Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Increase in carbon emission has led to change in the nutritional profile of crops.
• People in India prefer rice over coarse grains, which is another cause leading to deficiency of Zinc.
• Zinc deficiency is found more in southern states and north eastern states as rice is a staple food of these states (Zinc is found more in coarse grains and less in rice etc.)

Explanation :

• The Mach number depends on the speed of sound in the gas and the speed of sound depends on the type of gas and the temperature of the gas. Thus the speed of sound varies from planet to planet.
• Hypersonic flow regime is often accompanied with Oblique Shock Waves.
• If one looks into the equations of compressible flow of gases, Mach number appears in the similarity parameter.

Explanation :

• It is capable of cruising at an altitude as low as 0.1 km and has a range of around 1000km.
• It is capable of carrying warheads of up to 300 kg at a speed of 0.6 to 0.7 Mach number; so it is a subsonic missile and not a hypersonic missile.
• It is a long range subsonic missile system that can be launched from multiple platforms and is capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads.

Explanation :

Methane and Ethane on Earth is present in gaseous form but on Titan it is present in liquid form as the climate is extremely cold on Titan

Explanation :

• Cassini-Huygens was an unmanned spacecraft sent to the planet Saturn.
• It was launched by NASA in collaboration with European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency in 1997.
• Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit.
• This mission was launched to study Saturn, its ring system and more importantly its moon- Titan.

Explanation :

• Cassini-Huygens Mission was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system.
• The mission found that the Saturn’s largest moon Titan contains many earth-like features such as wind, rain and seas.

Explanation :

Xinjiang Province of People’s Republic of China is bordered by eight countries namely Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.

Explanation :

EI-Nino is merely an extension of the warm equatorial current which gets replaced temporarily by cold Peruvian Current or Humboldt Current. This current increases the temperature of water on the Peruvian coast by 10°C. Hence, statement 1 is correct.

The process of upwelling along the coast of South America in eastern pacific takes place during a normal year and not during an El-Nino. Statement 2 is therefore incorrect. Upwelling occurs where water from the deeper parts of the ocean is allowed to travel upwards to the surface. In Upwelling deep ocean water is generally very cold and nutrient rich. Therefore, in areas of upwelling we often find very productive waters.

This nutrient rich water transport into the surface waters where sunlight, also required for phytoplankton growth (photic zone), is present, results in rapid growth of phytoplankton populations.

Since phytoplankton form the base of marine food webs, the world’s most productive fisheries are located in areas of coastal upwelling that bring cold nutrient rich waters to the surface.

Explanation :

The shifting of the warm water current towards the Peruvian Coast creates a low pressure area over the South American coast and a high pressure area around the indo pacific region. It leads to dry conditions in the Indo pacific region and wet conditions on the Peruvian coast thereby affecting the equatorial atmospheric circulation. Statement 1 is therefore correct.

During a normal year there is more evaporation at the Australian Coast as compared to the Peruvian Coast due to the presence of a warm water current near the Australian Coast. All of this is reversed and this causes irregularities in the evaporation of sea water. Hence, statement 2 is also correct.

Since the process of upwelling is weak during an El Nino, the nutrient rich water is unable to come to the surface and bring nutrients leading to reduction in the amount of planktons and thereby the number of fish.

Explanation :

Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is an event which the western Indian Ocean becomes alternately warmer and then colder than the eastern part of the Indian Ocean. Hence, statement 1 is incorrect.

A positive IOD leads to greater monsoon rainfall and more active (above normal rainfall) monsoon days while negative IOD leads to less rainfall and more monsoon break days (no rainfall). So yes, IOD can influence El Nino’s impact on Monsoon. Hence, the second statement is correct.