The World is Awesome (Written Geography Quiz)

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The World is Awesome Written Geography Quiz

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The World is Awesome, a written Geography Quiz conducted as a part of the BCQC February Open Quizzes 2014

Transcript of The World is Awesome (Written Geography Quiz)

Page 1: The World is Awesome (Written Geography Quiz)

The World is AwesomeWritten Geography Quiz

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Question 1There are four seas (as defined by the International Hydrological Organisation) that are named in English after colours (not including seas that are named after other objects that also happen to be names of colours). Name all four

½ points for 3; 1 point for all 4

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Answer• White Sea• Yellow Sea• Black Sea• Red Sea

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Question 2This is the longest mountain range in the Caribbean and contain some of the highest mountains in the region. The region has fertile soil, and the (relatively) high altitude allows cultivation of coffee. Coffee grown in this region is known for its mild flavour and its lack of bitterness and the name of the range in coffee labels is a globally protected certification mark regulated by the Coffee Industry Board of Jamaica. Name the range.

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AnswerBlue Mountains (home of Blue Mountain Coffee)

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Question 3This island of Papua New Guinea is geographically and ecologically a part of the Solomon Islands. An independence movement led to civil strife from the 1970s, culminating in peace talks that led to autonomy being granted in 2005. The island was named for a French explorer, after whom a genus of South American ornamental creeping shrub is also named. Name this island, the setting of the so-called Coconut Revolution.

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Answer• Bougainville

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Question 4In the Great Trigonometric Survey carried out in British India in the 19th Century, a policy was established to use local names whenever possible. When Thomas Montgomerie made the first survey of the Karakoram range from Mount Haramukh in 1865, he used a provisional notation for two of the most prominent peaks. Subsequently, one of these peaks was named Masherbrum, taking the local name. However, as the other peak was not visible from the nearest inhabited area, it had not acquired a local name, and the provisional name is used till today. Name the peak.

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Answer

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Question 5This water body is a estuary formed by the confluence of the Paraná and the Uruguay rivers. The water body is considered to be a gulf by some geographers, and a river by others. To those that consider it a river, it is the widest in the world, with a maximum width of 220 kilometers. The name of the water body refers to fabled mountains of silver that were once thought to lie upstream. Name this water body, whose English name has a sporting connection.

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Answer• Rio de la Plata / River Plate / La Plata River

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Question 6This North American peak has been referred to as Denali by the local Athabaskan people, and this is the name used by the state of Alaska. However, in 1896, a gold miner named William Dickey named the peak after an Ohio politician who had been nominated as the Republican candidate for the Presidency and who was a strong proponent of the gold standard. This name has persisted to this day, despite repeated requests by the government and representatives of Alaska, due in great part to lobbying by the Ohio congressional delegation. Name the peak.

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AnswerMt. McKinley

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Question 7This type of wind, also called a fall wind, is a drainage wind that carries high density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Examples of such winds include the bora (or bura) in the Adriatic, the Bohemian Wind or Böhmwind in the Ore Mountains, the mistral, the Santa Ana in southern California, the tramontane, and the oroshi in Japan. These types of winds are most commonly found in Greenland and Antarctica, blowing out from the large and elevated ice sheets. In a few regions of continental Antarctica the snow is scoured away by the force of these winds, leading to "dry valleys" such as the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The name of this type of winds come from the Greek words from “down” and “go”, and the compound word these two Greek words form has the opposite meaning as the title of a famous work of classical literature. What is this type of wind called?

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AnswerKatabatic Wind

From Katabasis, the opposite meaning is Anabasis

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Question 8This ocean current is the western boundary current of the Indian Ocean and flows down the eastern coast of Africa from 27° S to 40° S. The current carries warm and relatively saline water of the Indian ocean into the Atlantic Ocean and is the cause of an especially rich marine ecosystem where it meets the cold Benguela current. Name this ocean current, named after the southernmost point on the African continent.

