Geography (Part-3) (CDS-Solved Paper)

Atmosphere consists of four major layers namely, troposphere (innermost layer), stratosphere, mesosphere and exosphere (outermost layer). In general, temperature decreases with altitude. But in stratosphere, temperature increases with height.

This happens due to presence of ozone layer in stratosphere. Above stratosphere mesosphere is present. Here, again the temperature declines with altitude. And, resultant minimum temperature of the atmosphere is recorded in upper Mesosphere (The transition zone between mesosphere and exosphere).

Tropopause is the transition zone between troposphere and stratosphere. This zone is narrow and experiences constant temperature. Hence is an isothermal zone. Hence, all the statements are correct.

An oil refinery and petrochemical complex is located in Bongaigaon in Assam. It is the eighth largest refinery of Indian oil.

Koraput is located in Odisha, houses the engine division of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).

Pinjore is located in Panchkula in Haryana, is a residential township and is well-known for the Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT) factory.

Sirpur town in Mahasumund district, (Chhattisgarh) is well-known for paper manufacturing mills.

The Soo Canal or Sault lake is a set of parallel lakes, which enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The Canal is located on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

The Strait of Hormuz It is situated between the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Persia. It provides the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean.

The Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb It is located between Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula Djibouti and Eritrea. It is located in Red Sea. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

The Strait of Malacca It is located between the Peninsular Malaysia and the Indonesian island of Sumatra in Andaman Sea. The Strait of Sunda It is located between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.

It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean and situated in Java Sea. Hence, options (d) is correct.

The courses of the warm Agulhas current blow along the East coast of South Africa. It is the Western boundary current of the South-West Indian Ocean.

The Humboldt current is also called the Peru current. It is a cold current and has low salinity. It flows North along the West coast of South America from the Southern tip of Chile to Northern Peru. It flows mostly in Peru.

The Labrador current is a cold current in the North Atlantic Ocean, which follows from the Arctic Ocean to South along the coast of Labrador and passes around New foundland. The waters of the Labrador current has cooling effect in the Canada and USA.

The Falkland current is a cold water current that flows northward along the Atlantic coast of Patagonia (Argentina) as far North as the mouth or the Rio de la Plata.

Dogger Bank is located on the coast of the United Kingdom (England). The bank is an important fishing area, with cod and herring being caught in large numbers.

Dogger Bank has been identified as an oceanic environment that exhibits high primary productivity throughout the year in the form of phytoplankton.

Satpura Thermal Power Plant is located at Sarni town in Betul district of Madhya Pradesh. The power plant is one of the coal-based power plants of Madhya Pradesh Power Generation Company Limited (MPPGCL).

Dhuvaran Thermal Power Station is an Oil and Gas power plant located at Khambhat in Anand district of Gujarat. The power plant is under ownership of State owned Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited.

Tanakpur Hydro Power Plant (India) is located at Banbassa in Champawat district of Uttarakhand. It is operated by National Hydro Power Corporation.

Dabhol Power Station is located at Anjanwel village in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra.

The power station was built by the Dabhol Power Company, which was a joint venture of Enron, General Electric, Bechtel and Maharashtra Power Development Corporation.

In the alluvial soils, the proportion of nitrogen is generally low, but potash, phosphoric acid and alkalis are adequate, while iron oxide and lime vary within a wide range. In black soils, potash is variable (less than 0.5%) and phosphates, nitrogen and humus are also low.

But a typical black soil contains 10% of alumina, 9-10% of iron oxide and 6-8% of lime and magnesium carbonates. Almost all laterite soils are very poor in lime and magnesia and deficient in nitrogen.

Sometimes, tile phosphate content may be high, probably present in the form of iron phosphate but potash is deficient. Hence, statement 2 and 3 are correct.

Padmaja Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park situated at an average elevation of 2134m is the highest altitude zoo in India.

This is the only specialised zoo in India and is internationally recognised for its conservation breeding programmes of red panda, snow leopards, Tibetan wolf and other endangered animals species of Eastern Himalaya.