UGC NET Paper 2: Geography 5th Jan 2022 Shift 2 (Previous Year Paper)

Professor Alfred Wegener of Germany was primarily a meteorologist. He propounded his concept of continental drift in the year 1912 but it could not come to light till 1922 when he elaborated his concept in a book entitled ‘Die Entstechung der Kontinente and Ozeane’ and his book was translated into English in 1924.

Key Points

• As stated earlier the main aim of Wegener behind the postulation of his ‘drift theory’ was to explain major climatic changes which are reported to have taken place in the past geological history of the earth, such as the Carboniferous glaciation of major parts of the Gondwanaland.
• Besides, Wegener also attempted to solve other problems of the earth e.g., the origin of mountains, island arcs and festoons, origin, and evolu­tion of continents and ocean basins, etc.
• The climatic changes which have occurred around the globe may be explained in two ways
• If the continents remained stationary at their places throughout the geological history of the earth, the climatic zones might have shifted from one region to another region and thus a particular region might have experienced varying climatic conditions from time to time.
• If the climatic zones remained stationary the landmasses might have been displaced and drifted.
• The evidence of carboniferous glaciation of Brazil, Falkland, South Africa, Peninsular India, Aus­tralia, and Antarctica further proves the unification of all landmasses in one landmass (Pangaea) during the carbon­iferous period.
• The South Pole was located near the present position of Durban in Natal.
• Thus, the South Pole was located in the middle of Pangaea.
• Consequently, ice sheets might have spread from the South Pole outward at the time of glaciation and the aforesaid land areas, which were closer to the South Pole, might have been covered with thick ice sheets.

Hence, the correct answer is (B) and (D) only

Correct Answer: (A) and (B) only

Key Points

• The Himalayas and the Karakoram mountains experience the mountain climate.
• Thus, there exists no single, clearly defined, mountain climate.
• The most common climatic results of high elevation are those of decreased pressure, reduced oxygen availability, decreased temperature, and increased insolation; the last two combine to produce a typical "hot sun and cold shade" condition.
• Altogether, mountain climates are characterized by a rather distinctive combination of temperature, radiation, wind, and rainfall patterns, as well as a larger variability of climate, both spatial and temporal (at scales from days to seasons) compared with lowlands at the same latitude.
• **The main characteristic of the Mountain climate includes Sharps contrasts between the temperature of shady and Sunny slopes, inversion of temperature, variability of rainfall on the basis of the altitude and exposure, high diurnal range of temperature, etc.**​

Additional Information

• The great Himalayas divide the mountain climatic region into two main sub-region and these are-
• Trans Himalaya is created due to the collision with the Eurasian plate. This Zone is the northernmost area in the country in the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh. It is an extension of the Tibetan plateau around the Himalayas. The Trans-Himalayas Mountain Region or Tibet Himalayan Region is located to the north of the Great Himalayas which consists of Karakoram, Ladakh, Zaskar, and Kailash mountain ranges. It is also called the Tibet Himalayan Region because most of the part of these ranges lies in Tibet.
• The Himalayas or Himalayas are a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayas are very important to us as they save our country from the cold and dry winds of Central Asia. They also prevent the monsoon winds of the Indian Ocean from crossing over to Northern countries and cause heavy rainfall in Northern India. By virtue of its location and stupendous height, the Great Himalaya Range obstructs the passage of cold continental air from the north into India in winter and also forces the southwesterly monsoon (rain-bearing) winds to give up most of their moisture before crossing the range northward.

Hence, the correct matching is (A) - (IV), (B) - (III), (C) - (II), (D) - (I)

Important Points

Goal 1: Comprehensive water database in the public domain and assessment of the impact of climate change on the water resource. 

• Water-related data is being collected by various Central and State agencies for different purposes and kept in many formats.
• The networks for data collection for various hydrological and other related parameters require a review for their adequacy to meet the requirement for a reliable assessment of the impact of climate change on water resources.
• The collected data is required to be put in the public domain(except data of sensitive & classified nature) so that policymakers and academicians can access that with ease for their respective uses and people at large can form their well-informed views/opinions on various related matters.

Goal 2: Promotion of citizen and state action for water conservation, augmentation, and preservation.

• Studies on the impact of climate on water resources indicate that various components of the hydrological cycle would be affected resulting in increased temporal and spatial variations of water availability.
• This calls for urgent steps for conservation of available water resources and takes immediate steps for augmentation of the utilizable water resources.
• Water can be of beneficial use to mankind only if all stakeholders are fully involved in its development and management.
• Based on success stories in Maharashtra and Gujarat, it has been established that the participatory approach in water management yielded excellent results.

Goal 3: Focused attention to vulnerable areas including over-exploited areas.

• There is an urgent need for appropriate measures in the vulnerable areas which are likely to be adversely affected due to the impact of climate change and the areas where the water resources, particularly the groundwater resources are declining due to overuse.
• In about 15% of the assessment blocks, groundwater has been over-exploited and about 14% of the blocks are in a critical or semi-critical state.

Goal 5:Promotion of basin-level integrated water resources management.

• Review of National Water Policy, Review of State Water Policy.
• Guidelines for different uses of water e.g., irrigation, drinking, industrial, etc particularly in the context of basin-wise situations.
• Planning on the principle of integrated water resources development and management.

The central place model is the ​Spatial patterns of urban and outlying areas based on the flow of goods and services.

Key Points

• Central-place theory attempts to illustrate how settlements locate in relation to one another**, the amount of market area a central place can control, and why some central places function as hamlets, villages, towns, or cities.**

• CPT explains the spatial arrangements, patterns, and distribution of urban areas and human settlements.

• Central place theory was given by Walter Christaller in 1933 on the basis of settlement patterns in southern Germany.

• This study included analyzing the relationships between settlements of different sizes and related their economic activities (market) with the population.

• Central place hierarchy – Central place has the main function to supply goods and services to the surrounding population (Market Area), retail location, and market centers,  Based on the concept of Range.

• Threshold – The minimum population needed to make a service viable at a particular place. If this size is not reached then a particular activity will not start or it will be closed down.

• Range – This is the maximum distance a consumer is willing to travel to purchase goods or avail of a service, beyond this distance consumer will not travel as the distance traveled for good/service will outweigh the benefit.

Important Points​The different layouts predicted by Christaller have K- values which show how much the Sphere of Influence of the central places takes in — the central place itself counts as 1 and each portion of a satellite counts as its portion:

1. Marketing Principle (K=3)
2. Transport Principle/ Traffic Principle (K=4)
3. Administrative Principle (K=7)

Correct Answer: ​60°N - 70°N Latitudes.

The deep-sea plains or abyssal plains are undulating underwater plains found on the deep ocean floor. These plains extend from continental rise to the mid-oceanic ridges covering about two-thirds of the ocean floor. The slope gradient is very gentle, and it appears as a uniformly flat, and featureless plain. 

Key Points

• The Arctic Basin (also North Polar Basin) is an oceanic basin in the Arctic Ocean, consisting of two main parts separated by the Lomonosov Ridge, a mid-ocean ridge between northern Greenland and the New Siberian Islands.
• It is bordered by the continental shelves of Eurasia and North America. (60°-70°N)
• The geographic north pole is located over the floor of the Fram Basin near its juncture with the Lomonosov Ridge.
• The smallest of the Arctic Ocean subbasins, called the Nansen Basin, lies between the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge and the Eurasian continental margin and has a floor depth of 13,800 feet.
• The Molloy Deep (also known as the Molloy Hole) is a bathymetric feature in the Fram Strait, within the Greenland Sea east of Greenland and about 160 km west of Svalbard.
• It is the location of the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean.
• The Mid-Atlantic Ridge separates the Atlantic Ocean into two large troughs with depths averaging between 3,700 and 5,500 meters (12,000 and 18,000 ft).
• Transverse ridges running between the continents and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge divide the ocean floor into numerous basins.
• The North Pacific Ocean is distinguished by several unique characteristics, most notably for being host to the lowest surface salinities in a major ocean basin, and the oldest deep waters in the world's oceans.
• The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of the world's five oceans with an area of 60.06 million square miles (155.557 million square kilometers).
• It stretches from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south.
• The Aleutian Trench is an oceanic trench along a convergent plate boundary that runs along the southern coastline of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. many more deep trench is there and these regions are also volcanic ridge area.

The sea plains are almost absent between 60°N - 70°N Latitudes.

Correct Answer: ​(C) and (D) only.

Key Points

• Tropical Thorn Forest is a type of desert formation that has scrub-like vegetation.
• They are characterized as mostly tropical and subtropical forests with trees and plants armed with thorns and spines.
• The vegetation here is too scarce and with tall trees laid against the sparse ground where there is a lack of grass.
• In the tropical thorn forest trees like – Babool tree, ber tree, wild date palm, Khair tree, neem, khejri tree, palas tree, etc.
• **The tropical Thorn forests and the Scrubs are the most dominant variety of forests that experience an average rainfall of less than 70cm. **70cm is a very scanty rainfall.
• These kinds of vegetation are usually seen in the semi-arid regions of India like in **Rajasthan, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and other drier areas of the Deccan Plateau. **​

The vegetation includes the stunted trees with thorny bushes. The trees present in the thorn forest have long roots which penetrate deeper into the soil in search of water. In these trees, the leaves are thick and also small to minimize evaporation.

The Correct Answer: ​(C), (B), (A), (D).

Important Points

• The concentric zone model, also known as the Burgess model or the CCD model, is one of the earliest theoretical models to explain urban social structures.
• It was created by sociologist Ernest Burgess in 1925.
• Based on the human ecology theory done by Burgess and applied to Chicago, it was the first to give an explanation of the distribution of social groups within urban areas.
• This concentric ring model depicts urban land usage in concentric rings: the Central Business District (or CBD) was in the middle version of Von Thünen's regional land use model developed a century earlier.
• It influenced the later development of Homer Hoyt's sector model (1939) and Harris and Ullman's multiple nuclei model (1945) of the model, and the city is expanded into rings with different land uses.

Key Points

The zones identified are:

• Zone 1: The center with the central business district.
• Zone 2: The transition zone of mixed residential and commercial uses or the zone of transition.
• Zone 3: Working-class residential homes (inner suburbs), in later decades, were called inner cities or zone of independent working men's homes.
• Zone 4: Better quality middle-class homes (outer suburbs) or zone of better housing.
• Zone 5: Commuter Zone.

​

Additional Information

 Assumptions: 

• Cultural and social heterogeneity of the population.
• Commercial – industrial base to the economy of the city.
• Private ownership of property and cheap in every direction within the city.
• Expanding area and population of the city 5. Transport is equally easy, rapid, and cheap in every direction within the city.
• The city center is the main center for employment and near this center space is limited; competition for this space is high, and therefore it is the most valuable.
• No concentrations of heavy industry 8. No historic survival of an earlier land use pattern in any district.

Correct Answer: Radiation intensity.

Key Points

• Generally, north-facing slopes are associated with higher biomass, coverage and height, and species diversity than south-facing slopes.
• We also found between-aspect differences varied among the study sites, resulting in increased biomass, height, and β diversity differences, decreased density and coverage differences, and an opposite trend observed in α diversity at relatively wet sites.
• In conclusion, the slope aspect had a significant effect on vegetation attributes, which was significantly influenced by local climate (aridity) in terms of both strength and direction depending on the specific attributes investigated.
• The face a slope presents to the sun – north or south – plays a role in the local climate created on it.
• This "microclimate" helps determine the types of plants that colonize the slope and influences which animals are drawn to the area seeking their preferred foods and suitable shelter.
• The basic difference between north and south-facing slopes – the relative amount and intensity of sunlight they receive – leads to profound ecological differences, similar (but reversed) in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
• On the northern hemisphere, south-facing slopes receive more sunlight and become more xeric and warmer.

Therefore, such slopes support drought-resistant vegetation and are less favorable for tree growth.

Additional Information

• In the Northern Hemisphere, north-facing slopes in latitudes from about 30 to 55 degrees receive less direct sunlight than south-facing slopes.
• The lack of direct sunlight throughout the day, whether in winter or summer, results in north-facing slopes being cooler than south-facing slopes.

Correct Answer: (A), (B), and (C) only

Key Points

• Bangalore is a global technology hub and is India's biggest tech hub. As of fiscal 2016–17, Bangalore accounted for 38% of total IT exports from India worth $45 billion, employing 10 lakh people directly and 30 lakh indirectly.
• The city is known as the "Silicon Valley of India".
• Quality of governance and better leadership have led to southern states surging ahead of their northern counterparts, widening the gap in terms of per capita income, the rapid growth of the information and technology industry, and poverty between the South and North, says a study.
• Transport in Chennai includes various modes of air, sea, road, and rail transportation in the city and its suburbs.
• Chennai's economic development has been closely tied to its port and transport infrastructure, and it is considered one of the best infrastructure systems in India.
• So South Indian ISRO, NITs are NIT Trichy, Calicut, Warangal, Surathkal, Pondicherry, and Andhra Pradesh and there are five IITs, those are IIT Madras, Hyderabad, Pallakad, Dharwad, and Tirupati.
• In South India, NITs are located at Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), Surathkal, Warangal, Calicut, Puducherry, and Andhra Pradesh (Tadepalligudem). NITs in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy), Surathkal, Warangal, and Calicut are the oldest and most reputed.
• Bangalore’s network of ebbing and flowing bodies, liquids, and information performs to higher standards than ever before. Much of the municipal work in peri-urban areas focuses on improving existing services whose demand has exceeded capacity. Ring roads quickly fill in missing segments, broadband gets broader, and dedicated buses move between destinations.
• Transport, telecommunication, energy, and water systems have always been thought to integrate neighborhoods, bind city centers to the periphery, and develop political wholes.
• But water grids and ring roads produce as many boundaries as they eliminate.
• Scarce resources and existing inefficiencies undermine regulated city services. Underprivileged communities break water mains to access water. In that context, new infrastructure projects provide exclusive paths to connect workers and their workplaces.

Additional Information

• Per capita incomes in the south (Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala) have risen fast and poverty has declined in recent years, and the reason is quality of governance, better leadership, and political stability, according to a study conducted by the Public Affairs Centre.
• As of 2009-10, on an average, the weight per capita income in the southern states (in constant 1993-94 prices) was Rs 19,531 whereas it was only RS 8,951 in the northern states (Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh).
• The data set used by Paul and Sridhar starts with the year 1960 when per capita income in Tamil Nadu was 51% higher than in Uttar Pradesh.
• In the early 1980s, this difference had narrowed to 39%.

However, over the following decades, the gap began to rapidly grow, and in 2005 an average resident of Tamil Nadu earned 128% more than an average resident of Uttar Pradesh. (Statistics available online suggest that by 2021 the gap has increased to almost 300%.)