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AnswerAgulhas Current

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Question 9Countries X and Y have similar flags in addition to having similar names. The two countries’ flags differ principally in their dimensions and the coats of arms featured on them, which are pictured here. Country X’s coat of arms refers to the Byzantine empire, from where the missionaries who converted the inhabitants to Christianity hailed. The coat of arms of country Y, on the other hand refers to its location in the Julian Alps, and particularly to Mount Triglav. X and Y are both Slavic nations that were parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, although while X is a West-Slavic nation that used to be part of the Hungarian Part, Y is a South Slavic nation that used to be part of Austria. Name the two countries that both achieved independence in the 1990s.

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AnswerX – Slovakia; Y - Slovenia

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Question 10The Arabic words for East and West are also the names of transnational regions in the Arab world. The Arab word for East, Mashriq, refers to the Arab nations of the Eastern Mediterranean like Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, while the Arab word for West refers to the Berber-dominated regions around the Atlas mountains. What is the Arab word for West, which is now used to refer to the region once known as the Barbary coast?

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AnswerMaghreb

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Question 11• This is one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. The province

lies on the the west of the island, and consists of counties Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. Prince Arthur, the third son of Queen Victoria, was created a Duke of this place. In 1921, Prince Arthur visited India, and a location in India is named after him and by extension the Irish province. Name the province.

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AnswerConnaught / Connacht

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Question 12This lake is 134 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide at its widest point, and its name means “long, narrow, enchanted lake” in the local language. The lake lies partly in India, partly in Aksai Chin and partly in Tibet. Name this lake, the location of the climactic scene in the movie 3 Idiots

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AnswerPangong Tso

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Question 13There are two existing time zones in the world that have a 45 minute offset from UTC. One is the Chatham Islands time zone in New Zealand at UTC + 12:45. Which is the other?

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AnswerNepal Time (UTC + 5:45)

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Question 14This city is the largest urban area in the US state of Missouri, and is not located in the state whose name it shares. The city was named after a river that meets the river Missouri and an eponymous river. The city is known for its contributions to jazz and the blues, and a famous stly of barbecue that is named after the city.A jazz tune named after the city that refers to a type of confidence trick was famoulsy referenced in the movie Lucky Number Slevin. Name the city.

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AnswerKansas City

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Question 15Connect

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Answer• New Mexico• New Jersey• New Hampshire• New York

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Question 16This country is the only ex-Soviet Central Asian republic to have as its main language a Persian-based language rather than a Turkic language. The country is home to approximately only 30% of the eponymous ethnic group, while approximately 40% live in Afghanistan where they form the second-largest ethnic group. Name the country or the ethnic group.

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AnswerTajikistan / Tajik

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Question 17X is a region in the Balkan peninsula stretching across an eponymous country, and covering parts of two other countries. One of these other countries has objected to the country named X using the name X, and also demanded that the country change its flag from the one pictured here, which it did. Name this country / region, whose name is derived from the name of an ancient kingdom and empire.

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AnswerMacedonia

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Question 18This inland delta in Botswana has no outlet and all the water flowing in is ultimately either consumed by plants or evaporated. The delta is home to both permanent and seasonal wildlife and is home to the Moremi Game Reserve on its eastern side. Name this inland delta, considered one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa, and location of the 1974 documentary Beautiful People.

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AnswerOkavango Delta

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Question 19The name of this historical region is a variant of the Marathi word “Varhad”, and the name originally referred to the entire Vidarbha region. The region was a Mughal subah from the reign of Akbar onwards, and was later claimed by the Nizam. The Nizams fought over the area with the Marathas until the latter’s defeat by the British. However, following the Anglo-Maratha Wars, the region was leased to the British. In spite of this lease, the crown prince of the Nizam dynasty continued to bear the courtesy title “Prince of _____” until Indian independence. Name this region, merged with the Central Provinces by Lord Curzon, which now forms the Amravati division of Maharashtra state.

