27th September 2020. Static Quiz on Indian Geography

Solution: B
Justification: Soil organic matter is made up of organic compounds and includes plant, animal and microbial material, both living and dead. A small part of the organic matter consists of the living cells such as bacteria, molds, and actinomycetes that work to break down the dead organic matter. Were it not for the action of these micro-organisms, the entire carbon dioxide part of the atmosphere would be sequestered as organic matter in the soil.

Solution: C
Justification: Its track may shift pole ward and eastward either as it moves west of the subtropical ridge axis or else if it interacts with the mid-latitude flow, such as the jet stream or an extra tropical cyclone. This motion, termed “recurvature”, commonly occurs near the western edge of the major ocean basins, where the jet stream typically has a pole ward component and extra tropical cyclones are common. An example of tropical cyclone recurvature was Typhoon Ioke in 2006.

Solution: C
Justification: Statement 2: Tropical cyclones can relieve drought conditions as they often carry moisture laden winds. In addition to strong winds and rain, tropical cyclones are capable of generating high waves, damaging storm surge, and tornadoes. They typically weaken rapidly over and where they are cut off from their primary energy source. For this reason, coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to damage from a tropical cyclone as compared to inland regions. Heavy rains. However, can cause significant flooding inland, and storm surges can produce extensive coastal flooding up to 25 miles from the coastline.
Statement 1: They also carry heat energy away from the tropics and transport it toward temperate latitudes, because they are large wind systems that absorb the frontal conditions of the area they flow in. Finally, due to the high speed they blow in, they also act as the earth’s filter system by cleansing the air of toxins and pollutants out of the atmosphere.

Solution: C
Justification: Statement 2: They lie between 30° N and 30° S latitudes, in the atmosphere around which high velocity winds blow. They are not found close to the equator where the Coriolis force is absent. Horizontally, it extends up to 500-1,000 km and vertically from surface to 12-14 km. Statement 3: A tropical cyclone or hurricane is like a heat engine that is energised by the release of latent heat on account of the condensation of moisture that the wind gathers after moving over the oceans and seas. Tropical cyclones are characterised by large pressure gradients. The centre of the cyclone is mostly a warm and low-pressure, cloudless core known as eye of the storm. Generally, the isobars are closely placed to each other showing high-pressure gradients. Normally, it varies between 14-17mb/100 km, but sometimes it can be as high as 60mb/100km. Expansion of the wind belt is about 10-150 km from the centre.

Solution: B
Justification: There are differences of opinion among scientists about the exact mechanism of a tropical cyclone. However, some initial conditions for the emergence of a tropical cyclone are:
 Large and continuous supply of warm and moist air that can release enormous latent heat.
 Strong Coriolis force that can prevent filling of low pressure at the centre (absence of Coriolis force near the equator prohibits the formation of tropical cyclone between 0°-5° latitude).
 Unstable condition through the troposphere that creates local disturbances around which a cyclone develops.
 Finally, absence of strong vertical wind wedge, which disturbs the vertical transport of latent heat.

Solution: D
Justification: Statement 1: A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E. This region is referred to as the North-western Pacific Basin. It is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for almost one-third of the world’s annual tropical cyclones.
 A typhoon differs from a cyclone or hurricane only on the basis of location.
 A hurricane is a storm that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and north-eastern Pacific Ocean,
 A typhoon occurs in the north western Pacific Ocean,
 A cyclone occurs in the south Pacific or Indian Ocean.

Solution: B
Justification: Option A Land surfaces break cyclone as supply of moisture is cut-off.
Option B Before cloud formation, water takes up heat from the atmosphere to change into vapour. When water vapour changes back to liquid form as raindrops, this heat is released to the atmosphere. The heat released to the atmosphere warms the air around. The air tends to rise and causes a drop in pressure. More air rushes to the centre of the storm. This cycle is repeated. The chain of events ends with the formation of a very low- pressure system with very high-speed winds revolving around it. It is this weather condition that we call a cyclone. Factors like wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity contribute to the development of cyclones.
Option C Absence of clouds reduces the strength of a cyclone. The process of formation of clouds involves evaporation of water, and then rainfall. As explained below, rainfall will involve condensation which will enhance the strength of a cyclone. Option D Lowering temperature of sea water will reduce formation of water vapour and increase the pressure of the eye of cyclone. This will reduce the strength instead of increasing it

Solution: A
Justification: Coriolis force is absent at the equator. Due to this, winds blowing from high pressure sub-tropics to low pressure tropics do not form a circulatory pattern around a low-pressure zone. Instead, they simply fill the low-pressure zone. This is the reason cyclones start forming only after some distance away from the equator

Solution: D
Justification: Mid-latitude or frontal cyclones are large travelling atmospheric cyclonic storms up to 2000 km. in diameter with centres of low atmospheric pressure. Mid-latitude cyclones are the result of the dynamic interaction of warm tropical and cold polar air masses at the polar front. This interaction causes the warm air to be cyclonically lifted vertically into the atmosphere where it combines with colder upper atmosphere air. This process also helps to transport excess energy from the lower latitudes to the higher latitudes.
Option A: In tropical regions, tropical cyclones are more common. So, (a) is less appropriate than (d).

Solution: B
Justification: Extra tropical storms are a global, rather than a localized, phenomena with moisture usually carried in the upper atmosphere (unlike tropical storms where it is carried in the lower atmosphere). In the case of the subcontinent, moisture is sometimes shed as rain when the storm system encounters the Himalayas. Jet streams are an important component of upper air circulation which is dominated by westerly flow. These jet streams blow south of Himalayas, all through the year except in summer affecting India’s climate and weather. The western cyclonic disturbances experienced in the north and north-western parts of the country are brought in by this westerly flow which affects rainfall in Northern and north-western India