A Free Trade Zone, in international trade, happens to be there, where Member countries abolish tariffs and quotas on trade but maintain independence to impose restrictions on imports from non-member countries

Key Points

• Free trade agreements are entered into by two or more countries who want to seal the economic cooperation among themselves and agree on the terms of trading.
• In the agreement, member countries specifically identify the duties and tariffs that are to be imposed on member countries when it comes to imports and exports.
• A free-trade zone (FTZ) is a class of special economic zone. It is a geographic area where goods may be imported, stored, handled, manufactured, or reconfigured and re-exported under specific customs regulations and is generally not subject to customs duty.
• A customs union, similar to an FTA, also removes tariffs between its members, but it also sets up a common external tariff for non-members on imported and exported goods. The main difference between an FTA and a customs union is that more compliance (bureaucracy) is involved under an FTA transaction.
• Trade restrictions are implemented to protect certain industries that are deemed tactically important for the safeguard of national security. Defense industries most often receive a significant level of protection as it is viewed as crucial to the national interest.
• Many countries restrict imports in order to shield domestic markets from foreign competition. Such behavior is known as protectionism. Countries do this mainly to satisfy political demands at home. There are many types of trade barriers.
• Special commercial and industrial areas in or near ports of entry where foreign and domestic merchandise may be brought in without being subject to payment of customs duties. Merchandise including raw materials, components, and finished goods, may be stored, sold, exhibited, repacked, assembled, sorted, graded, cleaned, or otherwise manipulated prior to re-export or entry into the national customs authority. Duties are imposed on the merchandise (or items manufactured from the merchandise) only when the goods pass from the zone into an area of the country subject to customs. Foreign trade zones are also called foreign free zones, free ports, or bonded warehouses.

Additional Information

 A free trade area offers several advantages, including: 

• The good thing about a free trade area is that it encourages competition, which consequently increases a country’s efficiency, in order to be on par with its competitors. Products and services then become of better quality at a lower cost.
• When there is intense competition, countries will tend to produce the products or goods that they are most efficient at. Efficient use of resources means maximizing profit.
• When there is free trade, and tariffs and quotas are eliminated, monopolies are also eliminated because more players can come in and join the market.
• When there is competition, especially on a global level, prices will surely go down, allowing consumers to enjoy a higher purchasing power.
• With imports becoming available at a lower cost, consumers gain access to a variety of products that are inexpensive.

Despite all the benefits brought about by a free trade area, there are also some corresponding disadvantages, including:

• When imports are freely traded, domestic producers are often able to copy the products and sell them as knock-offs without fear of any legal repercussions. Therefore, unless the FTA includes provisions for intellectual property laws and enforcement there are no protections for exporting companies.
• Since member countries are no longer subject to import taxes, they need to think of ways to compensate for the reduced tax revenue.

Correct answer: ​(D), (C), (B), (A).

Key Points

IPCC Report:

• In 1990, the First IPCC Assessment Report (FAR) underlined the importance of climate change as a challenge with global consequences and requiring international cooperation.
• It played a decisive role in the creation of the UNFCCC, the key international treaty to reduce global warming and cope with the consequences of climate change.
• The First Draft of the Policymakers Summary was presented to the meeting of the Lead Authors of the Assessment (Edinburgh, February 1990), and the Second Draft which emanated from that meeting was sent for the same wide peer review as the main report, including nationally designated experts and the committees of relevant international scientific programs. A Third Draft incorporating a large number of changes suggested by peer reviewers was tabled at the final plenary meeting of Working Group I (Windsor, May 1990) at which the Lead Authors of the main report were present, and the final version was agreed at that meeting.

First Earth Summit:

• The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the 'Earth Summit', was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 3-14 June 1992.
• This global conference held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first Human Environment Conference in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1972, brought together political leaders, diplomats, scientists, representatives of the media, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 179 countries for a massive effort to focus on the impact of human socio-economic activities on the environment.
• A 'Global Forum' of NGOs was also held in Rio de Janeiro at the same time, bringing together an unprecedented number of NGO representatives, who presented their own vision of the world's future in relation to the environment and socio-economic development.

KYOTO Protocol:

• The Kyoto Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997. Owing to a complex ratification process, it entered into force on 16 February 2005.
• Currently, there are 192 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. In short, the Kyoto Protocol operationalizes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change by committing industrialized countries and economies in transition to limit and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in accordance with agreed individual targets.
• The Convention itself only asks those countries to adopt policies and measures on mitigation and to report periodically.
• The Kyoto Protocol is based on the principles and provisions of the Convention and follows its annex-based structure. It only binds developed countries and places a heavier burden on them under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities", because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere.

​COP 21:

• At COP 21 in Paris, on 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC reached a landmark agreement to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.

Correct Answer: ​Statement I is correct but Statement II is incorrect.

Key Points

All human actions associated with the production, marketing, and consumption of goods and services are defined as economic activities that are correct.

• Economics is a social science concerned with the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.
• It studies how individuals, businesses, governments, and nations make choices about how to allocate resources.
• Economics focuses on the actions of human beings, based on assumptions that humans act with rational behavior, seeking the most optimal level of benefit or utility.
• Two major types of economics are microeconomics, which focuses on the behavior of individual consumers and producers, and macroeconomics, which examines overall economies on a regional, national, or international scale.

All human actions are linked not only to the production, marketing, and consumption of goods and services but the time spent on leisure and pleasure activities are also defined as economic activities is incorrect.

• In the 19th century economics was the hobby of gentlemen of leisure and the vocation of a few academics; economists wrote about economic policy but were rarely consulted by legislators before decisions were made.
• **Today there is hardly a government, international agency, or large commercial bank that does not have its own staff of economists.**​

Additional Information

• The study of economies and the factors affecting economies is called economics.
• The discipline of economics can be broken into two major areas of focus, microeconomics, and macroeconomics.
• Microeconomics is the social science that studies the implications of incentives and decisions, specifically how those affect the utilization and distribution of resources.
• Microeconomics shows how and why different goods have different values, how individuals and businesses conduct and benefit from efficient production and exchange, and how individuals best coordinate and cooperate with one another.
• Generally speaking, microeconomics provides a more complete and detailed understanding than macroeconomics.
• Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that studies how an overall economy—the market or other systems that operate on a large scale—behaves.
• Macroeconomics studies economy-wide phenomena such as inflation, price levels, rate of economic growth, national income, gross domestic product (GDP), and changes in unemployment.

Amphibians have the highest percentage of endemic species.

Key Points

• Totally 472 species of amphibians are present in India, among them 300 species are endemic.
• The western ghat is a globally recognized biological diversity of India and ecologically sensitive and most amphibians are like 179 are found, and among them, 87 of them are endemic to the western ghat region.
• Amphibians are small vertebrates that need water, or a moist environment, to survive.
• The species in this group include frogs, toads, salamanders, and newts.
• All can breathe and absorb water through their very thin skin. Amphibians also have special skin glands that produce useful proteins.
• All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia.
• They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal, or freshwater aquatic ecosystems.
• **There are almost 5,500 known amphibians are there and they divided into 3 groups mainly, such as Salamanders, Newest, Mudpuppies, caecilians which means frogs and toads, and among all the Japanese giant is the biggest one 6 feet long and the golden frog is 1cm and smaller one.**​

Additional Information

• Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country, or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. “Endemic” refers to a species that is uniquely found in one part of the world, and that part only! These types of animals are most commonly found in more isolated parts of the globe, like islands, but they can be found in other places too.
• Birds are warm-blooded vertebrates (vertebrates have backbones) and are the only animals with feathers. Although all birds have wings, a few species can't fly.
• Insects (from Latin insectum) are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax, and abdomen), three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and one pair of antennae.
• Reptiles are air-breathing vertebrates covered in special skin made up of scales, bony plates, or a combination of both. They include crocodiles, snakes, lizards, turtles, and tortoises. All regularly shed the outer layer of their skin.

Correct Answer: ​(A), (C), and (E) only.

Key Points

• **Gypsum is mostly mined in Barmer, Bikaner, and Jaisalmer & Sriganganagar districts of the Thar desert region of Rajasthan by M/s. **FAGMIL (15 mines) and RSMML companies.
• Some gypsum mines in the Bikaner district also produce crystalline variety, i.e., selenite.
• Gypsum is available in the Nagaur district in a significant amount. Key Points Nagaur is the fifth largest.
• The proposal of Bhadwasi gypsum mine ML no 2/94 is for the production of 3.0 MTPA of gypsum in a mine lease area of 1122.38Ha.
• The lease area is located near village Bhadwasi, Makori, Bhadana, Pilanwasi, Manzwas & Ganthilsar, Tehsil & District Nagaur, Rajasthan.
• Jamsar is famous for Gypsum.

Additional Information

• ​We are the country’s leading producer of natural Gypsum and Selenite producing about 3.0 million tonnes per year. These are mined in the heart of the Thar desert areas where the working conditions are very harsh. The deposits are shallow and scattered over large areas. Most of the land is owned by private cultivators.
• The mining of Gypsum with a purity of +70% CaSO4, and 2H2O is a cooperative effort between the landowners and RSMML. The farmer gives up his gypsum-bearing land to RSMML in return for an assured share of profits. After mining, the Company improves the land condition and returns back to the farmer for cultivation.
• Gypsum fulfills the demands of the cement industries and powder Gypsum is used by farmers as a direct fertilizer for reconditioning alkaline soils reducing the alkalinity and improving crop production. Selenite is a naturally occurring crystalline form of high purity Gypsum and is used extensively in the ceramics industries and to manufacture surgical grade Plaster of Paris.

Correct Answer: ​(A) - (II), (B) - (I), (C) - (IV), (D) - (III).

Key Points

• The photosphere is the lowest layer of the sun's atmosphere — the innermost layer we can observe directly. The term photosphere means "sphere of light" and is the layer where most of the sun's energy is emitted or irradiance. It takes about eight minutes for sunlight from the photosphere to reach Earth
• The solar irradiance is the output of light energy from the entire disk of the Sun, measured at the Earth. It is looking at the Sun as we would a star rather than as an image.
• Sunspots are areas that appear dark on the surface of the Sun. They appear dark because they are cooler than other parts of the Sun’s surface. The temperature of a sunspot is still very hot though—around 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit!
• Why are sunspots relatively cool? It’s because they form in areas where magnetic fields are particularly strong. These magnetic fields are so strong that they keep some of the heat within the Sun from reaching the surface.​
• The ABC (Asian Brown Cloud) is a layer of air pollution that covers parts of the Asia-Pacific continents, the northern Indian Ocean, India, parts of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and China. This floating pollution layer was observed during the Indian Ocean Experiment (INODEX), a project under the umbrella of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
• Palynology is the scientific discipline concerned with the study of plant pollen, spores, and certain microscopic planktonic organisms, in both living and fossil forms.
• The field is associated with the plant sciences as well as with the geologic sciences, notably those aspects dealing with stratigraphy, historical geology, and paleontology.
• Pollen grains are microscopic structures, which bear androecium – a male reproductive organ of a flower. The interior section of pollen grain contains cytoplasm along with the tube cell, which converts into a pollen tube, and the generative cell releases the sperm nuclei.

Additional Information

• The term Palynology, like "calcareous nannofossils", is a cover-all informal classification. It includes a large range of both extinct and extant organisms, the unifying character which allows us to "group" them together as palynomorphs are the composition of the preserved remains. This is usually an extremely tough, inert organic material called sporopollenin, although sometimes it may be chitin or pseudochitin. It must be remembered, however, that the preservation of all palynomorphs depends on the diagenetic processes they are subjected to. Palynomorphs are particularly susceptible to degradation by oxidizing agents. The term palynology is derived from the Greek for sprinkle and was suggested by Hyde and Williams in 1944.

Correct Answer: ​(A) - (III), (B) - (IV), (C) - (I), (D) - (II).

Key Points

Al-Masudi

• Al-Masudi full name Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Masʿūdī is an Arab scholar who came to India in the 10th century AD.
• The greater part of Mas’údí’s life was spent traveling and he mentions his travels in the book “Murúj-ul Zahab” (Meadows of Gold).

Al-Idrisi

• The Nuzhat al-mushtāq fī ikhtirāq al-āfāq, commonly known in the West as the Tabula Rogeriana, is a description of the world and world map compiled by the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi in 1154.

Al-Biruni

• Abu Rayhan al-Biruni was an Iranian scholar.
• He wrote the book Kitab-ul-Hind.
• Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni commonly known as al-Biruni, was a Khwarazmian Iranian scholar and polymath during the Islamic Golden Age.
• He has been called variously the "founder of Indology", "Father of Comparative Religion", "Father of modern geodesy", and the first anthropologist.

​Ibn Khaldun

• The Muqaddimah, often translated as “Introduction” or “Prolegomenon,” is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldûn (d. 1406), this monumental work established the foundations of several fields of knowledge, including the philosophy of history, sociology, ethnography, and economics.
• The first complete English translation, by the eminent Islamicist and interpreter of Arabic literature Franz Rosenthal, was published in three volumes in 1958 as part of the Bollingen Series and received immediate acclaim in the United States and abroad.
• A one-volume abridged version of Rosenthal’s masterful translation first appeared in 1969.

Additional Information

• Al Masudi was the first Arab writer to combine history and scientific geography in his works and thus was hailed as the ‘Herodotus of the Arabs.
• Masudi was a prolific writer and is said to have authored more than 34 books.
• His famous works are – Akhbār al-zamān (“The History of Time”), Kitāb al-awsaṭ (“Book of the Middle”),  Murūj al-dhahab wa maʿādin al-jawāhir (“The Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems”), Kitab at-Tanbih wa-l-‘Ishraf ( ‘Book of Admonition and Revision), Kitāb Murūj al-Dhahab wa-Ma‘ādin al-Jawhar, Kitāb al-tanbīh wa al-ishrāf (“The Book of Notification and Verification”), among others.
• Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Idrisi al-Qurtubi al-Hasani as-Sabti, or simply al-Idrisi, was an Arab Muslim geographer, cartographer, and Egyptologist who for some time lived in Palermo, Sicily at the court of King Roger II. Muhammed al-Idrisi was born in Ceuta and then belonged to the Almoravids.
• Tabula Rogeriana became the most significant source of information on the political, cultural, physical, and social conditions of the territories under investigation. It's also a historical example of collaboration between a Christian ruler and a Muslim scholar, working on a project aimed at tolerance and assimilation.
• Kitab-ul-Hind is a very lucid book that consists of 80 chapters. The book covers an array of topics like religion, astronomy, manners, alchemy, social life, laws, and others. He used various quotes from Gita, Patanjali, Puranas, etc.
• Ibn Khaldun was a Muslim Arab sociologist, philosopher, and historian who has been described as the precursive founder of the proto-disciplines that would become historiography, sociology, economics, and demography

Correct Answer: (A), (C), (B), (D).

Key Points

• The RBV system was redesigned for Landsat 3 to use a two-camera configuration mounted side by side that acquired four sub-scenes within the field of view of a Multispectral Scanner (MSS) scene.
• The Landsat 3 RBV spatial resolution is 40 meters with a spectral wavelength of 0.505 to 0.75 micrometer.
• The Thematic Mapper (TM) is an advanced, multispectral scanning, Earth resources sensor designed to achieve higher image resolution, sharper spectral separation, improved geometric fidelity, and greater radiometric accuracy and resolution than the MSS sensor.
• TM data are sensed in seven spectral bands simultaneously. Band 6 senses thermal (heat) infrared radiation.
• Landsat can only acquire night scenes in band 6. A TM scene has an Instantaneous Field Of View (IFOV) of 30m x 30m in bands 1-5 and 7 while band 6 has an IFOV of 120m x 120m on the ground.
• IRS-1C is India's second-generation operational Remote Sensing Satellite. The satellite carries Payloads with enhanced capabilities like better Spatial resolution additional spectral band, improved repetitively, and augment the Remote Sensing capability of the existing IRS-1A and IRS-1B.​
• The Ikonos-2 satellite was the world's first commercial satellite to collect panchromatic images with 80 cm resolution and multispectral imagery with 3.2-meter resolution.

Additional Information

• The Return Beam Vidicon (RBV) operated on Landsat satellites 1 and 2 and acquired approximately 1,600 sub-scenes at 80-meter resolution. The initial RBV sensor configuration used three independent cameras, each sensing a different spectral wavelength such as (0.48 to 0.83, 0.48 to 0.57, 0.58 to 0.68, and 0.70 to 0.83 micrometer).  Landsat 1 and 2 RBV data were recorded on 70 millimeters (mm) black and white film rolls at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center and delivered to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center for archiving and user distribution.
• To date, the Landsat TM sensor represents the most sophisticated satellite sensor to provide Earth observation data. The sensor's complement of seven spectral bands offers the most comprehensive set of multispectral measurements for land and water surface mapping, monitoring, and analysis.
• The PAN sensor is configured to provide the imageries of the Earth in the visible spectrum, in a panchromatic band (0.5-0.75 m) with a geometric resolution of greater than 10 m and a swath of 70 km. The camera uses an off-axis reflective type optics system consisting of three mirrors for providing the required focal length. A 7μm pixel-sized CCD is being used as the detector element.

The correct answer is (A) - (IV), (B) - (III), (C) - (II), (D) - (I).

Key Points

Save Silent Valley

• The silent valley is an area of tropical evergreen forests in Kerala. It is among the last tracts of virgin tropical evergreen forest in India and is very rich in biodiversity.
• The environmentalists and the local people strongly objected to the hydel power project being set up here in 1973.
• Under pressure, the government had to declare it a national reserve forest in 1985.

Chipko

• The Chipko movement or Chipko Andolan was a forest conservation movement in India. It created a precedent for starting a non-violent protest in India.
• It began in 1973 in Uttarakhand, then a part of Uttar Pradesh (at the foothills of the Himalayas), and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world.

Causes for Movement

• There was reckless deforestation which denuded much of the forest cover, resulting in the devastating Alaknanda River floods of July 1970.
• The incidences of landslides and land subsidence due to a rapid increase in civil engineering projects.

Narmada Bachao

• Starting in the mid-1980s, it was a social movement spearheaded by native tribes, farmers, environmentalists, and human rights activists against a number of large dam projects across the Narmada River.
• Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat is one of the biggest dams on the river and was one of the first focal points of the movement.
• The movement included court actions, hunger strikes, rallies, and gathering support from notable personalities.

Jungle Bacho

• The Jungle Andolan of Singhbum district for land, forest and water was the struggle for right over and part of the socio-economic aspects of Jharkhand Movement.
• The Jungle Bachao Andolan took shape in the early 1980s when the government proposed to replace the natural sal forest of Singhbhum District, Bihar, with commercial teak plantations.

Correct Answer: The Neolithic Period.

Key Points

• The Neolithic Age, which means New Stone Age, was the last and third part of the Stone Age.
• In India, it spanned from around 7,000 B.C. to 1,000 B.C.
• The Neolithic Age is mainly characterized by the development of settled agriculture and the use of tools and weapons made of polished stones.
• The Neolithic period is significant for its megalithic architecture, the spread of agricultural practices, and the use of polished stone tools.
• The Neolithic is characterized by fixed human settlements and the invention of agriculture from circa 10,000 BC.
• Reconstruction of Pre-Pottery Neolithic B housing in Aşıklı Höyük, modern Turkey.
• During that time, humans learned to raise crops and keep domestic livestock and were thus no longer dependent on hunting, fishing, and gathering wild plants.
• Neolithic cultures made more-useful stone tools by grinding and polishing relatively hard rocks rather than merely chipping softer ones down to the desired shape.
• The Neolithic or New Stone Age denotes a stage of human culture following the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods and is characterized by the use of polished stone implements, development of permanent dwellings, and cultural advances such as pottery making, domestication of animals and plants, the cultivation of grain.
• Archaeologists have long debated what caused the Neolithic Revolution when prehistoric human beings gave up nomadic life, founded villages, and began to farm the land.
• Academics once emphasized climatic and environmental changes that took place about 11,500 years ago, when the last ice age came to an end and agriculture became possible, maybe even necessary, for survival.
• Hodder, on the other hand, emphasizes the role played by changes in human psychology and cognition.

Correct Answer: ​(D), (E) only.

Key Points

• World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). According to the WTTC, last year travel and tourism grew 3.9 percent, above global GDP growth of 3.2 percent and contributing a record $8.8 trillion and 319 million jobs to the world economy. The report also found that the travel and tourism industry generated 10.4 percent of all global economic activity last year. Over the last five years, it has been responsible for one in five all new jobs created worldwide. It is also the second-fastest-growing sector in the world, ahead of healthcare (+3.1%), information technology (+1.7%), and financial services (+1.7%), and behind only manufacturing, which was up by 4 percent.
• **The Middle East has emerged as the fastest-growing region for international tourism arrivals in 2019, growing at almost double the global average (+8%). Growth in Asia and the Pacific slowed down but still showed above-average growth, with international arrivals up 5%.**​
• Europe where growth was also slower than in previous years (+4%) continues to lead in terms of international arrivals numbers, welcoming 743 million international tourists last year (51% of the global market). The Americas (+2%) showed a mixed picture as many island destinations in the Caribbean consolidated their recovery after the 2017 hurricanes while arrivals fell in South America due partly to ongoing social and political turmoil. Limited data available for Africa (+4%) points to continued strong results in North Africa (+9%) while arrivals in Sub-Saharan Africa grew slower in 2019 (+1.5%).
• **There is not compulsory that middle-income group people could only travel to a little range of destinations, it is totally based on their mentality to travel the which place want to travel and needs to travel. It could happen in the middle, higher, or lower groups of people.**​

Additional InformationSome important types of tourism in India:

• As a kind of tourism in India, adventure tourism has recently grown in India. This involves exploration of remote areas and exotic locales and engaging in various activities. For adventure tourism in India, tourists prefer to go trekking to places like Ladakh, Sikkim, and the Himalayas. Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are popular for the skiing facilities they offer. Whitewater rafting is also catching on in India and tourists flock to places such as Uttranchal, Assam, and Arunachal Pradesh for this adrenaline-packed activity.
• India is known for its rich cultural heritage tourism, and an element of mysticism, which is why tourists come to India to experience it for themselves. The various fairs and festivals that tourists can visit in India are the Pushkar Fair (Rajasthan), Taj Mahotsav (Uttar Pradesh), and Suraj Kund Mela (Haryana). Sites like Ajanta & Ellora caves (Maharashtra), Mahabalipuram (TamilNadu), Hampi (Karnataka), Taj Mahal (Uttar Pradesh), and Hawa Mahal (Rajasthan).
• Medical Tourism Tourists from all over the world have been thronging India to avail themselves of cost-effective but superior quality healthcare in terms of surgical procedures and general medical attention. There are several medical institutes in the country that cater to foreign patients and impart top-quality healthcare at a fraction of what it would have cost in developed nations such as the USA and the UK. The city of Chennai (Tamil Nadu) attracts around 45% of medical tourists from foreign countries.
• Among the types of tourism in India, ecotourism has grown recently. Ecotourism entails the sustainable preservation of a naturally endowed area or region. This is becoming more and more significant for the ecological development of all regions that have tourist value. For ecotourism in India, tourists can go to places such as Kaziranga National Park (Assam), Gir National Park (Gujarat), and Kanha National Park (Madhya Pradesh).

Correct Answer: ​(A), (B), and (C) only.

Key Points

• The photic zone, as its name implies, receives sunlight. Sunlight penetrates the photic zone, enabling photosynthesis. The photic zone extends from the surface to a depth of about 200m. Therefore, photosynthetic organisms, the main phytoplankton, can survive in this zone. Since they are the primary producers of marine food webs, most of the other marine organisms come and visit the photic zone at least once for food.

• The aphotic zone is the portion of the ocean that does not receive sunlight. Sunlight does not penetrate this zone. This zone extends from 200m in the deep of the ocean to the bottom of the ocean vertically. so the sun's rays have no effect below 600 feet.

• **The thermohaline circulation is critically important to the transfer of heat on Earth. It brings warm water from the tropics to the poles, and cold water from the poles to the tropics, thus keeping polar regions from getting too cold and tropical regions from getting too hot. A reduction in the rate of thermohaline circulation would lead to colder conditions and enhance the formation of sea ice at the poles. This would start a positive feedback process that could result in significant global cooling. There is compelling evidence to indicate that there were major changes in the thermohaline circulation, corresponding with climate changes, during the Pleistocene Glaciation. Because a huge mass of water is not affected by the direct solar radiance that is why a huge mass of water effectiveness is larger than a small mass of water body.**​

• The average temperature of the sea surface is about 20° C (68° F), but it ranges from more than 30° C (86° F) in warm tropical regions to less than 0°C at high latitudes. In most oceans, the water becomes colder with increasing depth.

• Therefore, the deep ocean (below about 200 meters depth) is cold, with an average temperature of only 4°C (39°F). The average annual temperature of all the oceans is 17.2°C (63°)F.

The correct answer is: (A) and (C) only

Key Points

• Nokrek in Meghalaya:
• This statement is correct.
• The Nokrek Biosphere Reserve is located in the state of Meghalaya.
• It is known for its unique and diverse flora and fauna and is also a part of the UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves.
• Simlipal in Odisha:
• This statement is correct.
• The Simlipal Biosphere Reserve is located in the state of Odisha.
• It is a significant biodiversity hotspot, home to several endangered species and dense forests.
• Cold Desert in Jammu and Kashmir:
• This statement is incorrect.
• The Cold Desert Biosphere Reserve is actually located in Himachal Pradesh, not Jammu and Kashmir.
• It encompasses the areas of Pin Valley National Park, Chandratal, Sarchu and the Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary.
• Seshachalam in Tamil Nadu:
• This statement is incorrect.
• The Seshachalam Biosphere Reserve is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh, not Tamil Nadu.
• This biosphere reserve is known for its rich flora and fauna, especially the endemic Red Sanders trees.

Additional Information

• Biosphere Reserves in India:
• India has 18 designated biosphere reserves aimed at conserving biological diversity, promoting research, and fostering sustainable development.
• These reserves include a mix of ecosystems such as forests, mountains, deserts, and coastal areas.
• UNESCO Recognition:
• Many of India's biosphere reserves are recognized under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, highlighting their global ecological importance.
• Correct Locations:
• Nokrek – Meghalaya
• Simlipal – Odisha
• Cold Desert – Himachal Pradesh
• Seshachalam – Andhra Pradesh

Correct Answer: ​(A), (B), (C), and (D).

Key Points

• A  Geographic information system(GIS) is a system designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present spatial or geographic data.
• GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches) analyze spatial information, edit data on the map and present the result of all these operations.
• A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface. GIS can show many different kinds of data on one map, such as streets, buildings, and vegetation.
• GIS must manipulate data because different maps have different projections.
• A projection is a method of transferring information from Earth’s curved surface to a flat piece of paper or computer screen.
• Different types of projections accomplish this task in different ways, but all result in some distortion.
• To transfer a curved, three-dimensional shape onto a flat surface inevitably requires stretching some parts and squeezing others.
• With GIS technology, researchers can also look at change over time.
• They can use satellite data to study topics such as the advance and retreat of ice cover in polar regions, and how that coverage has changed through time.
• A police precinct might study changes in crime data to help determine where to assign officers.
• GIS technology makes updating maps much easier than updating maps created manually.
• Updated data can simply be added to the existing GIS program.
• A new map can then be printed or displayed on the screen.
• This skips the traditional process of drawing a map, which can be time-consuming and expensive.
• GIS can also include data in table or spreadsheet form, such as population demographics.
• **Demographics can range from age, income, and ethnicity to recent purchases and internet browsing preferences.**​

Additional Information

 The types of data in Geographic Information Systems, or GIS, include:

• Numeric data — Statistical data collected with a geographic component and displayed as a layer on a map. US Census demographics are an example of numeric data.
• Vector data — Consisting of X and Y coordinates, vector data can describe points, lines, or polygons connected to a geographic space. Vector formats are best for data with strict borders, like a street or political district.
• Raster data — Typically digital images in JPEG, TIF, or GIF format, raster data is formed from grids of cells or pixels. Satellite imagery is a good example of raster data.
• Linear networks — A layered line that can represent multiple elements, such as a road that is also the boundary of a city or political district.

Correct Answer: ​(D) and (E) only.

Key Points

• 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 greater than 1.0 or less than -1.0 means that there was an error in the correlation measurement.
• Correlation coefficients are used to measure the strength of the relationship between two variables.
• Pearson correlation is the one most commonly used in statistics. This measures the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two variables.
• Values always range between -1 (strong negative relationship) and +1 (strong positive relationship). Values at or close to zero imply a weak or no linear relationship.
• Correlation coefficient values less than +0.8 or greater than -0.8 are not considered significant.

Important Points

• The correlation coefficient describes how one variable moves in relation to another.
• A positive correlation indicates that the two move in the same direction, with a +1.0 correlation when they move in tandem.
• A negative correlation coefficient tells you that they instead move in opposite directions.
• A correlation of zero suggests no correlation at all.​​​

Correct Answer: Third Order.

Key Points

• Cirques are bowl-shaped, amphitheater-like depressions that glaciers carve into mountains and valley sidewalls at high elevations.
• Often, the glaciers flow up and over the lip of the cirque as gravity drives them downslope. Lakes (called tarns) often occupy these depressions once the glaciers retreat.
• They form in bowl-shaped depressions, also known as bedrock hollows or cirques, located on the side of, or near mountains. They characteristically form by the accumulation of snow and ice avalanching from upslope areas.
• The deposition is known as third-order landforms. The first and second-order landforms are formed because of the tectonic movements.
• Third-order landforms generally form over second-order landforms.
• Examples of third-order landforms include deltas, lakes, volcanoes, peaks, gorges, cols, cirques, etc. The third-order landforms are formed because of the actions of forces like water, air, etc.

Additional Information

​Major landforms:

• First-order landforms: Continents & Oceans.
• Second-order landforms: Mountains, Plateaus, and plains minor land forests.
• Third-order landforms: Deltas, Fjords coasts, Sand dimes, Beaches, Valleys, Cirques, Mushroom rocks, Limestone rocks.

Correct Answer: ​(A) - (III), (B) - (IV), (C) - (II), (D) - (I).

Key Points

Blue (0.45-0.51µm) 

• Because of its finer level of spectral penetration in coastal areas, underwater reefs, water turbidity and sediment, submerged aquatic vegetation, turbidity, and bathymetric mapping make for some unique remote sensing applications.
• Snorkel in an oasis of marine vegetation with the deepwater imaging of the blue band. Your eyes can see reflected blue light. Depending on the clarity of the water, visible light like the blue band can reach depths up to 20-30 meters. Tweak your spectral signature using the blue band for deepwater imaging.

Green (0.53-0.59µm)

• Green is used to discriminate broad vegetation classes and discriminating plant material. A spectral signature of reflectance peak from leaf surfaces is highlighted in the green band.
• To many, green signifies nature – plants, trees, and forests. It’s the same in remote sensing.
• The green portion covers the reflectance peak from leaf surfaces (hence the color green that we see).
• This also means the spectral reflectance is low in the blue and red regions of the spectrum because of the absorption by chlorophyll during photosynthesis.

Red (0.64-0.67µm

• Tropical soils, the built environment, and geological features generally have red contribute to its spectral signature.
• Red is used in formulas like the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) because of how much plants absorb red (and blue) light.
• The reflectance of bare soil generally depends on its composition. The soils in Australia almost mimic Mars because of their redness.
• Soils rich in iron-oxide with its rust color have a high reflectance in the red spectral band – great for this type of soil spectral signature.

​Thermal (10.60–12.51µm)

• The thermal infrared band sees heat and, Vegetation Stress Analysis. Landsat’s thermal infrared uses emitted instead of reflected radiation. It has a coarser resolution of 100 meters but is still useful in understanding surface temperature, night

Correct Answer: ​Agassiz.

Key Points

• The origins of ice age theory began hundreds of years ago when Europeans noted that glaciers in the Alps had shrunk, but its popularization is credited to 19th-century Swiss geologist Louis Agassiz.
• The idea of Continental Glaciation came from Louis Agassiz in 1840.
• Agassiz's hypothesis says that much of the continent of North America was covered by glacial ice that was 2 miles thick and which extended over much of the midwest. Agassiz was Swiss, and so he knew glaciers well.
• Louis Agassiz was the first person to hypothesize that the Earth was once subject to an ice age.
• He proposed this hypothesis to the Helvetic Society in 1837 and garnered much attention.
• His hypothesis was as follows: ancient glaciers had not only encroached farther south than the Alps, but had, in fact, reached southern Europe, Asia, and North America which led to an “ice age”.
• Agassiz was Swiss, and so he knew glaciers well.
• When he came to America, he found only mountain glaciers in the west, but he saw many features which he knew from Switzerland and which were associated with glaciers (eskers, moraines, outwash, kettle lakes, drumlins, kame terraces).

Additional Information

• Louis Agassiz, in full Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, (born May 28, 1807, Motier, Switzerland—died December 14, 1873, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.), Swiss-born American naturalist, geologist, and teacher who made revolutionary contributions to the study of natural science with landmark work on glacier activity.
• Agassiz studied paleontology (the science of fossils) and glaciology. In 1836, he began to notice distinct features that were left behind by glaciers in Switzerland like valleys, scratches on rocks, and mounds of debris called moraines. He also noticed that these features existed where there currently were no glaciers.
• This got him thinking, and he proposed that it was during an ice age that these glaciers had moved across the Earth, and shaped the landscape. This was a very different way of thinking (sort of like when science tried to explain that the Earth was round instead of flat), and he published works on this theory in 1840, and again in 1847, after further study and evidence collection all over Europe.

Correct Answer: (A), (B), (C), (D)

Key Points

• Waves at the Shoreline: As a wave approaches the shore it slows down from drag on the bottom when the water depth is less than half the wavelength (L/2).

• The waves get closer together and taller. Orbital motions of water molecules become increasingly elliptical, especially on the bottom.

• Web breaker- A wave that is collapsing or breaking as a result of the wave approaching the shore and reaching shallower water.

• The decreasing water depth causes the wavelength and speed to decrease and the wave height to increase.

• Consequently, wave steepness increases and the wave becomes unstable; it breaks when the wave height is about 0.8 times the water depth.

• Several types of breaker have been described, e.g. spilling breakers (in which the wave breaks forward, with broken water spilling down the front of the wave), and plunging breakers (in which the wave crest curls over a large air pocket and falls vertically into the trough).

• Swash is a turbulent layer of water that washes up on the beach after an incoming wave has broken and the water rushes up the beach.

• When a wave reaches the shore, the water that rushes up the beach is known as the swash.

• Swash consists of two phases: uprush (onshore flow) and backwash (offshore flow).

• Then the water runs back down the beach, which is called the backwash.

• With a constructive wave, the swash is stronger than the backwash.

• With a destructive wave, the backwash is stronger than the swash.

• Swash consists of two phases: uprush (onshore flow) and backwash (offshore flow).

• Generally, uprush has higher velocity and shorter duration than backwash.

• Onshore velocities are at their greatest at the start of the uprush and then decrease, whereas offshore velocities increase towards the end of the backwash.

• The direction of the uprush varies with the prevailing wind, whereas the backwash is always perpendicular to the coastline.

• This asymmetrical motion of swash can cause longshore drift as well as cross-shore sediment transport.​

Additional Information

• The nearshore is always underwater, while the foreshore is that part of the beach extending from the mean low water line to the highest elevation reached by waves at normal high tide. The backshore encompasses the area landward from the water's reach at normal high tide to the maximum uprush during storms.

Correct Answer: ​(B), (C), (A), (D).

Key Points

Cultural realm:

• A cultural realm is a geographical region where cultural traits maintain homogeneity.
• The cultural traits are supposed to be the product of regional geographical circumstances.
• It is, thus, regional geography that has become the basis of the delineation of cultural realms in the world.
• Ratzel‘s concept of the cultural landscape provided encouragement to geographers for culture regionalization.
• It is the largest possible area of cultural influence. It is a wider concept and includes overlaps and transitional areas. It can be discontinuous. E.g. Islam realm.

Cultural Region:

• It is a modern concept and does not include geographical continuation.
• There should be a boundary; geopolitical regions have been used to define cultural regions.
• Culture is a dynamic concept and it changes imperceptibly.

Cultural complex:

• The group of traits that define a particular culture.
• Cultural extinction: Obliteration of an entire culture by war, disease, acculturation, or a combination of the three.
• Cultural geography: The subfield of human geography that looks at how cultures vary over space.
• A number of traits when organized together make a culture complex. A watch, football match, attitudes and actions, prayer, Hajj, Eids, agriculture system, market system, a political party, a constitution, an industrial unit, and an examination system are examples of culture complex.

Cultural trait:

• A cultural trait is the smallest unit of culture and single identifiable material or non-material element within a culture and is conceivable as an object in itself.
• Different cultural traits can also be found within the same kind of population.
• For example, some Christians worship every Sunday, some every day, and others not at all.
• In some native tribes around the world, piercing one's ears and expanding the piercings slowly over time is a cultural trait.​

Additional Information

• Brock Webb divided the world into four major and two minor cultural realms.
• The major cultural realms are Occidental Realm, Islamic Realm, Indian Realm, and East Indian Realm.
• And the minor cultural realms are the South-East Asian Realm, Meso-African, or Negro African Realm.
• Occidental culture is the culture of European society. It is influenced to a great extent by Christianity. It has regional modifications on the basis of varying levels of industrialization, political and economic thought, colonization, commercialization, urbanization, and development of transport systems, and land development of social, political, and economic institutions.

Correct Answer: ​(B) and (C) only.

“Emerging markets” is a term that refers to an economy that experiences considerable economic growth and possesses some, but not all, characteristics of a developed economy. Emerging markets are countries that are transitioning from the “developing” phase to the “developed” phase.

Important Points

China:

• The Chinese economy has posted an average growth rate of 10% since the enactment of trade liberalization and economic reforms in 1978.
• China’s economic growth has been propelled by government spending, expansion of its manufacturing sector, and exports (specifically electronic equipment).

India:

• India established itself as an emerging market after trade liberalization and other major economic reforms in 1991.
• The Indian economy has been growing steadily at relatively high rates.
• It averaged 7.1% in the past decade, with some fluctuations due to political instability and economic reforms.

​Brazil:

• Brazil’s economy on a relative basis grew rapidly during the early 2010s at a rate of 7.5%.
• Due to political instability and trade sanctions, however, the growth rate slowed down and became negative in 2016 (-3.5%).
• Brazil also experienced considerable improvements in income levels and poverty reduction from 2003-to 2014, but changes have been sluggish since 2015 due to lower economic activity.

Russia:

• Driven primarily by oil exports and a rise in oil prices, Russia experienced exponential growth in its GDP during the period 1999-to 2008 (before the Global Financial Crisis).
• The transition from communism to capitalism that has been taking place since 1991 has boosted economic growth in the country through economic reforms and an export-oriented trade policy.
• However, since 2014, Russia’s economy has been negatively affected by political conflicts and trade sanctions that have been imposed by the US, Canada, Japan, and the EU, along with fluctuations in the price of oil, which accounts for close to 52% of Russian exports. The Russian economy grew at a rate of 1.7% in 2019 and is expected to grow faster if geopolitical tensions with trade partners like the US, Canada, Japan, and the EU reduce.

Additional Information

Some common characteristics of emerging markets are illustrated below, and all have this country:

• Market volatility stems from political instability, external price movements, and/or supply-demand shocks due to natural calamities.
• Emerging markets are often attractive to foreign investors due to the high return on investment they can provide.
• Governments of emerging markets tend to implement policies that favor industrialization and rapid economic growth.
• Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa are the biggest emerging markets in the world.
• In 2009, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China formed a summit to create “BRIC,” an association created in order to improve political relationships and trade between the largest emerging markets. South Africa joined the “BRIC” group in 2010, which was then re-named “BRICS.”

Correct Answer: ​(D), (C), (B), (A).

Key Points

• The Indian subcontinent is one of the worst affected regions in the world.
• The subcontinent with a long coastline of 8041 kilometers is exposed to nearly 10 percent of the world’s tropical cyclones.
• The majority of them have their initial genesis over the Bay of Bengal and strike the East coast of India.

Additional Information

• On average, five to six tropical cyclones form every year, of which two or three could be severe.
• More cyclones occur in the Bay of Bengal than in the Arabian Sea and the ratio is approximately 4:1.
• Cyclones occur frequently on both the coasts (the West coast - Arabian Sea; and the East coast - Bay of Bengal).
• An analysis of the frequency of cyclones on the East and West coasts of India between 1891 and 1990 shows that nearly 262 cyclones occurred (92 of these severe) in a 50 km wide strip above the East coast.
• Less severe cyclonic activity has been noticed on the West Coast, where 33 cyclones occurred in the same period, out of which 19  were severe.
• Tropical cyclones occur in the months of May-June and October-November. Cyclones of severe intensity and frequency in the North Indian Ocean are bi-modal in character, with their primary peak in November and secondary peak in May.
• The disaster potential is particularly high during landfall in the North Indian Ocean (the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea) due to the accompanying destructive wind, storm surges, and torrential rainfall.
• Of these, storm surges cause the most damage as seawater inundates low-lying areas of coastal regions and causes heavy floods, erodes beaches and embankments, destroys vegetation, and reduces soil fertility.
• The wind directions are mostly south-westerly during a large part of the year whereas during winter they are northeast to the north.
• During the winter season the Winds are light and variable but in summers especially around May to July strong winds prevail in most parts of Rajasthan.
• Summers witness a severe dust storm period when the wind speed rises up to 60 kilometers/hour causing erosion from the dry soils.
• The average annual number of thunderstorms during the monsoon season is about 11 in West Rajasthan and 10 in East Rajasthan.

The correct answer is A, B, C, and D.

Key Points

Process of Evaporation

• Evaporation can generally be defined as a process by which a liquid or solid is transformed into vapour.

Factors affecting Evaporation in ocean water

1.Salinity

• There is a direct positive relationship between the rate of evaporation and salinity. Greater the evaporation rate, the higher the salinity and vice versa. In fact, salt concentration increases with the rapid rate of evaporation. Due to evaporation caused by high temperatures and low humidity, salt concentrations rise, and total salinity rises. Salinity is higher in the tropics than at the equator.

2. Wind

• Evaporation increases with the increase in wind speed and decreases with decrease in wind speed. This means rate of evaporation is directly proportional to the speed of wind.

3. Latitude

• At All Longitudes Oceanic Evaporation Rates Are Lower On The Equator Than At Latitudes To The North and South. Over The Oceanic Cold Tongues This Is Related To The Presence Of Cold Water And Divergence Of Heat By The Ocean Circulation.

4. Season

• Climate change is likely causing parts of the water cycle to speed up as warming global temperatures increase the rate of evaporation worldwide. Maximum evaporation takes place during summer season.

Correct Answer: (A) and (D) only.

Key Points

Kyoto Protocol, 1997:

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty adopted in 1997 that aimed to reduce the emission of gases that contribute to global warming.
• The protocol called for reducing the emissions of six greenhouse gases in 41 countries plus the European Union to 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
• On December 11, 1997, delegates from more than 150 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement to lower the number of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.
• Human activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which have been proven to cause climate change.
• The Kyoto Protocol states that industrialized nations will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to below what they were in 1990.
• The Kyoto Protocol was the first major international effort to slow global climate change. Since 1997, 191 countries have backed the agreement, though the United States has not.
• Nations in the developing world are not bound by targets in the Kyoto Protocol. Some of these nations, such as China and Brazil, support industrial economies.
• Some developed nations, including the U.S., Canada, and Russia, have not agreed to emissions targets.
• Perhaps because of its lack of worldwide support, the Kyoto Protocol has been limited in its success: greenhouse gas output has increased since 1997, not decreased.
• Despite not meeting its goals, Kyoto has been significant as a symbol. It was the first step in the process to combat global warming.
• The Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the 'Kyoto Protocol') was adopted at the third session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 3) in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997.
• In accordance with Article 24, it was open for signature from 16 March 1998 to 15 March 1999 at United Nations Headquarters, New York. By that date, the Kyoto Protocol had received 84 signatures, effective from 1999.
• 16 March 1998 to 15 March 1999. This Protocol shall be open for accession from the day after the date on which it is closed for signature. Instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval, or accession shall be deposited with the Depositary.

Additional Information

• In Annex B, the Kyoto Protocol sets binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and economies in transition and the European Union. Overall, these targets add up to an average 5 percent emission reduction compared to 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008–2012 (the first commitment period).

Correct Answer: ​Study of harmonious reciprocal relation of man and nature.

Key Points

• Anthropogeography refers to a mode of systematic analysis, adopted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, of the geographical distribution of societies, the relationship between migration, and the physical environment, and the study of harmonious reciprocal relations between man and nature.
• The functions of landforms extend beyond the control of the circulation of the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the water which is continually being interchanged between them; they are exercised with increased effectiveness in the higher departments of biogeography and anthropogeography.
• Anthropogeography is a term used predominantly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that means roughly “the geography of humans.”
• The term comes from Anthropogeographie, the title of a two-volume work published in 1882 and 1891 by the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel, who is well known for his influence on early human geography, particularly his thought on political geography.
• Ratzel strongly influenced the thought of the well-known American geographer Ellen Churchill Semple, who presented Ratzel's anthropogeography to North America through her 1911 work Influences of Geographic Environment: On the Basis of Ratzel's System of Anthropo-Geography.
• Man in the primitive stages of culture is scarce to be distinguished from other animals as regards his subjection to the environment, but in the higher grades of culture the conditions of control and reaction become much more complicated, and the department of anthropogeography is devoted to their consideration.
• Ratzel’s book Politische Geographie (1897) is considered the culmination of his voluminous work and that in which he explicitly addressed geopolitics, the analysis of the relationships between geography and the practice of statecraft.

Additional Information

• Ratzel’s chief interests lay in human migration, cultural borrowing, and the relation between man and the many factors of his physical environment.
• Though influenced by the evolutionary theories of Darwin and of the German zoologist Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, Ratzel became critical of the mechanistic quality of their views.
• Philosophy, rather than biology, came to dominate his later thought.

Correct Answer: ​East Asia, South Asia, Europe. North America.

Key Points

East Asia:

• Approximately one-fourth of the world's population lives in the East Asia region comprising eastern parts of China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and the island of Taiwan. Five-sixths of the people in this region live in China.
• South Asia has the second-largest concentration of people. The region comprises India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
• More than 20% 0f the world's population lives in South Asia and India, the world's second-most populous country contains more than three-fourths of the people in this region.
• The world's third-largest population cluster encompasses about two dozen countries that occupy much of Europe from the United Kingdom to western Russia. Approximately 15% of the world's people live in this cluster.

North America:

• The largest concentration of people in the Western Hemisphere is in the Northeastern United States and South-Eastern Canada.
• Approximately 150 million people live in this region and like the Europeans, most Americans are urban dwellers and fewer than 5% are farmers.

Additional Information

​​South-East Asia:

• A third Asian population cluster and the world's fourth-largest comprise a series of islands that lie between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
• The largest concentration is on the island of Java (Indonesia) inhabited by more than 100 million people.
• Indonesia consists of more than 13,677 islands and is the fourth most populous country in the world. Included in this region is the Philippines.

Correct Answer: ​Localisation economies.

Key Points

• Localization economies occur when an increase in the size of an industry in a city leads to an increase in the productivity of a particular activity.
• Localization economies are, as has already been stated, usually seen to arise because firms taking part in local exchange will benefit from lower costs.
• Presence in an agglomeration is held to improve the profitability of firms by reducing their costs of exchange of both goods and information (Appold 1995).
• According to Scott (1983, 1988), the economies of agglomeration are particularly manifest when linkages between firms tend to be small scale, varying, and unpredictable, and thus where the interaction costs will rise rapidly with increasing distance. In other words, the greater the product and production flexibility, the more important are the agglomeration economies.
• Localization economies arise from the presence of a large number of firms in the same industry in the same place. For example, textile firms cluster to share a large pool of suitably skilled and unskilled labor and other intermediate input suppliers.
• Common resources such as roads, buildings, and power supply benefit firms in cities regardless of their industry.
• Also, firms have better access to labor by locating in cities. The urban environment creates positive externalities that benefit several different industries.

Additional Information

Urbanization economies:

• The effects on productivity and utility created endogenously by larger cities – are a fundamental component of both the economic geography of modern societies and the perpetuation of innovation and economic growth at a national level.
• Urbanization permits external scale and scope economies, reduces transaction costs, and allows specialization among firms leading to low costs of production.

Internal economies:

• ​**“Internal economies are those economies in production which occur to the firm itself when it expands its output or enlarges its scale of production”.**
• A large retail store can buy in bulk and lower its cost per unit.
• They can then choose to keep the savings to increase the business' profits or to use the savings as a competitive advantage by passing the savings on to the consumer and offering lower prices than their competitors.

Marketing economies:

• A market economy is an economic system where two forces, known as supply and demand, direct the production of goods and services.
• Market economies are not controlled by a central authority (like a government) and are instead based on voluntary exchange.

The line of equal distribution at 45° used for measuring inequalities is called the Lorenz curve.

A Lorenz curve, developed by American economist Max Lorenz in 1905, is a graphical representation of income inequality or wealth inequality.

Key Points

• It is one of the simplest representations of inequality.
• On the horizontal axis is the cumulative number of income recipients ranked from the poorest to the richest individual or household.
• The vertical axis displays the cumulative percentage of total income. The Lorenz curve reveals the percentage of income owned by x percent of the population.
• It is usually shown in relation to a 45-degree line that represents perfect equality where each x percentile of the population receives the same x percentile of income.
• Thus the farther the Lorenz curve is in relation to the 45-degree line, the more unequal the distribution of income.
• The Gini coefficient is usually defined mathematically based on the Lorenz curve, which plots the proportion of the total income of the population (y-axis) that is cumulatively earned by the bottom x of the population (see diagram). The line at 45 degrees thus represents perfect equality of incomes.

​

​

Additional Information

• A Lorenz curve gives more detailed information about the exact distribution of wealth or income across a population than summary statistics such as the Gini coefficient or the Lorenz asymmetry coefficient.
• Because a Lorenz curve visually displays the distribution across each percentile (or another unit breakdown), it can show precisely at which income (or wealth) percentiles the observed distribution varies from the line of equality and by how much.

Correct Answer: R.E. Horton.

Key Points

• The Hydraulic Slope Theory was first introduced by Robert E. Horton in 1945.
• He was the first to formalize the importance of topography to hillslope hydrology by proposing that a critical hillslope length was required to generate a channel.
• Horton worked on rainfall and runoff throughout his life.
• R.  E.  Horton,  an American civil engineer, and soil scientist considered the father of modern hydrology introduced his concept of stream order in 1945.

Additional Information

• Morphometric analysis, quantitative description, and analysis of landforms as practiced in geomorphology that may be applied to a particular kind of landform or to drainage basins and large regions generally.
• The main difficulties of Horton's order are the criteria to be considered to distinguish between "true" first-order segments and the extension of higher-order segments. To make a decision about proper ordering it uses the first  Strahler scheme of stream order.
• Thus, the ordering number of different segments is determined first. Then reclassification of streams is performed a  couple of times until the highest order of stream is found.  If both branches have the same orders,  it uses the flow accumulation to choose the actual link but if the orders of tributaries differ the channel of the highest order continues and next. Thus, classification and reclassification of streams are the primary requirements of Horton’s stream ordering.

Correct Answer: ​Both Statement I and Statement II are false.

Key Points

Statement I: The process in which one plate slides beneath another plate is a zone of convergence.

• A subduction zone is the biggest crash scene on Earth.
• These boundaries mark the collision between two of the planet's tectonic plates.
• The plates are pieces of crust that slowly move across the planet's surface over millions of years.
• Where two tectonic plates meet at a subduction zone, one bends and slides underneath the other, curving down into the mantle. (The mantle is the hotter layer under the crust.) and the subduction area is known as the Benioff zone.
• Tectonic plates can transport both continental crust and oceanic crust, or they may be made of only one kind of crust.
• Oceanic crust is denser than continental crust. At a subduction zone, the oceanic crust usually sinks into the mantle beneath lighter continental crust.
• Scientists first identified subduction zones in the 1960s, by locating earthquakes in the descending crust. Now, new instruments can precisely track the shifting tectonic plates.
• A dipping planar (flat) zone of earthquakes is produced by the interaction of a downgoing oceanic crustal plate with a continental plate.

Hence, the statement is incorrect.

Confusion Points

• The process of sliding one plate beneath another is known as subduction.
• The process of subduction is very common along the convergence boundary.
• Here the statement focussed on the process, not the situation.

Statement II: Seafloor spreading becomes more prominent along the zone of convergences.

• Seafloor spreading occurs at divergent plate boundaries.
• As tectonic plates slowly move away from each other, heat from the mantle's convection currents makes the crust more plastic and less dense.
• The less-dense material rises, often forming a mountain or elevated area of the seafloor.
• The phenomenon is known today as plate tectonics.
• In locations where two plates move apart, at mid-ocean ridges, new seafloor is continually formed during seafloor spreading.​

Additional Information

• A convergent boundary (also known as a destructive boundary) is an area on Earth where two or more lithospheric plates collide.
• One plate eventually slides beneath the other, a process known as subduction. The subduction zone can be defined by a plane where many earthquakes occur, called the Wadati–Benioff zone.
• A divergent boundary occurs when two tectonic plates move away from each other. Along these boundaries, earthquakes are common and magma (molten rock) rises from the Earth's mantle to the surface, solidifying to create a new oceanic crust. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an example of divergent plate boundaries.

Correct Answer: ​(C) and (D) only.

Important Points 

• Nitrous oxide​ symbol N₂O. Nitrous Oxide is a naturally occurring gas that is colorless and non-flammable. It can be manufactured and used for a variety of things such as a pharmacologic agent to produce anesthesia, a food additive as a propellant, and an additive to fuels to increase available oxygen in combustion.
• **Nitrous oxide, a refrigerated liquid appears as a colorless liquid. Density 1.22 g / cm3 at its boiling point of -89°C. Boils to give a colorless gas that is sweet-smelling and moderately toxic. The gas has narcotic effects when inhaled (laughing gas). Shipped under refrigeration. Vapor pressure is at about 745 psig at 70°F. Used to freeze foods and to manufacture other chemicals.**​
• krypton (Kr), a chemical element, a rare gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table, which forms relatively few chemical compounds.
• **Krypton is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and the atomic number 36. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas that occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere and is often used with other rare gases in fluorescent lamps. With rare exceptions, krypton is chemically inert.**​

Additional Information

• Helium (He), chemical element, inert gas of Group 18 (noble gases) of the periodic table.
• Helium is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. It's boiling and melting point are the lowest among all the elements.
• Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air.

Correct Answer: (A), (B), (C), (D).

Key Points

• ​West Bengal has 42.45% of India’s mangrove cover, followed by Gujarat at 23.66% and A&N Islands at 12.39%.
• Gujarat shows a maximum increase of 37 sq km in mangrove cover.
• South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal alone accounts for 41.85% mangrove cover of the country.”
• South 24 Parganas holds the Sunderban National Park, home to one of the largest mangrove forests in the world.

Additional Information 

• A Mangrove is a small tree or shrub that grows along coastlines, taking root in salty sediments, often underwater.
• The word ‘mangrove’ may refer to the habitat as a whole or to the trees and shrubs in the mangrove swamp.
• Mangroves are found only along sheltered coastlines within the tropical or subtropical latitudes because they cannot withstand freezing temperatures.

Correct Answer: ​De varies.

Key Points

• Hugo de Vries, in full Hugo Marie de Vries, (born February 16, 1848, Haarlem, Netherlands—died May 21, 1935, near Amsterdam), Dutch botanist and geneticist who introduced the experimental study of organic evolution.
• His rediscovery in 1900 (simultaneously with the botanist's Carl Correns and Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg) of Gregor Mendel’s principles of heredity and his theory of biological mutation, though considerably different from a modern understanding of the phenomenon, resolved ambiguous concepts concerning the nature of variation of species that, until then, had precluded the universal acceptance and active investigation of Charles Darwin’s system of organic evolution.
• He gave the name mutations to these phenomena, which he showed to arise suddenly, as distinct from Darwin’s variation of species through natural selection.
• De Vries believed these varieties to be an example of an evolution that could be studied experimentally and conceived of evolution as a series of abrupt changes radical enough to bring new species into existence in a single leap.

Additional Information

• He is known chiefly for suggesting the concept of genes, rediscovering the laws of heredity in the 1890s while apparently unaware of Gregor Mendel's work, introducing the term "mutation", and for developing a mutation theory of evolution.

Correct Answer: Claudius Ptolemy.

Key Points

• According to Ptolemy Geography is the science that deals with the art of map-making.
• Ptolemy’s most important geographical innovation was to record longitudes and latitudes in degrees for roughly 8,000 locations on his world map, making it possible to make an exact duplicate of his map.
• Hence, we possess a clear and detailed image of the inhabited world as it was known to a resident of the Roman Empire at its height—a world that extended from the Shetland Islands in the north to the sources of the Nile in the south, from the Canary Islands in the west to China and Southeast Asia in the east.
• Ptolemy’s map is seriously distorted in size and orientation compared with modern maps, a reflection of the incomplete and inaccurate descriptions of road systems and trade routes at his disposal.
• Ptolemy also devised two ways of drawing a grid of lines on a flat map to represent the circles of latitude and longitude on the globe.
• His grid gives a visual impression of Earth’s spherical surface and also, to a limited extent, preserves the proportionality of distances.
• The more sophisticated of these map projections, using circular arcs to represent both parallels and meridians, anticipated later area-preserving projections.
• Ptolemy made contributions to astronomy, mathematics, geography, musical theory, and optics.
• He compiled a star catalog and the earliest surviving table of a trigonometric function and established mathematically that an object and its mirror image must make equal angles to a mirror.

Correct Answer: ​pH5 and pH6.

Key Points

• "Clean" or unpolluted rain has a slightly acidic pH of 5.6 because carbon dioxide and water in the air react together to form carbonic acid, a weak acid.
• The pH scale measures how acidic an object is. Objects that are not very acidic are called basic. The scale has values ranging from zero (the most acidic) to 14 (the most basic).

As it can be seen from the pH scale above, pure water has a pH value of 7. This value is considered neutral—neither acidic nor basic.

• Normal, clean rain has a pH value of between 5.0 and 5.5, which is slightly acidic.
• However, when rain combines with sulfur dioxide or nitrogen oxides produced from power plants and automobiles the rain becomes much more acidic.
• Typical acid rain has a pH value of 4.0. A decrease in pH values from 5.0 to 4.0 means that the acidity is 10 times greater.
• pH is Measured here are many high-tech devices that are used to measure pH in laboratories. One easy way that one can measure pH is with a strip of litmus paper.
• When anyone touches a strip of litmus paper to something, the paper changes color depending on whether the substance is acidic or basic. If the paper turns red, the substance is acidic, and if it turns blue, the substance is basic.