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Answer

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Question 20These two cities are the only two capital cities in the world that are situated on opposite banks of the same river, within sight of each other. The countries that the two cities are capitals of often have the names of their respective capital appended to distinguish them from one another (although this did not generally happen between 1971 and 1997). Name the two countries.

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AnswerRepublic of Congo / Democratic Republic of Congo

The cities are Brazzaville and Kinshasa

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Question 21Neal Stephenson’s novel Reamde includes a scene where the title character boots up his MMORPG T’Rain, which is primarily based on geographical modelling software. “The opening screen of T'Rain was a frank rip-off of what you saw when you booted up ________. Richard felt no guilt about this, since he had heard that ________, in turn, was based on an idea from some old science-fiction novel”. This is a reference to Stephenson’s own 1992 novel Snow Crash, which is believed by many to be the inspiration behind a program that has relevance to the topic of this quiz. Name it.

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AnswerGoogle Earth

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Question 22This phenomenon is a continuous shower of organic detritus from the upper (photic) layer of the water columns to lower layers of seas and oceans. It is a significant source of energy for life in the benthic and demersal layers of the ocean. It also serves as a major source of carbon sequestration on the seabed. Name this oceanic phenomenon.

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AnswerMarine Snow

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Question 23This island is situated in the Pacific Ocean, and its name reflects the fact that it is roughly equidistant between North America and Asia. Name this atoll, which was the site of a decisive naval battle between Japan and the US in 1942.

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AnswerMidway

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Question 24The practise of cartographers in the ancient and medieval worlds of drawing fantastical creatures on maps led to an urban legend that early maps used a particular phrase to denote unmapped and undocumented regions. However, the Lenox Globe, a 16th century map, is one of only two known historical maps to actually use this phrase. What is this phrase, that may have been inspired by the use of the Latin phrase “Hic sunt leones”?

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AnswerHere Be Dragons

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Question 25X is an unstable compound that is created due to a photochemical reaction involving a more stable compound and ultraviolent light. Constant interactional with ultraviolet light further converts the X molecules back into the stable molecule, forming a continuous cycle. Although a particular region (defined loosely) is named after this type of molecule, this region contains less than 10 parts per million of this molecule. Name the compound / molecule.

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AnswerOzone

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Question 26This desert is one of the driest places in the world, and receives on average 15mm of rainfall a year. Its high altitude, dry air, lack of cloud cover and the absence of light pollution make it a favored site for observatories and radio telescopes. It has been described as the region of Earth the most like the planet Mars, and is even used by NASA to test instruments for Mars missions. Name this desert, whose nitrate and copper resources have made it a source of wealth for its region.

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AnswerAtacama Desert

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Question 27This word refers to an area lying between two rivers and has the equivalent meaning to the Greek word Mesopotamia. The Punjab region has five such areas, whose names are said to have been coined by Raja Todarmal. The word used without any qualifiers indicates the region between the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh. This region has an area of 60,500 square km. This area features prominently in the history and myths of the Vedic era and is the place of origin of the Khariboli language, which forms the basis of Hindi and Urdu. Name this word / region.

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AnswerDoab

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Question 28The Indo-Aryan languages are divided into several zones, including Northern (Pahari languages), North-Western (Punjabi, Sindhi, etc), Western (Rajasthani, Gujarati, etc), Madhya (Hindi), Magadhan (Bengali, Oriya, etc), Southern (Marathi, Konkani) and Insular. The Insular Zone contains two languages that are spoken on islands. Name the two languages or the countries where they are spoken.

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AnswerSinhala (Sri Lanka) and Dvivehi (Maldives)

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Question 29Current scientific understanding of the Earth’s magnetic field posits that this field is generated by the convection of molten iron in the Earth’s outer core, driven by heat from the inner core. What is the name given to this mechanism?

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AnswerGeodynamo / Dynamo

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Question 30Indonesia has land borders with three countries. Name them.

½ Points for 2 names, 1 point for all 3

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AnswerMalaysia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor