examples are-

• tropical cyclones such as hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones,
• monsoons,
• tornadoes,
• waterspouts,
• ice storms,
• severe winter storms,
• hailstorms,
• frost,
• extreme cold or heat,
• windstorms,
• sandstorms,
• wildfires,
• thunderstorms,
• fog,
• El Niño / La Niña, and
• climate change, etc.
• A hazard caused by short-lived, micro- to mesoscale extreme weather and atmospheric conditions that last from minutes to days

Cloud burst:

• A cloudburst is an extreme amount of precipitation in a short period of time, sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder, which is capable of creating flood conditions.
• Cloudbursts can quickly dump large amounts of water, e.g. 25 mm of the precipitation corresponds to 25,000 metric tons per square kilometre.
• It is associated with sudden, very heavy rainfall, usually local in nature and of brief duration sometimes accompanied by hail and thunder.

1. Flood and drought are considered cumulative hazards as they are the product of various events.
2. Landslide and avalanches are geomorphic hazards that can be caused by extreme meteorologic events.

Ocean Current:

• An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences.
• Depth contours, shoreline configurations, and interactions with other currents influence a current's direction and strength. Ocean currents are primarily horizontal water movements.
• An ocean current flows for great distances and together they create the global conveyor belt, which plays a dominant role in determining the climate of many of Earth’s regions.

Key Points

Types of current:

• Warm Currents: Warm ocean currents flow away from the equatorial region on the western side of ocean basins. The Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic and the Kuroshio Current in the North Pacific are examples of warm currents. Of all the warm currents, the Gulf Stream has been studied most extensively.
• Cold Currents: Cold currents flow toward the equator on the eastern side of ocean basins. Examples of cold ocean currents include the Canary Current in the North Atlantic, the California Current in the North Pacific, and the Benguela Current in the South Atlantic.

Location of the ocean current:

El Nino:

• El Nino means ‘little boy’ or ‘Christ child’ in Spanish.
• The phenomenon was thus named because it was first recognized by South American fishermen in the early part of the 17^th century.
• The events, i.e., warm waters in the Pacific Ocean, tended to occur in December, hence, the name was chosen.
• El Nino refers to the large-scale ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to periodic warming in sea surface temperatures across the central and east-central Equatorial Pacific.
• It is associated with high pressure in the western Pacific.
• El Nino adversely impacts the Indian monsoons and hence, agriculture in India.
• El Niño is the name given to the occasional development of warm ocean surface waters along the coast of Ecuador and Peru.

Key Points

El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) :

• ENSO is nothing but El Nino Southern Oscillation.
• As the name suggests, it is an irregularly periodic variation of wind and sea surface temperature that occurs over the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean.
• ENSO affects the tropics (the regions surrounding the equator) and the subtropics (the regions adjacent to or bordering the tropics).
• The warming phase of ENSO is called El Nino, while the cooling phase is known as La Nina.

The correct matching is,

Key Points

The densest seawater is the Antarctic bottom water.

Seawater is a complex mixture of 96.5 percent water, 2.5 percent salts, and smaller amounts of other substances, including dissolved inorganic and organic materials, particulates, and a few atmospheric gases.

• The density of seawater is a function of temperature, salinity, and pressure.
• At a temperature of 4° C pure water reaches its maximum or peak density, cooled further it expands and becomes less dense than the surrounding water which is why when water freezes at 0° C it floats.
• Salinity and density share a positive relationship. As density increases, the number of salts in the water—also known as salinity, increases. Various events can contribute to change in the density of seawater.
• Salinity can decrease from the melting of polar ice or increase from the freezing of polar ice. Evaporation increases salinity and density while the addition of freshwater decreases salinity and density.
• Surface zone - upper layer containing the least dense water; about 2% of total ocean volume; most variable part of the ocean because it is in contact with the atmosphere
• Pycnocline - zone in which density increases rapidly with depth; about 18% of ocean water
• Deep zone – about 80% of all ocean water; little change in density; originates at the surface in high latitudes where it cools, becomes dense, sinks to the seafloor and flows equatorward across the ocean basin
• Very dense seawater that is both cold and of elevated salinity is formed.
• Such areas as the Weddell Sea in Antarctica produce the densest water of the oceans.

T-S diagram helps in determining the formation and extent of Water masses.

Key Points

T-S diagram:

• In oceanography, temperature-salinity diagrams, sometimes called T-S diagrams, are used to identify water masses.

• Helps us to identify water masses and their characteristics.

• This diagram was introduced by Helland-Hansen (1916)

• In a T-S diagram, rather than plotting each water property as a separate "profile," with pressure or depth as the vertical coordinate, potential temperature (on the vertical axis) is plotted versus salinity (on the horizontal axis).

• As long as it remains isolated from the surface, where heat or freshwater can be gained or lost, and in the absence of mixing with other water masses, a water parcel's potential temperature and salinity are conserved.

• Deepwater masses thus retain their T-S characteristics for long periods of time and can be identified readily on a T-S plot.

• Temperature and salinity combine to determine the potential density of seawater; contours of constant potential density are often shown in T-S diagrams.

The United States of America intends to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.

Key Points

Paris Agreement:

• The Paris Agreement (French: L'accord de Paris) is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to combat climate change.
• It dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, signed in 2016.
• The agreement's language was negotiated by representatives of 196 state parties at the 21^st Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Le Bourget, near Paris, France, and adopted by consensus on 12 December 2015.
• As of February 2020, all UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, 189 have become a party to it, and the only significant emitters which are not parties are Iran and Turkey.

Aims:

• Keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level.
• Pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
• Strengthen the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.

Important Points

• On December 15, 2018, delegates to COP 24, hosted in Katowice, Poland, adopted most of a comprehensive “rulebook” fleshing out the operational details of the Paris Agreement.
• On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the agreement.
• The United States formally initiated its withdrawal from the agreement on November 4, 2019; the withdrawal took effect on November 4, 2020.
• On January 20, 2021, President Biden signed an Executive Order to rejoin the Paris Agreement.

The correct answer is Lithosphere.

• Oxygen is one of the most abundant elements on Earth and represents a large portion of each main reservoir.

• By far the largest reservoir of Earth's oxygen is within the silicate and oxide minerals of the crust and mantle (99.5% by weight).

• The Earth's atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere together hold less than 0.05% of the Earth's total mass of oxygen.

• Besides O₂, additional oxygen atoms are present in various forms spread throughout the surface reservoirs in the molecules of biomass, H₂O, CO₂, HNO₃, NO, NO₂, CO, H₂O₂, O₃, SO₂, H₂SO₄, MgO, CaO, AlO, SiO₂, and PO₄.

• The oxygen cycle is the biogeochemical transitions of oxygen atoms between different oxidation states in ions, oxides, and molecules through redox reactions within and between the spheres/reservoirs of the planet Earth.

Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Doha.

Key Points

Kyoto Protocol:

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has its emergence from COP 3.
• The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005.
• There are currently 192 parties (Canada withdrew from the protocol, effective December 2012).
• The parties meet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it.

Key mechanism:

• Emission trading (carbon market): Under this mechanism, an Annex I Party may transfer Kyoto units to or acquire units from another Annex I Party. Emissions trading does not affect the total assigned amount of Annex I Parties collectively; rather, it re-distributes the assigned amount among them.
• Clean development mechanism (CDM): The CDM is also a project-based mechanism. CDM credits may be generated from emission reduction projects or from afforestation and reforestation projects in non-Annex I Parties. If any Annex I party provides technology to them they receive credit called Certified Emission Reduction (CER).
• Joint implementation (JI): it is a project-based mechanism by which one Annex I Party can invest in a project that reduces emissions or enhances sequestration in another Annex I Party, and receive credit for the emission reductions or removals achieved through that project. The unit associated with JI is called an emission reduction unit (ERU).

Important Points

• In Doha, Qatar, on 8 December 2012, the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol was adopted for a second commitment period, starting in 2013 and lasting until 2020.
• As of February 2020, 137 states have accepted the Doha Amendment, while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states. Of the 37 countries with binding commitments, 7 have ratified.
• The amendment includes:
• New commitments for Annex I Parties to the Kyoto Protocol who agreed to take on commitments in a second commitment period from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2020;
• A revised list of GHG to be reported on by Parties in the second commitment period; and
• Amendments to several articles of the Kyoto Protocol specifically referenced issues pertaining to the first commitment period and which needed to be updated for the second commitment period.
• This is known as the second commitment period of the Kyoto protocol.

Therefore it is clear that Ecotone is the transition zone between two ecosystems.

As per the National Population Policy of India (2000), 2045 is the target year to achieve a stable population

National Population Policy of India (2000):

• **The National Population Policy 2000 — released on Feb. 15 — aims to bring the total fertility rate (TFR) to replacement level by 2010 and to **achieve a stable population by 2045, at a level consistent with sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental protection.
• The National Population Policy (NPP), 2000, was endorsed by the Union cabinet in February 2000.
• The NPP 2000 provides a policy framework for advancing goals and prioritizing strategies during the next decade to meet the reproductive and child health needs of the people of India and to achieve net replacement levels, which is otherwise called reduced total fertility rate (TFR), by 2010.
• The immediate objective of the policy was to address the needs for contraception, health-care infrastructure, health-personnel, and integrated service delivery; the medium-term objective is to bring the TFR to replacement levels— two (or to be exact, 2.1) children per couple—by 2010 by a vigorous implementation of ‘sectoral strategies’; and the long-term objective is to achieve a stable population by 2045.
• The National Population Policy, 2000 (NPP 2000) affirms the commitment of the government towards voluntary and informed choice and consent of citizens while availing of reproductive health care services, and continuation of the target free approach in administering family planning services.

Goals:

1. To address the unmet needs for basic reproduction (contraception), child health services, supplies, and infrastructure (health personnel).
2. To make school education up to age 14 free and compulsory and reduce dropouts at primary and secondary school levels to below 20 percent for both boys and girls.
3. To reduce the infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1,000 live births.
4. To reduce the maternal mortality rate to below 100 per 100,000 live births.
5. To achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine-preventable diseases.
6. To promote delayed marriages for girls, not earlier than age 18 and preferably after 20 years of age.
7. To achieve universal access to information/counseling, and services for fertility regulation and contraception with a wide basket of choices.
8. To achieve 80 percent institutional deliveries and 100 percent deliveries by trained persons.
9. To achieve 100 percent registration of births, deaths, marriages, and pregnancies.
10. To prevent and control communicable diseases, especially AIDS and sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
11. To promote vigorously the small family norm.
12. To integrate Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) in the provision of repro­ductive and child health services, and in reaching out to households.

Therefore, option '1' is not correctly matched.

• The 300m contour line divides the Himalayas and the Gangetic Basin.

• The southern boundary is demarcated by the edge of the peninsula which coincides with 75m contours in most of its length and 35m in the northeastern section, towards the delta.

• The plains are extremely flat with a slope of nearly 1:1000 to 1:2000

• The plains are flat and are rolling with monotonous character.

• The Indo-Gangetic plains rank among the world's most densely populated areas with a total population exceeding 400 million

• The Ganga Plain is mainly made of fertile alluvial soil which has resulted in increased agricultural activities.

• Thus, fertile soil, the presence of many rivers, a favourable climate, and the availability of flat terrain have made this region one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

• The northern plain of India is also known as the Indus-Ganga-Bramhaputra plain

• The plain is formed by depositional work of these three rivers

• Average width 150km to 300km

• Average elevation 200m above mean sea level

• It has four regional divisions

• The Rajasthan Plain,

• The Punjab-Haryana Plain,

• The Ganga Plain,

• The Brahmaputra Plain

Therefore, Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A).

Key Points

Reilly's Law of Retail Gravitation:

• In economics, Reilly's law of retail gravitation is a heuristic developed by William J. Reilly in 1931.
• According to Reilly's "law," customers are willing to travel long distances to larger retail centres given the higher attraction they present to customers.
• In Reilly's formulation, the attractiveness of the retail centre becomes the analogy for size (mass) in the physical law of gravity.
• The law presumes the geography of the area is flat without any rivers, roads, or mountains to alter a consumer's decision of where to travel to buy goods.
• It also assumes consumers are otherwise indifferent between the actual cities.
• In analogy with Newton's law of gravitation, the point of indifference is the point at which the "attractiveness" of the two retail centers (postulated to be proportional to their size and inversely proportional to the square of the distance to them) is equal: d= D/(1+√(Pa/Pb))

Formula:

Bp= D/(1+√(Pa/Pb))

Where,

Bp = breaking point

D = distance between City I and City II = 50 mile

Pa = Population of city II = 600000

Pb = Population of city I = 200000

Calculation:

Pa / Pb = 600000/200000 = 3

Bp = 50 / (1+√3) = 50/2.732 = 18.3 mile

18.3 mile apart from the city I is the breaking point (BP) boundary marking the outer edge of their respective trade areas.