Hence, the range of pH values for unpolluted rainwater is between pH5 and pH6.

Correct Answer: Goa.

Köppen published his first scheme in 1900 and a revised version in 1918. He continued to revise his system of classification until his death in 1940. Other climatologists have modified portions of Köppen’s procedure on the basis of their experience in various parts of the world.

Key Points

• Amw (Monsoon type with a short dry winter season): This climate is found in the western coastal region, south of Mumbai.
• (Malabar and some part of Konkan coast) This area receives over 300 cm of annual rainfall in summer from the southwest monsoons.
• Köppen climate classification is a widely used, vegetation-based, empirical climate classification system developed by German botanist-climatologist Wladimir Köppen.
• His aim was to devise formulas that would define climatic boundaries in such a way as to correspond to those of the vegetation zones (biomes) that were being mapped for the first time during his lifetime.

​

Additional Information

• Köppen’s classification is based on a subdivision of terrestrial climates into five major types, which are represented by the capital letters A, B, C, D, and E. Each of these climate types except for B is defined by temperature criteria.
• Koppen's Climate Classification is the most widely used climate classification. Wladimir Peter Koeppen created this climatic classification system in 1884. He saw that the spread of plants and the climate were inextricably linked. The classifications are based on yearly and monthly temperature and precipitation averages.
• He chose precise temperature and precipitation levels, connected them to vegetation distribution, and utilized these values to designate climates. A, B, C, D, E, and H are the five primary climatic categories recognized by the Koeppen climate classification system.
• The small letters f, m, w, and s represent the seasons of dryness.
• f -no dry season
• m – Monsoon climate
• w- Winter dry season
• s – Summer dry season.

Correct Answer: Enyedi

Mistake Points 

• Enyedi, G.Y. (1 964) while describing geographical types of agriculture in Hungary refers to a formula for determining agricultural productivity.
• Shafi (1972 and 1974) also adopted this approach to determine the productivity indices in respect of twelve food crops in India.
• According to the answer key, Safi is the correct option, but based on the given question Enyedi is correct.

Important Points

• His formula for assessing the productivity coefficient is the spatial distribution of productivity for major crops was computed, mapped, and interpreted by Enyedi's Index.
• While discussing geographical types of agriculture, Enyedi (1964) devised technique (8) for determining an index of productivity coefficient. Enyedi's formula of productivity index is:

Where,

• Y= Production of the selected crop in the unit area i.e. villages.
• Yn= Total production of the selected crop at the regional level (entire study region).
• T= Area under selected crop in the unit area (village level).
• Tn= Total cropped area in the entire study region.

Additional Information

• Enyedi's technique is appreciable in the sense that it determines the productivity index of an area with reference to the national level.
• However, the technique does not consider that in certain cases the productivity index is influenced by the magnitude of the area under a particular individual crop.
• Besides, when the district yield is less than the national yield, its productivity index is higher than the national level.

Correct Answer: (A) and (B) only.

Key Points

• The river regime is the changes in river discharge over a period of a year. It is affected by many factors, including climate and drainage basin, and river properties.
• Climate change is seeing long-term changes in the temperature and precipitation patterns found across the world.
• River Regime is a graph showing variations in river discharge over the year.
• The pattern of flow of water in a river channel over a year is known as its regime.
• The north Indian rivers originating from the Himalayas are perennial as they are fed by glaciers through snowmelt and also receive rainfall water during the rainy season.
• The rivers of South India do not originate from glaciers and their flow pattern witnesses fluctuations.
• The flow increases considerably during monsoon rains.

Thus, the regime of the rivers of South India is controlled by rainfall which also varies from one part of the peninsular plateau to the other.

Types of river regimes depend on the type of climate the river is subjected to​:

• Perennial rivers – rivers that flow all year round.
• Seasonal rivers – rivers that dry up during the dry season.
• Ephemeral rivers – Rivers that only flow for a short time when there is rain.

Additional Information

• The two Peninsular Rivers display interesting differences in their regimes compared to the Himalayan Rivers.
• The Narmada has a very low volume of discharge from January to July but it suddenly rises in August when the maximum flow is attained.
• The fall in October is as spectacular as the rise in August.

Correct Answer: Long wave radiation.

Key Points

• The incoming longwave radiation from the atmosphere is absorbed in the top millimeters, unlike incoming shortwave radiation that penetrates much deeper.
• As Earth warms, water in the ocean soaks up energy (heat) and distributes it more evenly across the planet. The ocean also absorbs carbon dioxide from Earth's atmosphere. The additional heat and carbon dioxide in the ocean can change the environment for the many plants and animals that live there.
• Medium wave - a radio wave with a wavelength between 100 and 1000 meters (a frequency between 300 kilohertz and 3000 kilohertz).
• Long-wave Radiation (OLR) is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths from 3–100 μm emitted from Earth and its atmosphere out to space in the form of thermal radiation. It is also referred to as up-welling long-wave radiation and terrestrial longwave flux, among others.
• The ocean is the largest solar energy collector on Earth. Not only does water cover more than 70 percent of our planet’s surface, but it can also absorb large amounts of heat without a large increase in temperature.
• This tremendous ability to store and release heat over long periods of time gives the ocean a central role in stabilizing Earth’s climate system. The main source of ocean heat in sunlight. Additionally, clouds, water vapor, and greenhouse gases emit heat that they have absorbed, and some of that heat energy enters the ocean. Waves, tides, and currents constantly mix the ocean, moving heat from warmer to cooler latitudes and to deeper levels.
• The ocean absorbs excess heat from Earth's system, acting to balance the excess heat from rising global temperatures. Scientists have determined that the ocean absorbs more than 90 percent of the excess heat, which is attributed to greenhouse gas emissions.
• **In this question, short wave solar radiation options are not there, but only short-wave ration can penetrate water rather than long-wave radiation. That is why in here long-wave radiation can be vastly absorbed by the ocean surface.**​

Additional Information

• Shortwave radiation is radiant energy produced by the sun with wavelengths ranging from infrared through visible to ultraviolet. Shortwave radiation is therefore exclusively associated with daylight hours for a particular location on the Earth's surface.

Correct Answer: ​(A), (C), and (D) only.

Key Points

• Environmental determinism is the belief that the environment, most notably its physical factors such as landforms and climate, determines the patterns of human culture and societal development.
• Environmental determinists believe that ecological, climatic, and geographical factors alone are responsible for human cultures and individual decisions.
• Although many geographers accepted its central tenants, the concept is most closely associated with the German geographer Friedrich Ratzel and with two Americans who studied under Ratzel, Ellen Churchill Semple, and Ellsworth Huntington.
• Environmental determinism then became popular in the United States in the early 20th Century when Rätzel’s student, Ellen Churchill Semple, a professor at Clark University in Worchester, Massachusetts, introduced the theory there.
• Like Rätzel’s initial ideas, Semple’s were also influenced by evolutionary biology.
• The environment has a critical role in the natural selection process for Darwinian evolution. Environmental determinism rose to its most prominent stage in modern geography beginning in the late 19th Century when it was revived by the German geographer Friedrich Rätzel and became the central theory in the discipline. Rätzel's theory came about following Charles Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859 and was heavily influenced by evolutionary biology and the impact a person’s environment has on their cultural evolution.

Additional Information

• Although environmental determinism is a relatively recent approach to formal geographic study, its origins go back to ancient times.
• Climatic factors, for example, were used by Strabo, Plato, and Aristotle to explain why the Greeks were so much more developed in the early ages than societies in hotter and colder climates.
• Ibn Khaldun, an Arab sociologist, and scholar was officially known as one of the first environmental determinists. He lived from 1332 to 1406, during which time he wrote a complete world history and explained that the hot climate of Sub-Saharan Africa caused dark human skin.​

Correct Answer: ​​(A) and (B) only.

Key Points

• The radiation balance of the Earth system is the algebraic sum of the incoming and outgoing components of radiation.

• These components are balanced over long-time periods and over the Earth as a whole. If they were not, the Earth would be continually cooling or warming.

• Global radiation balance ultimately controls the climate of the Earth and thus plays an important role in the functioning of all ecosystems.

• The two key components of the global radiation balance are solar radiation, which is emitted by the Sun, and terrestrial radiation, which is emitted by the Earth’s surface and atmosphere.

• Besides regulating climate, solar radiation is vital for sustaining life on our planet, given that almost all living organisms need sunlight for their well-being.

• This article discusses the global radiation balance and its main components, including solar radiation and its spectrum.

• Albedo can be thought of as the reflectivity of the earth, i.e., how much incoming sunlight is reflected back to space.

• Cloud cover and ice cover on land (particularly such areas as Greenland and Antarctica, which have large ice caps) are the primary determinants of global albedo.

• Sensible heat is literally the heat that can be felt. It is the energy moving from one system to another that changes the temperature rather than changing its phase. For example, it warms water rather than melting ice.

Additional Information

• **A pyranometer is an instrument used to measure the amount of solar radiation (power) the sun produces in a specific location.**​
• **An anemometer is an instrument that measures wind speed. This type of anemometer has a spinning wheel. The stronger the wind blows, the faster the wheel rotates. The anemometer counts the number of rotations, which is used to calculate wind speed.**​

Correct Answer: Kerala.

Key Points

• Silent Valley Movement was a movement against the state to protect Silent valley, an evergreen tropical forest in the Palakkad district of Kerala, India. It was started in 1973 to save the Silent Valley Reserve Forest from being flooded by a hydroelectric project.
• 1970: the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) proposes a hydroelectric dam across the Kunthipuzha River that runs through Silent Valley, that will submerge 8.3 sq km of untouched moist evergreen forest. Arguments it makes for the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project (SVPH):
• It will generate electricity for the state of Kerala with the installation of four units of 60 MW each. (The KSEB avers that the state’s electricity requirements will not be met without this additional power).
• Irrigate an additional 100 sq km in the Mallapuram and Palghat districts.
• Provide employment to several thousand people during the construction phase and boost the economy of the state.

However, several NGOs strongly oppose the project and urge the government to abandon it.

Conservationists argue that: The entire lower valley will be submerged by the dam, destroying its biodiversity. The 10 percent loss projected by the government will actually be far worse. The workforce brought in for the construction of the project will reside in the area for several years and the destruction they cause – illegal wood felling, cattle grazing, poaching, encroaching – will destroy the Valley.

Correct Answer: (B) and (E) only

Environmental determinism has been widely criticized as a tool to legitimize colonialism, racism, and imperialism in Africa, The Americas, and Asia. Environmental determinism enabled geographers to scientifically justify the supremacy of white European races and the naturalness of imperialism.

Key Points

• Despite its success in the early 1900s, environmental determinism’s popularity began to decline in the 1920s as its claims were often found to be wrong. Also, critics claimed it was racist and perpetuated imperialism.
• Carl Sauer, for instance, began his critiques in 1924 and said that environmental determinism led to premature generalizations about an area’s culture and did not allow for results based on direct observation or other research.
• As a result of his and others' criticisms, geographers developed the theory of environmental possibilism to explain cultural development. L Febvre and Reclus also criticized Environmental determinism.
• Environmental possibilism was set forth by the French geographer Paul Vidal de la Blanche who stated that the environment sets limitations for cultural development, but it does not wholly define culture. Culture is instead defined by the opportunities and decisions that humans make in response to dealing with such limitations.
• By the 1950s, environmental determinism was almost entirely replaced in geography by environmental possibilism, effectively ending its prominence as the central theory in the discipline. Regardless of its decline, however, environmental determinism was an important component of geographic history as it initially represented an attempt by early geographers to explain the patterns they saw developing across the globe.

Additional Information

• Environmental determinism rose to its most prominent stage in modern geography beginning in the late 19th Century when it was revived by the German geographer Friedrich Rätzel and became the central theory in the discipline. Rätzel's theory came about following Charles Darwin's Origin of Species in 1859.

The Correct Answer; Al - Masudi.

Key Points

• Al Masudi an Arab explorer from Baghdad, gave an account of the reversal of ocean currents and the monsoon winds over the north Indian plain.
• The term monsoon has been derived from the Arabic word mousim or the Malayan word monsin which means season.
• A monsoon is characterized by a seasonal reversal of wind direction.
• Although monsoons are mentioned in old literature like the Rigveda and in the writings of Buddhist scholars, the credit for the first scientific description of monsoon winds goes to the Arab scholars.
• Al Masudi, the tenth-century Arab scholar, provided a detailed description of monsoon winds and their seasonal reversal characteristic.
• The famous Arab scholar, a world traveler, and a prolific writer, Al- Masudi coined the term Monsoon and gave a good account of these periodic winds of the Herkend (Bay of Bengal). Interestingly Al-Masudi also remarks about using these winds as a source of energy.

Additional Information

• Al-Masudi was an Arab historian, geographer, and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs".
• Al-Masudi was one of the well-known climatologists of his time.
• He gave a good account of the periodic winds (monsoons) of the Herkend (Bay of Bengal). He has given the example of the windmills that he found in the desert of Rajasthan on the western frontier of India.

Correct Answer: 60

Key Points

• Median is one of the three measures of central tendency. When describing a set of data, the central position of the data set is identified. This is known as the measure of central tendency.

• The three most common measures of central tendency are mean, median, and mode.

• The Median is also called the Place Average, as the data placed in the middle of a sequence is taken as the median.

• When Less than ogive and More than ogive cross each other, and horizontal value touch this section which is known as the median value. Here 60 mm rainfall value touch with this section, so the median value is 60.

Additional Information

• An ogive is a freehand graph drawn curve to show the cumulative frequency distribution. It is also known as a cumulative frequency polygon.
• In a less than ogive, the frequencies of all preceding classes are added to the frequency of a class.
• More than or greater than ogive – the frequencies of the succeeding classes are added to the frequency of a class. This series is called the more than or greater than the cumulative series. It is constructed by subtracting first class, second class frequency from the total, third class frequency from that, etc.

Correct Answer: ​The Democratic ideals and Reality.

Key Points

• Mackinder developed a thesis in political geography that he had first outlined in a paper read to the Royal Geographical Society in 1904,
• “The Geographical Pivot of History.” In it, he argued that interior Asia and eastern Europe (the heartland) had become the strategic center of the “World Island” as a result of the relative decline of sea power as against land power and of the economic and industrial development of southern Siberia.
• His extended views were set out in a short book, Democratic Ideals, and Reality, published early in 1919 while the Paris Peace Conference was in session. The role of Britain and the United States, he considered, was to preserve a balance between the powers contending for control of the heartland.

Additional Information

Sir Halford John Mackinder was a British geographer who wrote a paper in 1904 called "The Geographical Pivot of History." Mackinder's paper suggested that the control of Eastern Europe was vital to control of the world.

