Monday, April 1, 2013

Miscellaneous Facts: WORLD II


1. Congo River is also known as River Zaire.

2. Altai Mountains extend from the headwaters of the Ob’ and Irtysh rivers in southern Siberia in Russia, into Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China and into Mongolia. The mountain range extending from northern California to British Columbia is called Cascades. Mt. Rainier near Seattle is its highest point. The loftiest mountain range in USA is Sierra Nevada. The Cambrian mountains are located in Wales.

3. Giants Causeway is located on the coast of northern Ireland. It is thought by geologists to have formed when an ancient lava flow cooled and solidified.

4. The major peninsulas of Russia starting from west to east are Kola peninsula, Kanin peninsula, Yamal
peninsula, Gyda peninsula & Taymyr peninsula.

5. Buryat Republic lies north of central Monglia. It is the homeland of buryats.

6. The deserts of Western Australia from North to South are Tanami Desert, Great Sandy desert, Gibson desert & Great Victoria desert. Simpson desert lies in the central region north of L. Eyre.

7. San Diego city lies in the extreme southwest corner of California just above Mexico. Las Vegas lies in Nevada state & near Mojave Desert. Wellington, Capital of New Zealand comes under West European type of climate. In New Zealand the southern island is more developed compared to the northern. In china type of climate precipitation is around 100 cm & well distributed throughout the year. Marine west European climate experiences rainier winters than summers.

8. The climate of steppes can be summarized by hot summers and cold winters, averaging 30 cm of rain every year. The world's largest zone of steppes is found in central Russia and neighbouring republics of Central Asia

9. Langley is a unit equal to one gram calorie per square centimeter of irradiated surface, used to measuresolar radiation

10. Baotou is in inner Mongolia, China & is known for iron & steel complex. Caracas, Capital of Venezuela comes under monsoon type of climate. Sao Paulo has China type of Climate. Adelaide has Mediterranean type of climate.

11. Khyber pass in Pakistan is located in the Hindu Kush range. It links Peshawar in Pakistan with Jalalabad in Afghanistan, where it connects to a route leading to the Afghan capital of Kabul. The route of the Bolan Pass links Quetta in Baluchistan Province with Kandahar in Afghanistan. Peshawar, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Sialkot, Gujranwala & Lahore are from north to south in N. Pakistan.


12. Peurto Rico Trench is the deepest in Atlantic.

13. Liechtenstein, independent principality in central Europe; bounded on the east by Austria, and on the
south, west, and north by Switzerland. Malta is an independent republic, south of Sicily. San Marino,
republic in southern Europe, an enclave in northern Italy

14. Irtish River is the 9th longest in the world & has its source in Altai Mountains Russia.

15. Montego Bay is in Jamaica where the Sea Law Treaty was signed.

16. Rio de la Plata is the estuary formed from the combination of Uruguay River & the Parana River.

17. Andesite line marks the boundary between continental shelf & continental slope. Indian Ocean was
known to the Greeks as Erythraean sea.

18. Zambia is an important producer of Copper & Zimbabwe is known for gold. Qeshm is the only island of Iran & lies in the strait of Hormuz. It is the biggest island in the Persian Gulf.

19. A person born in Puerto Rico is a US citizen. Atlantic Ocean is the roughest of all oceans. Its coastline is larger than those of Pacific & Indian Ocean put together. It receives more fresh water than any other ocean.

20. Prague is situated on the bank of river Vltava. Madrid (Manzarenes), Dublin (Liffey) & Rotterdam (Rhine, Maas & Scheldt).

21. Tuaregs are the tribal people of the Sahara. They speak a Berber language called Tamarshak.

22. California (Sunkist), Spain (Seviue), Tangier (Tangerine), China & Japan (Mandarin) are the various varieties of oranges.

23. Pustaz are temperate grasslands of Hungary. The cattle kept by the Masai are the ‘zebu’ cattle.

24. Big Inch (Gulf of Mexico to NE US), Tap Line (Gulf & Arabian Peninsula to Mediterranean) &
COMECOM (Urals & Volga to East Europe) are some of the important pipelines.

25. Birmingham is the second largest city in Britain. Aztecs & Mayas were flourished both in Mexico &
surrounding regions. Incas were in Peru & the Andes. Polygon of Drought in Brazil is the NE region.

26. Oil is found in Venezuela (Lake Marcaibo), Iraq (kirkuk, Mosul, Basra), S. Arabia (Ghawar, Dharan, Abaqaiq), Chechnya (Grozny), Russia (Sakhalin), Nigeria (Port Harcourt). Yadavaran is the largest is Iran’s largest on shore oilfield.

