Geography

Why in news: Punjab has been reeling under floods for well over a month now and the proposed solution to this is zoning of flood plains. Significance of flood plains: A river expands and contracts naturally over seasons and in different years. A flood plain is an area adjacent to the river which normally gets flooded when the …

Salient features of world’s physical geography. Extreme heat has plagued the Mediterranean for weeks. What are marine heat waves? A marine heat wave (MHW) is an extreme weather event. It occurs when the surface temperature of a particular region of the sea rises to 3 or 4 degree Celsius above the average temperature for at least five …

Syllabus: World Geography Context Dipping water levels About the Lake In the Andes on the border between Bolivia and Peru. Highest of the world’s large lakes, world’s highest navigable sea and largest in South America after Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo Issues Within 25 cm of their all-time low record in 1996 …

reasing the impact of weather events Syllabus: World geography Western disturbance Are tropical storms that originate in the Mediterranean region and normally bring winter rainfall to north India. However, right from the beginning of this year, the WD have been erratic – too few of them in December and January …

Amidst Rising Global Temperatures, thawing permafrost is likely to destabilize thousands of industrial sites and linked contaminated areas in the Arctic. The arctic is dotted with industrial facilities such as oilfields and pipelines, mines and military bases. The consequences of global warming and thawing permafrost were not taken into account for long and permafrost was considered as a …

The global warming trends over the Indian region are very different. An assessment of climate change over the Indian subcontinent, published by the Ministry of Earth Sciences in 2020, said annual mean temperatures had risen by 0.7 degree Celsius from 1900. This is significantly lower than the 1.59 degree Celsius rise for land temperatures across the world. Why is warming over India lower? The increase in …

Odisha is preparing for the first cyclone of 2023, Cyclone Mocha. It is expected to form over the Bay of Bengal. Odisha is particularly vulnerable to cyclones. The 1999 super cyclone that hit Odisha was one of the deadliest natural disasters in Indian history. The cyclone made landfall with wind speeds of up to 260 kmph, causing massive destruction and claiming …

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard seized a Panamanian-flagged oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Key details: The Strait of Hormuz is a strait between the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. It provides the only sea passage from the Arabian Gulf to the open ocean. It is one of the world’s most strategically important choke points. …

Northwest India has seen multiple spells of rainfall due to western disturbances. Out of the 10 States and Union Territories of northwest India, six have recorded a large excess in rainfall so far this month, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Chandigarh. A western disturbance is an extratropical cyclone that originates in the Mediterranean region and provides heavy winter rain to the Indian subcontinent’s northern regions. A Western Disturbance is defined …

Lebanon was thrown into mass confusion after its government at the last minute delayed the start of daylight saving time by a month. Meanwhile, Greenland has chosen to stay with daylight saving time forever. What is daylight saving time? Daylight saving time (DST) is the practice of setting the clocks forward …