The World is Awesome (Written Geography Quiz)

The World is Awesome
Written Geography Quiz

Question 1
There 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

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

Question 2
This 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.

Answer
Blue Mountains (home of Blue Mountain Coffee)

Question 3
This 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.

Question 4
In 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.

Question 5
This 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.

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

Question 6
This 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.

Question 7
This 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?

Answer
Katabatic Wind
From Katabasis, the opposite meaning is Anabasis

Question 8
This 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.

Question 9
Countries 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.

Answer
X – Slovakia; Y - Slovenia

Question 10
The 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?

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.

Question 12
This 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

Question 13
There 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?

Answer
Nepal Time (UTC + 5:45)

Question 14
This 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.

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

Question 16
This 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.

Question 17
X 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.

Question 18
This 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.

Question 19
The 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.

Question 20
These 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.

Answer
Republic of Congo / Democratic Republic of Congo
The cities are Brazzaville and Kinshasa

Question 21
Neal 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.

Question 22
This 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.

Question 23
This 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.

Question 24
The 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”?

Question 25
X 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.

Question 26
This 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.

Question 27
This 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.

Question 28
The 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.

Answer
Sinhala (Sri Lanka) and Dvivehi (Maldives)

Question 29
Current 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?

Question 30
Indonesia has land borders with three countries. Name them.
½ Points for 2 names, 1 point for all 3

Answer
Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and East Timor

The World is Awesome (Written Geography Quiz)

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