27. Mt. Logan is the highest peak of Canada. Mt. Toubkal is the highest peak of Atlas mountains.

28. Antwerp is the chief port and second largest city of Belgium. Kaohsiung (Southern Taiwan) is among the top five busiest sea ports of the world.

29. Mexico is the leading producer of silver, sulphur & fluorite. Denver is the capital of Colorado. Hudson Bay is the world’s largest inland sea.

30. Brazil shares its boundary with all except Chile & Ecuador. The highest active volcano in the world Mt. Ojas del Salado (Argentina Chile is in the Andes).


31. Trans Andean Railways connect Buenos Aires & Valpariso. European transcontinental railway runs from Paris to Warsaw. Orient express runs from Paris to Istanbul. The Canadian Pacific railway runs from Saint John in New Brunswick to Vancouver on the pacific coast. Canadian National Railway runs from Vancouver to Halifax

32. Blue Nile originates from Lake Tana in Ethiopian Island & White Nile From Lake Victoria. White Nile & Blue Nile meet at Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.

33. Port Said (Mediterranean) is towards North & Port Suez towards south (Red Sea).

34. The northwest countries of Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia are together called the ‘Maghreb’ which in Arabic means west. Oil Palm is an important agricultural product of Nigeria.

35. Botswana is the worlds largest producer of gem quality diamonds (jewellery diamonds).

36. Liberia is the largest producer of coffee & rubber in Africa.

37. Scandinavia applies to Norway, Sweden, Denmark & sometimes Iceland. Baltic states include Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania. Mont Blanc is situated on the French-Italian border.

38. Bavaria is the largest state of Germany & Munich is its capital. Kalinangrad is a part of Russia but
separated from it by Lithuania.

39. The Baltic is connected with the North Sea by the Nord-Ostsee-Kanal (the Kiel or Kaiser Wilhelm Canal). Murmansk is the only ice free port along the Arctic Ocean route to Vladivostok.

40. Two important varieties of Eucalyptus in Australia are Jarrah & Karri.

41. New Zealand generates 7 % of its energy from geysers. The highest peak of the country is Mt. Cook.

42. Amu Darya forms a part of the border between Afghanistan & Turkmenistan. The enormous desert that covers Turkmenistan is Karakum.

43. The Euphrates originates in Turkey & flows past Syria & Iraq before meeting the Tigris. The joint waters of Tigris & Euphrates are called Shat-al-Arab. The Tigris also originates from Turkey.

44. Hokkaido is connected to Honshu across Tsugaru strait by an under sea tunnel. Kurile Islands lie to the NE of Hokkaido & separate the sea of Okhotsk from the Pacific.

45. The top 5 countries in terms of Hydro power potential are China, Brazil, CIS, Canada & India. While the top 5 in installed capacity are USA, Canada, China, Brazil & Norway.

46. Chimborazo is the highest extinct volcano & lies in Ecuador.

47. Botswana has the highest prevalence rate of AIDs while South Africa has highest absolute number of AIDS patients followed by India.

48. The great channel separates the Andaman & Nicobar Island from Sumatra.

49. Hammerfest, town in Northern Norway is the northernmost town of Europe. Stromboli is known as “the light house of the Mediterranean”. Le Havre is a city in Normandy, northern France, on the English Channel, at the mouth of the Seine.

50. Granite rock is metamorphosed into schist rock.

51. Grand Coulee dam (USA) is on Columbia river & Cobora Basa Dam (Mozambique) is on Oragnbe river. Hoover Dam (USA) is on Colorado river.

52. Mixed farming refers to sowing two or more crops in mixture in the same field. Multiple cropping means the planting of two or more different crops on the same acreage for harvest within the same crop year.

53. Liverpool, city in northwestern England, on the Mersey River, near its mouth on the Irish Sea.

54. The following features are arranged in increasing geological age East African rift, Gulf of Aden, Atlantic Sea & Mediterranean sea.

55. The Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland in Brazil. Pripet marshes are large wetlands along Pripet river in Belarus. The Great Okefenokee Swamp is the largest swamp found in all of North America.

56. The Bie Plateau occupies most of central Angola & the Okavango river rises here. Huila plateau lies to its south.

57. The top 5 wind power generating countries are Germany, Spain, USA, India & Denmark.

58. A geyser erupts intermittently. Hot springs are more common than geysers & the former are not explosive in general.

59. Tibet is enclosed between Kunlun to the North & Himalayas to the south. Takla Makan desert, Tarim basin & Turfan basin all lie between Tien Shan range to the north & Kunlun to the south.

60. Strato Cones (Cotopaxi), Dormant Volcano (Vesuvius), Shield Volcano (Mt. Kilavea, Mt. Etna),
Composite cone. Examples of composite volcanoes include Mount Fuji (Japan), Mount St Helens (USA) and Mount Pinatubo (Philippines).

61. Cayman Trench, also called Bartlett Deep is a spreading ridge on the floor of the western Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

62. The Russian cities from NW to SE are St. Petersburg, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky near Kazan), Magnitogorsk. Later from west to east Omsk, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Irkutsk, & Vladivostok.

63. Rostov (Gateway to Caucasus), St. Petersburg (largest port of Russia), Ivanovo (Machester of Russia) & Nizhny Novgorod (Detroit of Russia).

64. Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood, Mt. Shasta are from North to South in NW USA. Polland is the world most
polluted country.

65. The Cocos plate lies to the west of Panama in the Pacific north of Nazca plate. Caribbean plate lies east of Panama in the Carribean region. Scotia plate lies to the south of South America.


66. Dead Sea, Lake Tanganyika, Lake Nyasa are all rift valley lakes but Lake Victoria is not. Mangala dam is in Pakistan over river Jhelum. Tarelad Dam, the earth’s larges earthern dam is in Pakistan. Columbia plateau is volcanic in origin. Ozark plateau is domed. Tibetan plateau is intermontane. The Finger Lakes are glacially formed lakes in upstate New York. Cayuga is the longest of the finger lakes.

67. Azores, Bermuda, Canary Island & Cape Verde Island is the sequence from North to South.

68. White Sea, Kara Sea, Laptev Sea, East Siberian sea lie in that order from west to east.

69. In Bangladesh when Tista joins Brahmaputra it is known as Jamuna. When later Ganga joins the
combined river is called Padma first & Meghna further downstream.

70. The mountain peaks in the Himalayas of Nepal going from west to east is Mt Api (W. Nepal), Mt
Dhaulagiri, Mt Annapurna, Mt Manaslu (Central Nepal) & Mt Gaurishankar, Mt Everest, Mt Makalu &
Mt Kanchenjunga (E. Nepal). Mt Pidurutalagala, the highest point in Sri Lanka.

71. Albania, Macedonia & Bulgaria lie to the North of Greece. Biskra depression is in Algeria.

72. Fremantle Doctor is a cooling afternoon sea breeze which occurs during summer months in coastal areas of Western Australia. The Guba wind occurs along the Papua coast (South of Papua New Guinea).

73. Forests cover 64 percent of Japan’s land area & it is one of the world’s largest importers of wood. The most densely populated province of Canada is Prince Edward Island. Klamath mountains are in California.

74. The lakes in Canada from North to south are Great Bear, Great Slave, Athabasca, Wollaston, Reindeer & Winnipeg. The cities of Canada along the St. Lawrence from North to South are Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton & Windsor. Sudbury lies to the north of Lake Huron.

75. Halifax (Nova Scotia), St. John (New Foundland) & Saint John (New Brunswick) are in Canada. The centre for steel industry in Canada is Hamilton. The city of Toronto is the largest in Canada followed by Montreal & Vancouver.

76. Basque people live along the Pyrenees in Spain. The Gap between the Pyrenees & the Central Massif is called the Belfort gap. The physical feature of France from North to south are Ardennes, Vosges, Jura & the Alps. Bohemian Forest is a highland region, rising mainly along the border between the Czech Republic and Germany, and also in Austria.

77. The southernmost of Japanese islands is Ryuku which lies to the south of Kyushu & North of Taiwan. Nagoya is the Detroit of Japan. Kitakyushu (Northern tip of Kyushu) is a conurbation of five cities. The most populous province of China is Sichuan.

78. Fushun, Shenyang (Formerly Mukden – Main industrial cluster of Manchuria) & Anshan are in that order from North to South all in Liaoning province. Lop Nor is famous for nuclear activity. Qaidam basin is to the north of Tibet plateau & to the south of Kunlun Mountains.

79. The Sea of Galilee is Israel's largest freshwater lake & lowest freshwater lake on Earth and the second lowest lake in the world after the Dead Sea. It is to the north of Dead Sea.

80. Ahaggar Mountains, also Hoggar Mountains, plateau region, southern Algeria, in the center of the Sahara. The major basin of Africa is El Djouf, now occupied by the Niger River Basin in West Africa. Karoo is a semidesert plateau regions in southern South Africa. Adamawa Plateau region, west central Africa, is in central Cameroon, extending into southeastern Nigeria and western Central African Republic. Futa Jallon, highland region in west central Guinea. Tibesti mountainous region of the central Sahara, in northern Chad, extending into northeastern Niger and southern Libya.