Mackinder postulated the following, which became known as the Heartland Theory:

• ​Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland
• Who rules the Heartland commands the World-Island
• Who rules the World-Island commands the world

Some historians have conjectured that Mackinder's theory may have influenced Nazi Germany's drive to conquer Europe (although there are many who think the eastward push of Germany that led to World War II just happened to coincide with Mackinder's heartland theory).

The correct answer is (A) - (IV), (B) - (I), (C) - (II), (D) - (III).

Key Points

Correct Answer: ​(A) - (II), (B) - (I), (C) - (IV), (D) - (III).

Key Points

Correct Answer: ​(A), (B), (C), (D).

Key Points

• The Chagos–Laccadive Ridge (CLR), also known as the Chagos–Laccadive Plateau, is a prominent volcanic ridge and oceanic plateau extending between the Northern and the Central Indian Ocean. Extending from c. 10°S to 15°N, the CLR includes the Laccadive, Maldives, and Chagos archipelagos and can be divided into three corresponding blocks, of which the first is continental and the two latter are oceanic. The CLR is asymmetrical with a steeper eastern slope and has an average depth of less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It formed south of or near the Equator together with the remaining western continental margin of India, when India separated first from Madagascar in the Mid-Cretaceous and then from the Seychelles Islands in the Late Cretaceous**.**

• The ridge further extends southward and widens near the equator. It is called Chagos- St. Paul Ridge between the equator and 30°S latitude where the average width becomes 320 km.​

• Amsterdam and St Paul islands belong to ASPplateau and are located close to 38°30′Sand77°50′E. They constitute the only emerged part in the vicinity of the SEIR. This plateau, resulting from the interaction between the SEIR and the ASP plume, is located between Amsterdam and St. Paul fracture zones and is crosscut by several SEIR segments e.g. I1 to J2 segments, according to Royer and Schlich.

• The west­ern branch known as Kerguelen-Gaussberg ridge ex­tends in NW-SE direction between 48°S and 63°S and the eastern branch is known as Indian-Antarctic Ridge.

Additional Information

• Socotra-Chagos Ridge also known as Carlesbreg Ridge emerges from the central ridge at 5°S latitude and extends in a north­westerly direction up to Gardafuli Peninsula of N. E. Africa,​
• Madagascar Ridge stretches from the southern tip of Madagascar (Malagasy) to 40°S latitude. Its further southward extension is known as Prince Edward – Crozet Ridge between 40°S -48°S latitudes.

Correct Answer: (B).

Key Points

• Oscar Ferdinand Peschel (17 March 1826, Dresden – 13 August 1875, Leipzig) was a German geographer and anthropologist. His book on the history of geography was published in 1865 by the name "Geschichte der erdkunde"
• Even he recognized dualism in geography and excluded man from its study.
• Friedrich Ratzel, (born Aug. 30, 1844, Karlsruhe, Baden—died Aug. 9, 1904, Ammerland, Ger.), a German geographer and ethnographer and a principal influence in the modern development of both disciplines.
• He originated the concept of Lebensraum, or “living space,” which relates human groups to the spatial units where they develop.
• His principal work on ethnography was Völkerkunde, 3 vol. (1885–88; The History of Mankind, 1896–98). In Anthropogeographie (vol. 1, 1882, and vol. 2, 1891) he considered population distribution, its relation to migration and environment, and also the effects of the environment on individuals and societies.
• Alfred Hettner, (born Aug. 6, 1859, Dresden, Saxony [now in Germany]—died Aug. 31, 1941, Heidelberg, Ger.), a German geographer who sought to place geography on a firm philosophical and scientific foundation. He strongly influenced the modern development of geography in Germany.
• German geographer Alfer Hettner defined geography as a chronological science. He was of the view that geography should be studied as a chronological science, which studies diverse phenomena existing together in regions of the earth's space.
• Carl Troll was a German geographer and brother of botanist Wilhelm Troll. From 1919 until 1922 Troll studied biology, chemistry, geology, geography, and physics at the Universität in Münchenand.
• Troll, who utilized aerial photographs in his research, coined the term Landscape ecology in 1939. He developed this terminology and many early concepts of landscape ecology and of high mountain ecology and geography as part of his early work applying aerial photographs interpretation to studies of interactions between environment and vegetation and from his research travels in the mountainous regions of Asia, Africa, and South America, as well as his native Europe. He developed seasonal climatic charts and three-dimensional climatic classification from hydrological, biological, and economical data

 Additional Information

• Verenius: 1622-1650
• Kant: 1724-1804
• Humboldt: 1769-1859
• Ritter: 1779-1859
• Darwin: 1809-1822
• Oscar Peschel: 1826-1875
• Richthofen: 1833-1905
• Ratzel: 1844-1904
• Hettner: 1859-1941
• Albrecht Penck: 1858-1945
• Karl Troll: 1899-1975

The Correct answer is: Connate water

Key Points

• Connate Water:
• This is the water trapped within the pores of sedimentary rocks at the time of their formation.
• It is also called “fossil water” because it is preserved underground for geological time scales and does not participate in the active hydrological cycle.
• Connate water is often saline and found in deep rock strata, such as sandstone or shale formations.
• It is considered a non-renewable resource due to its isolation from the surface water cycle.

Additional Information

• Meteoric Water:
• Water derived from atmospheric precipitation like rain, snow, and hail.
• This type of water actively participates in the hydrological cycle.
• Plutonic Water:
• Also known as magmatic or volcanic water, it is associated with deep-seated igneous processes.
• Released during the cooling and crystallization of magma.
• Juvenile Water:
• Water that originates from the Earth’s mantle and reaches the crust for the first time.
• It is not recycled through the atmospheric or surface processes.

Correct Answer: (A) and (B) only.

Key Points

• The longest ozone column measurements series are based on the Dobson sun spectrophotometers developed in the 1920s by Prof. G. B. W. Dobson. These instruments still constitute an important part of the World Meteorological Organization's global network due to their optical qualities and ruggedness. The primary drawback of this instrument is the effort needed for its manual operation. In industrialized and some lesser developed countries, most stations have made the choice to replace the Dobson with the automated Brewer sun spectrophotometers. Dobson spectrophotometers can be used to measure both total column ozone and profiles of ozone in the atmosphere. Ozone is tri-atomic oxygen, O3; ozone molecules absorb harmful UV light in the atmosphere before it reaches the surface of the earth.

• A spectrophotometer is an instrument that measures the number of photons (the intensity of light) absorbed after it passes through sample solution. With the spectrophotometer, the amount of a known chemical substance (concentrations) can also be determined by measuring the intensity of light detected. The spectrometer uses a lens to send a straight beam of light to a prism, which splits it up into its individual wavelengths. Then, a wavelength selector filters out just the specified wavelengths and sends them toward the photometer.
• The Different spectrophotometer is a VIS spectrophotometer. UV-VIS spectrophotometer. Infrared spectrophotometer. Fluorescence spectrophotometer. Atomic absorption spectrophotometer

Additional Information

• A pyranometer is a type of actinometer used for measuring solar irradiance on a planar surface and it is designed to measure the solar radiation flux density from the hemisphere above within a wavelength range of 0.3 μm to 3 μm.

• A planimeter is a table-top instrument for measuring areas, usually the areas of irregular regions on a map or photograph. They were once common, but have now largely been replaced by digital tools. The first such instrument, employing a disk-and-wheel principle to integrate, was invented in 1814 by J.H. Hermann, a Bavarian engineer.

​

• An anemometer is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common weather station instrument. The term is derived from the Greek word anemos and is used to describe any wind speed instrument used in meteorology.
• An anemometer is an instrument that measures wind speed. This type of anemometer has a spinning wheel. The stronger the wind blows, the faster the wheel rotates. The anemometer counts the number of rotations, which is used to calculate wind speed.

​

The correct answer is Chocolate.

Key PointsChocolate

• It takes 27,000 liters of water to produce one kilo of cocoa beans.
• The cocoa bean needs the most water for the growth of all plants.
• For comparison: With the same amount of water, almost 34 kg of apples can grow.
• Approximately a third of the water consumption is used for transport and storage.

Additional Information

Beef

• It takes approximately 1,847 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of beef — that's enough water to fill 39 bathtubs to the

Rice

• Rice acts as one of the most important staple food in the world and India is one of its largest producers.
• However, its production requires a great quantity of water.
• The rise in population has led to an increase in the demand for food crops; in turn, escalating the amount of water required for irrigating them.
• Traditional farming needs 3,000 to 5,000 liters of water to produce a kilo of rice.

Banana 

• The total water requirement of banana plants is about 900-1200 mm for their entire life cycle and this can be met both through natural precipitation (rainfall) as well as supplementary irrigation.

Correct Answer: Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab.

Key Points

​$Punjab:\frac{{UrebanPopulration}}{{Total,Populration}}\times 100$

$= \frac{{10399146}}{{27743338}} \times 100$

= 37.48%

$Kerala{\rm{ }}:;\frac{{UrebanPopulration}}{{Total,Populration}} \times 100$

$= \frac{{34917440}}{{72147030}}\times 100$

= 48.39%

${\rm{Gujarat }}:;\frac{{UrebanPopulration}}{{Total,Populration}} \times 100$

$= \frac{{25745083}}{{60439692}} \times 100$

= 42.59%

Correct Answer: ​Tamil Nadu.

Key Points

• The latest data on IMR for the years 2010, 2011, and 2012 is given in the table below:

• Jammu and Kashmir:43, 41, 39.
• Uttar Pradesh:61, 57, 53.
• Tamil Nadu:24, 22, 21.
• Madhya Pradesh:62, 59, 56.

​ 

Additional Information

• As per the Sample Registration System (SRS), Registrar General of India (RGI-SRS), Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) has shown a decline from 212 per 100,000 live births in the period 2007-09 to 178 per 100,000 live births in the period 2010- 12 and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has declined from 47 per 1000 live births in the year 2010 to 42 per 1000 live births in 2012.
• The RGI-SRS provides MMR for the country and major states at 3-year intervals. The latest data on MMR for 2007-09 and 2010-12 is given in the table below:
• | SRS | 2007-09 | 2010-12 | | --- | --- | --- | | MMR | 212 | 178 |

Correct Answer: ​(A), (B), and (D) only.

Key Points

• Ocean currents act much like a conveyor belt, transporting warm water and precipitation from the equator toward the poles and cold water from the poles back to the tropics. Thus, ocean currents regulate global climate, helping to counteract the uneven distribution of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface.

• Without currents in the ocean, regional temperatures would be more extreme—super hot at the equator and frigid toward the poles—and much less of Earth’s land would be habitable.

• Ocean currents bring heat from warmer regions into the Arctic Ocean. In the Atlantic Ocean, a current called the Gulf Stream brings warm water up along the coast of North America and across the North Atlantic Ocean towards northern Europe. The Gulf Stream keeps places like Norway and the island of Svalbard much warmer than other places at similar latitudes in the Arctic.

• But the sea ice covering the Arctic Ocean acts as a lid, preventing heat from the ocean from escaping to warm the atmosphere. That means that the air above the ice can get bitterly cold—deep below freezing—while the water underneath remains much warmer—never getting colder than the freezing point.

• Currents may also be caused by density differences in water masses due to temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline) variations via a process known as thermohaline circulation. These currents move water masses through the deep ocean—taking nutrients, oxygen, and heat with them.

• More salt makes water heavier and therefore denser. These two factors, temperature, and salinity are the main driving forces behind Earth's ocean conveyor belt, which is a huge water circulation system in the deep ocean that moves water around the globe.

​

Additional Information

Causes of ocean currents:

• The general circulation is governed by the equation of motion, one of the fundamental laws of mechanics developed by English physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton that was applied to a continuous volume of water.
• This equation states that the product of mass and current acceleration equals the vector sum of all forces that act on the mass. Besides gravity, the most important forces that cause and affect ocean currents are horizontal pressure-gradient forces, Coriolis forces, and frictional forces. Temporal and inertial terms are generally of secondary importance to the general flow, though they become important for transient features such as meanders and eddies.

The correct answer is Moon.

Key PointsTide 

• The periodical rise and fall of the sea level, once or twice a day, mainly due to the attraction of the sun and the moon, is called a tide.
• The movement of water caused by meteorological effects (winds and atmospheric pressure changes) are called surges (storm surges during cyclones).
• The study of tides is very complex, spatially and temporally, as it has great variations in frequency, magnitude, and height.
• The moon’s gravitational pull to a great extent and to a lesser extent the sun’s gravitational pull, are the major causes for the occurrence of tides.
• Another factor is a centrifugal force which acts opposite to the gravitational pull of the earth.
• Tides occur due to a balance between all these forces.
• Together, the gravitational pull and the centrifugal force are responsible for creating the two major tidal bulges on the earth.
• On the side of the earth facing the moon, a tidal bulge occurs while on the opposite side the gravitational attraction of the moon is less as it is farther away, the centrifugal force causes a tidal bulge on the other side.
• The ‘tide-generating’ force is the difference between these two forces; i.e. the gravitational attraction of the moon and the centrifugal force.
• On the surface of the earth, nearest the moon, the pull or the attractive force of the moon is greater than the centrifugal force, and so there is a net force causing a bulge towards the moon.
• On the opposite side of the earth, the attractive force is less, as it is farther away from the moon, the centrifugal force is dominant. Hence, there is a net force away from the moon. It creates the second bulge away from the moon.

Additional InformationCharacteristics of Tides

• Tide changes as per the 4 stages given below.
• Flood Tide – Over a period of several hours there will be a rise in sea level.
• High Tide – This is a stage where the water reaches its maximum level.
• Ebb Tide – This is a stage where sea level keeps receding over several hours.
• Low Tide – The Level of Seawater stops receding.

Tidal bulge

• The side of the earth that is nearest to the moon witnesses one tidal bulge.
• The other side of the earth that is farthest to the moon witnesses the second tidal bulge.
• These tidal bulges are high tides.
• The water in the ocean is pulled towards the moon under the impact of the gravitational pull. That creates a tidal bulge.

Correct Answer: ​(A) is not correct but (R) is correct.

Key Points Assertion (A): Among the states of India Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest percentage of Scheduled Tribe population in the census of 2011 statement is incorrect.

• Because Madhya Pradesh has the highest Scheduled Tribe population (14.7 percent). Meghalaya has the lowest (2.5 percent), but Mizoram Has the Highest Percentage (95%) and Madhya Pradesh has 21% of the S.T population, That is why the Assertion is incorrect.
• 10.42 crore Indians are notified as ‘Scheduled Tribes’ (ST), of which 1.04 crores live in urban areas.
• STs constitute 8.6 percent of the country’s total population and 11.3 percent of the total rural population.
• The sex ratio among Scheduled Tribes is 990 females per 1,000 males, a significant increase from 978 in the 2001 Census.

Reason (R) : Madhya Pradesh is located in central part of India dominated by large area under forests with least road connectivity and accessibility, this statement is correct.