Key Points

Urban heat islands:

• An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area or metropolitan area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding rural areas due to human activities.
• The temperature difference is usually larger at night than during the day and is most apparent when winds are weak. UHI is most noticeable during the summer and winter.
• An urban heat island occurs when a city experiences much warmer temperatures than in nearby rural areas.
• The difference in temperature between urban and less-developed rural areas has to do with how well the surfaces in each environment absorb and hold heat.
• The main cause of the urban heat island effect is the modification of land surfaces.
• Waste heat generated by energy usage is a secondary contributor.
• As a population center grows, it tends to expand its area and increase its average temperature.
• The term heat island is also used; the term can be used to refer to any area that is relatively hotter than the surrounding but generally refers to human-disturbed areas.

Causes of formation:

• Dark surfaces
• Thermal mass
• Lack of vegetation
• Waste heat
• Changing climate

Effects:

• Urban deserts: cities can be thought of as virtual deserts with almost no vegetation and materials that are almost completely impermeable to rain.
• Urban canyons: the tall canyons formed by city buildings trap radiant energy in their walls. Comparisons of this "canyon effect" in European and North American cities suggest that areas with denser and taller buildings will more rapidly develop heat islands.
• Urban haze: The haze of air pollution that hangs over many cities can act as a miniature greenhouse layer, preventing outgoing thermal radiation (heat) from escaping from urban areas.
• Anthropogenic heat: The release of heat from the burning of fossil fuels can also raise urban temperatures.

Therefore, High wind speed is NOT responsible for the origin of urban heat islands.

Sadler's theory of population growth:

Key Points

Introduction:

• Sadler was born in 1780 and he passed away in 1835
• Sadler was a British economist and social reformer
• He was a contemporary of Malthus
• His idea was expressed in detail in his book ‘The Law of population’

Opinion:

• ‘The fecundity of human beings is in the inverse ratio of the condensation of their numbers.’
• The fertility rate decreases with the increasing density of the population.
• In agriculture-based economy/ pastoral countries, people are more hard-working and have the capacity to give birth to more children.
• In industrialized countries, people are more civilized and literate. People would limit the size of the family. The density is comparatively high.
• Population adjusts itself. If the death rate increases, the birth rate also increases to compensate the population and vice versa.

Sadlers’ critic of Malthusian Theory:

• Sadler didn’t accept that population increases in geometric progress while food supply increases in arithmetic progression.
• When population increased density too increases.
• He did not accept the fear of Malthus like ‘positive check’ and ‘preventive check’
• He said if the fertility rate increases people will be able to produce food according to their needs.
• He believed that if the density of the population increases unhealthy atmosphere also increases which leads to an increase in the death rate.

Criticism:

• Sadler failed to distinguish between fecundity and fertility. Density brings down ‘fertility’ but no means to prove the idea that it will bring down ‘fecundity’ e.g., slums
• In many places like Delhi, Kerala, etc. density and fertility both are high
• Sadler’s statement that increases in death rate also increases the birth rate to compensate for the loss of population. Again he said increasing density causes an unhealthy condition that causes death.
• In countries like India, industrialization does not lead to a decline in the growth of population

Therefore it is clear that option '4' is correct about Sadler's theory of population growth.

According to the 2011 census data, Kerala has improved in the ranking of the level of urbanization.

• 2011 Census of India was the fifteenth Census of India since 1872.
• The level of urbanization in India, also known as the index of economic development, increased from 27.81% in 2001 to 31.16% in the 2011 census.
• According to official figures, 31% of the country's population lived in urban areas
• Kerala also ran from 18 in 2001 to 9 in 2011.
• This indicates a high degree of urbanization in those 2 states/union territories.

From the above table, it is clear that urbanization in respect of decadal growth, as well as ranking, is only increased in Kerala. Hence, Kerala is the correct answer.

Additional Information

• Urbanization rates can vary significantly across different states in India based on a variety of factors, including economic development, infrastructure, migration trends, and government policies.
• Some states may have seen an increase in urbanization due to rapid industrialization and development, while others may have experienced slower rates of urban growth.