Current Affairs MCQs – Page 30 (Q291-300)

The Sahara oases form a scattered chain of fertile spots across North Africa's vast desert, created where underground water sources or aquifers reach the surface, allowing date palms and small settlements to thrive amid the surrounding arid sand and rock. Historic oasis towns such as Siwa in Egypt and Ghadames in Libya became vital stops along ancient trans-Saharan trade routes connecting sub-Saharan Africa with the Mediterranean world. The Nile Delta is a tempting distractor as another major fertile region in North Africa, but it is formed by river sediment rather than desert oases. The Sahara itself is the world's largest hot desert, roughly the size of the United States.

The Gobi Desert spans a vast region across southern Mongolia and northern China, making it one of the largest deserts in Asia and famous for its extreme temperature swings between freezing winters and scorching summers. It has yielded major paleontological discoveries, including dinosaur fossils and eggs first found by American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1920s. China and Russia is a tempting distractor because both countries border Mongolia, but Russia does not share the Gobi's territory. The Gobi historically formed part of the Silk Road trade network linking China with Central Asia and beyond.

The Andes contain the highest mountain peaks located outside of Asia, including Aconcagua in Argentina, which at 6,961 metres is the tallest mountain in both the Western and Southern Hemispheres. The range runs along the western edge of South America and was formed by the ongoing subduction of the Nazca Plate beneath the South American Plate. The Sierra Madre and Drakensberg are tempting distractors as other notable mountain systems, but both are considerably lower than the Andean peaks. The Andes also host some of the world's highest active volcanoes, including Ojos del Salado on the Chile-Argentina border.

The Atlas Mountains stretch across Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, forming a natural barrier between the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines to the north and the Sahara Desert to the south. The range's highest peak, Toubkal in Morocco, rises to 4,167 metres and is a popular destination for trekkers and mountaineers. The Drakensberg and Ahaggar Mountains are tempting distractors as other notable African ranges, but the Drakensberg lies in southern Africa and the Ahaggar in the central Sahara. The Atlas Mountains take their name from the Titan Atlas of Greek mythology, said to hold up the sky.

The Great Barrier Reef, stretching over 2,000 kilometres off the coast of Queensland, Australia, is the world's largest coral reef system and can even be seen from outer space. It comprises thousands of individual reefs and hundreds of islands, supporting an extraordinary diversity of marine life including turtles, sharks and thousands of fish species. The Belize Barrier Reef is a tempting distractor as another major coral reef system, though it is far smaller than Australia's. Rising ocean temperatures linked to climate change have caused repeated mass coral bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef in recent years.

The Mariana Trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean near the Mariana Islands, contains Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in any of the world's oceans at nearly 11,000 metres below the surface. It was first fully explored by Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh in 1960 aboard the bathyscaphe Trieste, and later visited solo by filmmaker James Cameron in 2012. The Atlantic and Indian Oceans are tempting distractors as other vast ocean basins, but neither contains a trench as deep as the Mariana. The pressure at the trench's bottom is over a thousand times greater than at sea level.

Lake Victoria, Africa's largest lake by surface area, is the primary source from which the White Nile flows northward, exiting near Jinja, Uganda, before its long journey through South Sudan and Sudan. The lake is shared by Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania and supports millions of people through fishing, though it has faced serious ecological challenges from invasive species and pollution. Lake Tanganyika is a tempting distractor as another major African Great Lake, but it drains into the Congo River system rather than the Nile. British explorer John Hanning Speke named the lake after Queen Victoria in 1858.

The Thar Desert stretches across the border region of India and Pakistan, primarily covering the Indian state of Rajasthan and Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces, and takes its name from a local word for the region. It is one of the most densely populated deserts in the world, supporting agriculture and pastoral communities despite its arid conditions. The Karakum and Kyzylkum Deserts are tempting distractors as other major deserts in Central Asia, but both lie far from the India-Pakistan border. The Thar Desert also served as the setting for major tank battles during the wars between India and Pakistan.

K2, also known as Godwin-Austen, stands at 8,611 metres and is the second-highest mountain in the world after Mount Everest, located on the border between Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan region and China. It is widely regarded by mountaineers as more technically difficult and dangerous to climb than Everest, earning it the nickname the Savage Mountain. Kangchenjunga is a tempting distractor since it is the third-highest peak in the world, straddling the border of Nepal and India. K2 was first successfully summited in 1954 by an Italian expedition team led by Ardito Desio.

India is widely cited as the world's most populous country, having surpassed China in total population around 2023 according to United Nations estimates, following decades of rapid demographic growth. China's population has been affected by its former one-child policy and an aging demographic structure, while India's younger population continues to expand. The United States and Indonesia are tempting distractors as other populous nations, but both have far smaller populations than India or China. India is projected to remain the world's most populous country for the foreseeable future according to UN demographic projections.