• The State of Madhya Pradesh with its forest area of 95221 sq. km of the forest is the largest forest state in the country.
• There are 9 National Parks and 25 Sanctuaries in the state spread over an area of 10862 sq. km.
• More than 30% of its area is under forest cover, which is why least road connectivity and accessibility.
• There are 925 forest villages in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which is about 19 % of the total no. of forest villages in the country.
• These 925 forest villages are spread over 28 districts of the state. Out of these 925 forest villages, 15 are uninhabited.
• The Mandla, Khargone, Khandwa, and Betul are the districts that have around 60 percent of the forest villages in their forest area.
• The district-wise details of the Forest Villages will give the distribution pattern of the forest villages in these 28 districts of the state.​

A region is an area of land that has common features. There are three types of regions: formal, functional, and vernacular.

Key Points

The Definition of a functional region:

• A functional region in geography is an area centered on a node, focal point, or central hub surrounded by interconnecting linkages.
• The primary node in a functional region features surrounding areas with common social, political, or economic purposes that relate to trade, communications, or transportation.
• A functional region, also known as a nodal region, is a region organized around a node or focal point.
• The characteristic chosen to define a functional region dominates at a central focus or node and diminishes in importance outward.
• In other words, a functional region has a certain set of activities or interactions that happen within it, organized around a central node or focal point.
• The primary node also has a sphere of economic and social influence that is less noticeable in areas more removed from it.
• A functional region, for example, can be a territory that is organized around something central, such as a city.
• For example,  New York Metropolitan Area

Middle Ganga Plain and Malwa Plateau Region are the parts of [hysiographic decisions of Indi. So, these are not an example of the functional region.

Additional Information

• A formal region is an area with a high level of consistency in a certain cultural or physical attribute. Examples of formal regions are varied. A formal region could be any country in the world, like the United States, or the linguistic region of a state.
• A perceptual or vernacular region is defined by feelings and prejudices that may or may not be true. For example, if you say, “this town is living in the past, and there are no job opportunities” it points to a perceptual region. Another person could see the same place entirely differently. They could say, “there are chances for growth and new business opportunities in this town”.

Correct Answer: ​1: 10,000

Map Scale:

• A representative fraction (RF) is the ratio of a distance on the map to a distance on the ground.
• Representative Fraction ( R. F. ) shows the relationship between the map distance and the corresponding ground distance in units of length.
• R. F. is generally shown infractions because it shows how much the real world is reduced to fit on the map.
• For example, a fraction of 1: 24,000 shows that one unit of length on the map represents 24,000 of the same units on the ground i.e. one mm, one cm, or one inch. on the map representing 24,000 mm, 24,000 cm, and 24,000 inches, respectively of the ground.

Key Points

• According to their scale, all options classified as, 1: 10,000 = Cadastral map, 1: 125,000 = Topographical map, 1 : 1,000,000 = Wall map, 1 : 3,000,000 = Atlas map.
• In Cadastral Map Shows the area on a large scale.
• A 'large' scale map is one in which a given part of the Earth is represented by a large area on the map.
• Large scale maps generally show more detail than small scale maps because at a large scale there is more space on the map in which to show features.
• Large scale maps are typically used to show site plans, local areas, neighborhoods, towns, etc. 1:2,500 is an example of a large scale.
• A large-scale map showing the boundaries of subdivisions of land, usually with the directions and lengths thereof and the areas of individual tracts, compiled for the purpose of describing and recording ownership.
• Large-scale diagrams or map shows more precise dimensions and features.
• **Cadastral maps commonly range from scales of 1:500 to 1:10,000.**​

Additional Information

• The scale of a map is the ratio of a distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. This simple concept is complicated by the curvature of the Earth's surface, which forces scale to vary across a map. The scale on a map shows the size of the area represented by the map. For example, a scale of 1:10,000 on a map means that 1 mm on the map is the same as 10,000 mm in reality. 10,000 mm is the same as 10 m. Different maps have different scales, such as 1:50,000 or 1:25,000.

Correct Answer: ​Ekman Spirals.

The Ekman spiral, named after Swedish scientist Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874-1954) who first theorized it in 1902, is a consequence of the Coriolis effect. When surface water molecules move by the force of the wind, they, in turn, drag deeper layers of water molecules below them.

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.

Additional Information

• Eyewall: Around the ‘eye’ is a wall of cumulonimbus clouds surrounding it from all sides and is known as the ‘eye wall’.
• Spiral bands: Also known as rain bands or feeder bands, these are spiral-shaped bands because of which the cyclone appears like a galaxy when from space.
• The annular zone: Next to the spiral bands is the annular zone which is characterized by suppressed cloudiness, high temperature, and low humidity.

​

​

The term 'Scheduled Tribes' first appeared in the Constitution of India. Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as "such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution". 

Key Points

Assertion (A): According to the 2011 census, the scheduled tribes account for 8.6 percent of India's population and are spread largely in forested and hilly regions.

• The Scheduled Tribes are notified in 30 States/UTs and the number of individual ethnic groups, etc. notified as Scheduled Tribes is 705.
• The tribal population of the country, as per the 2011 census, is 10.43 crore, constituting 8.6% of the total population.
• 89.97% of them live in rural areas and 10.03% in urban areas.
• The decadal population growth of tribals from census 2001 to 2011 has been 23.66 % against the 17.69% of the entire population.
• The sex ratio for the overall population is 943 females per thousand males and that scheduled tribe is 990 females per thousand males.

Hence, the assertion is correct.

Reason (R):  The essential characteristics of scheduled tribe communities are primitive traits, geographical isolation, and economic backwardness.

The essential characteristics of these communities are :

• Primitive Traits,
• Geographical isolation,
• Distinct culture,
• Shy of contact with the community at large
• Economically backward.

Hence, the reason is also correct.

*​Therefore, both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)*​

Additional Information

• Article 342, which is reproduced below, prescribes the procedure to be followed in the matter of specification of scheduled tribes.
• Article 342 provides for the specification of tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which are deemed to be for the purposes of the Constitution the Scheduled Tribes in relation to that State or Union Territory.

The fluvial cycle of erosion refers to the progressive landscape changes caused by a river or stream that progresses from a young stage to an old stage.

Key Points

• Peneplain, gently undulating, almost featureless plain that, in principle, would be produced by fluvial erosion that would, in the course of geologic time, reduce the land almost to base level (sea level), leaving so little gradient that essentially no more erosion could occur.
• The peneplain concept was named in 1889 by William M. Davis, who believed it to be the final stage of his geomorphic cycle of landform evolution.
• The lack of present-day peneplains tends to discredit it, but some attribute this lack to geologically recent diastrophism, or uplifting, of the Earth’s crust.
• Other geomorphologists question whether the Earth’s crust has ever remained stable long enough for peneplanation to occur.
• In geomorphology and geology, a peneplain is a low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion.
• This is the definition in the broadest of terms, albeit with frequency the usage of peneplain is meant to imply the representation of a near-final stage of fluvial erosion during times of extended tectonic stability.
• A peneplain is considered to have formed by the lowering of an entire region containing more than one watershed to a common base level.
• Later uplift may lead to a rejuvenation of erosional processes so that the area is cut by new valleys and interfluves to produce a dissected peneplain.​

Additional Information

• Panplain: An area of very subdued relief that consists of coalesced floodplains. It is, therefore, owing to lateral stream migration and is a component of a peneplain. Good examples are found in the Carpentaria region of Australia.
• The peneplain concept was named in 1889 by William M. Davis, who believed it to be the final stage of his geomorphic cycle of landform evolution.
• The term “panplain” was proposed by Crickmay (1933).
• Lawson used the term panfan to designate the termination of the stage of geomorphic development in an arid region in the same way the peneplain is found at the end stage of the general process of degradation in a humid region.

The rate of population increase and future assumptions of death and birth rates based on past data are considered while preparing future population projections.

Key Points

• In 1835, a French mathematician Quetelet propounded a theory about population projection.
• Basically, there are three techniques for population projection: Mathematical Method, Economic Method, and Cohort Component Method.
• The mathematical method is frequently used for the estimation of population.
• It is done for a short period i.e. less than 10 years.
• Mathematical Method It is neither an adequate nor a complete method of population projection to give information regarding age group.
• The projection is done on the axiomatic assumption that the demographic projection of the future is based on the growth rate of the past and that the prevailing situation will remain in the future too.
• It is thus not a real index of either the future or past trends of the population.

Additional Information

• **The world population is projected to reach 8.5 billion in 2030, and to increase further to 9.7 billion in 2050 and 11.2 billion by 2100. As with any type of projection, there is a degree of uncertainty surrounding these latest population projections.**​

Carl Ritter gave the concept of "Unity in Diversity".

Key Points

• German geographer Carl Ritter is commonly associated with Alexander von Humboldt as one of the founders of modern geography.
• However, most acknowledge Ritter's contributions to the modern discipline to be somewhat less significant than those of von Humboldt, especially as Ritter's life work was based on the observations of others.
• Ritter, in his class lectures, emphasized the point that geography is not a dry gazetteer of names of places, rivers, mountains, and trade routes.
• It is a subject of great importance that deals with man and nature’s interrelationship.
• He developed the concept of “unity in diversity.” Ritter was chiefly concerned with studies of human geography.
• He believed, as did Vidal de la Blache much later, that earth and its inhabitants stand in the closest reciprocal relations, and one cannot be truly presented in all its relationships without the other.
• Hence history and geography must always remain inseparable.
• Land affects the inhabitants and the inhabitants of the land. In simple words, every naturally bounded area is united in respect of climate, production, culture, population, and history.

Additional Information

• In 1817, he published the first volume of his major work, Die Erdkunde, or Earth Science (the literal German translation for the word "geography.") Intended to be complete geography of the world, Ritter published 19 volumes, consisting of over 20,000 pages, over the course of his life.
• Ritter often included theology in his writings for he described that the earth displayed evidence of God's plan.

Correct Answer: (A) - (III), (B) - (I), (C) - (II), (D) - (IV).

Key Points

• Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation and Specialized behavioral patterns in understanding and adaptation of a group. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, and art.
• Culture (from the Latin culture stemming from colere, meaning "to cultivate") generally refers to patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly in flux, and that interact and compete with one another." Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs, and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called "the way of life for an entire society." As such, it includes codes of manners, dress, language, religion, rituals, art. norms of behavior, such as law and morality, and systems of belief.
• **Culture complexes are clusters of interrelated cultural traits, related sets of cultural traits descriptive of one aspect of a society's behavior.**​
• A cultural region, cultural sphere, cultural area, or culture area refers to geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities. Such activities are often associated with an ethnolinguistic group and with the territory it inhabits.
• A cultural region is a region with people who share common cultural characteristics and An area that is distinct from surrounding areas in a specific characteristic. Such characteristics include language, political system, religion, foods, customs, and participation in trading networks. A functional region is an area with a common function, often organized around a key focal point.
• Cultural integration is when individuals from one culture adopt practices from another culture without diminishing their own. This has also been called globalization due to the examples of cultural integration that exist. To integrate is to put two or more things together to make something new. It also means the things that are put together often keep many of their individual characteristics or features. When we talk about integrating cultures we usually refer to several cultures coming together to form a new, multicultural society.

Additional InformationA number of traits when organized together make a culture complex. A watch, football match, attitudes and actions, prayer, Hajj, Eids, agriculture system, market system, a political party, a constitution, an industrial unit, and an examination system are examples of culture complex.

Correct Answer: ​Upwelling interactions.

Key Points

• Climate change involves both internal and external factors. External one includes solar variability, astronomical effects on the earth's orbit, and volcanic activity.
• Upwelling is a process in which currents bring deep, cold water to the surface of the ocean. Upwelling is a result of winds and the rotation of the Earth.
• The Earth rotates on its axis from west to east. Because of this rotation, winds tend to veer right in the northern hemisphere and left in the southern hemisphere. This is known as the Coriolis effect and is largely responsible for upwelling in coastal regions.
• The Coriolis effect also causes upwelling in the open ocean near the Equator. Trade winds at the Equator blow surface water both north and south, allowing upwelling of deeper water.

Additional Information

• Solar variability refers to the changes in the levels of solar radiation as well as in the number and size of sunspots with 11- year cyclic variation. So, it is likely to affect climate on time scales of minutes to millions of years. It is often believed that only slow variations can affect the climate.

• A volcanic eruption is when lava and gas are released from a volcano—sometimes explosively. The most dangerous type of eruption is called a 'glowing avalanche' which is when freshly erupted magma flows down the sides of a volcano. They can travel quickly and reach temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit. Other hazards include ashfall, and lahars (mud or debris flows).

• The astronomical theory of paleoclimates aims to explain the climatic variations occurring with quasi-periodicities lying between tens and hundreds of thousands of years. Such variations are recorded in deep-sea sediments, ice sheets, and continental archives. The origin of these quasi-cycles lies in the astronomically driven changes in the latitudinal and seasonal distributions of the energy that the Earth receives from the Sun. These changes are then amplified by the feedback mechanisms which characterize the natural behavior of the climate system like those involving the albedo-, the water vapor-, and the vegetation-temperature relationships. Climate models of different complexities are used to explain the chain of processes that finally link the long-term variations of three astronomical parameters to the long-term climatic variations at the time scale of tens to hundreds of thousands of years. In particular, sensitivity analysis to the astronomically driven insolation changes.

Correct Answer: ​0.5°C.

Key Points

• Global temperatures rose steadily in the 1920s, 1930s, and early 1940s. By the mid-1940s, global temperatures were about 0.5 °C (0.9° F) warmer than they had been at the turn of the century.
• More high-temperature records for the century were recorded in the 1930s than in any other decade of the 20th-century Glaciers, during this period retreated and, in general, followed the warming climate pattern. All of this occurred before CO2 emissions began to soar after 1945, so at least half of the warming of the past century cannot have been caused by manmade CO2.
• Emissions of the pollutants that form sulfate aerosols rose sharply in the United States and Europe during and after World War II. This rise may be responsible for the Northern Hemisphere's cooling from 1940–to 1970.

Additional Information

• Air temperatures on Earth have been rising since the Industrial Revolution. While natural variability plays some part, the preponderance of evidence indicates that human activities—particularly emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases—are mostly responsible for making our planet warmer.
• According to an ongoing temperature analysis led by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by at least 1.1° Celsius (1.9° Fahrenheit) since 1880. The majority of the warming has occurred since 1975, at a rate of roughly 0.15 to 0.20°C per decade.
• The maps above show temperature anomalies in five-year increments since 1880. (Click on the arrow to run the animation.) These are not absolute temperatures, but changes from the norm for each area. The data reflect how much warmer or cooler each region was compared to a base period of 1951-1980. (The global mean surface air temperature for that period was 14°C (57°F), with an uncertainty of several tenths of a degree.)