UPSC 2013 Geography PYQs with Answers

The Central Asian Steppe has an extreme continental climate, scanty rainfall and a history of nomadic pastoralism. The other regions do not fit all three clues as well.

Cotton, groundnut and rice are mainly kharif crops in India. Wheat is predominantly a rabi crop.

Kodarma is famous for mica deposits. Natural gas is mainly associated with petroleum-bearing sedimentary basins, not Gondwana beds, and Dharwar rocks are not famous for petroleum.

Laterite soils are generally red due to iron oxides and support crops like tapioca and cashew with proper management. They are poor in nitrogen/potash and are not well developed in Rajasthan and UP.

Indian coal is generally high in ash and low in sulphur. It does not characteristically have low ash fusion temperature as a defining feature in this question.

Continents heat and cool faster than oceans because land and water have different thermal properties. This causes larger annual temperature ranges inland than near coasts.

Equatorial forests have tall dense trees forming a continuous canopy, high species diversity and many epiphytes such as orchids and ferns. All three are characteristic.

Major fishing grounds occur where warm and cold ocean currents meet, causing mixing and nutrient upwelling that supports plankton and fish populations.

Contour bunding is used on sloping agricultural lands to slow runoff and reduce soil erosion. None of the listed situations accurately describes its typical use.

Earth-surface dynamics are driven by solar radiation, internal geothermal energy, gravity, plate movements, rotation and revolution. These forces together shape weathering, erosion, tides, tectonics and climate patterns.

After ice caps and glaciers, the largest share of freshwater is stored as groundwater. Lakes, rivers, soil moisture and atmospheric moisture account for much smaller proportions.

The Narmada flows west mainly because it occupies a rift valley that opens westward. Flowing between Vindhya and Satpura is descriptive, and the general land slope of peninsular India is eastward, not westward.

Seasonal variation in day and night length is caused by Earth revolving around the Sun with its axis tilted. Rotation causes day and night, but not seasonal variation in their length.

The Atlas Mountains lie in north-western Africa across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The other matched regions are geographically incorrect.