Geography Udaan
Geography Udaan
INDEX
EARLY THEORIES
THEORY BY DETAILS
• By German philosopher • The hypothesis considered that the planets were
Immanuel Kant. formed out of a cloud of material associated with a
• Mathematician Laplace youthful sun, which was slowly rotating.
Nebular revised it in 1796.
Hypothesis • Again in 1950 somewhat • They considered that the sun was surrounded by solar
revised by Otto Schmidt in nebula containing mostly the hydrogen and helium
Russia and Carl Weizascar in along with what may be termed as dust.
Germany. • The friction and collision of particles led to formation
of a disk-shaped cloud and the planets were formed
through the process of accretion.
• 1900, Chamberlain and • Considered that a wandering star approached the sun.
Moulton • As a result, a cigar-shaped extension of material was
Planetesimal • Supported by- Sir James separated from the solar surface.
hypothesis Jeans and later Sir Harold • As the passing star moved away, the material
Jeffrey separated from the solar surface continued to revolve
around the sun and it slowly condensed into planets.
MODERN THEORIES:
STAR FORMATION:
• The distribution of matter and energy was not even in the early universe. These initial density differences in
gravitational forces caused the matter to get drawn together.
• These formed the bases for development of galaxies. A galaxy contains a large number of stars.
• A galaxy starts to form by accumulation of hydrogen gas in the form of a very large cloud called nebula.
• Eventually, growing nebula develops localized clumps of gas.
• These clumps continue to grow into even denser gaseous bodies, giving rise to formation of stars.
FORMATION OF PLANETS
• The stars are localized lumps of gas within a nebula. The gravitational force within the lumps leads to the
formation of a core to the gas cloud and a huge rotating disc of gas and dust develops around the gas core.
• In the next stage, the gas cloud starts getting condensed and the matter around the core develops into small
rounded objects. These small-rounded objects by the process of cohesion develop into what is called
planetesimals. Larger bodies start forming by collision, and gravitational attraction causes the material to
stick together. Planetesimals are a large number of smaller bodies.
• In the final stage, these large number of small planetesimals accrete to form a fewer large bodies in the form
of planets.
• Jupiter is the Largest planet of the solar system. Its atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium, methane and
ammonia.
• The tilt of rotational axis of Venus and Uranus is so great that these planets actually rotate in a direction
that is opposite to the other planets.
• Pluto is a dwarf planet.
THE MOON
• The moon is the only natural satellite of the
earth.
• Its diameter is only one-quarter that of the earth
and it is about 3,84,400 km away from us.
• The moon is tidally locked to the earth, meaning
that the moon revolves around the earth in about
27 days which is the same time it takes to complete
one rotation.
• As a result of tidal locking, only one side of the
moon is visible to us on the earth.
• Generally it is believed that the formation of moon,
as a satellite of the earth, is an outcome of ‘giant
impact’ or what is described as “the big splat”.
• A body of the size of one to three times that of mars collided into the earth sometime shortly after the
earth was formed It blasted a large part of the earth into space This portion of blasted material then
continued to orbit the earth Eventually formed into the present moon about 4.44 billion years ago.
Tidal Locking:
• Tidal locking is the name given to the situation when an object’s orbital period matches its rotational period.
• The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth, which means that it always shows one face to our planet. Tidal locking
is when a body in space orbits another body in a way that the body’s year and day are equal in length.
• This means that the body spins around its own axis once for each time it orbits around another, specific body
in space.
• By having equal years and days, this orbiting body shows the same side of its face to those looking at it from
the other body, or the body that being rotated around.
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• We see the same side of the moon, never getting a glimpse of its other side from Earth. This is because the
moon is tidally locked to the Earth.
• The moon orbits around Earth every 28 days, and the moon rotates completely around its axis in 28 days.
IMPORTANT TERMINOLOGIES
Asteroid A small rocky body that orbits the Sun. Most asteroids in our solar system are found in the
main asteroid belt, a region between Mars and Jupiter. But they can also hang out in other
locations around the solar system. For example, some asteroids orbit the Sun in a path that
takes them near Earth.
Comets Comets orbit the Sun, like asteroids. But comets are made of ice and dust—not rock.
Comets usually originate in the Kuiper belt which lies beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Meteoroids Sometimes one asteroid can smash into another. This can cause small pieces of the asteroid
to break off. Those pieces are called meteoroids. Meteoroids can also come from comets.
Meteors If a meteoroid comes close enough to Earth and enters Earth’s atmosphere, it vaporizes
and turns into a meteor: a streak of light in the sky. Because of their appearance, these
streaks of light are sometimes called "shooting stars". But meteors are not actually stars.
Meteorites Sometimes meteoroids don’t vaporize completely in the atmosphere. In fact, sometimes
they survive their trip through Earth’s atmosphere and land on the Earth’s surface. When
they land on Earth, they are called meteorites.
STRUCTURE OF EARTH:
•
Thicker mean thickness = 30 km & Crust + upper
Continentaldensity = 2.7g/cm3 most layer of
Crust •
Rock Type: Granite mantle =
Outermost solid Minerals Silica + Aluminum = SIAL
• lithosphere
CRUST part Thinner mean thickness = 5 km & (10 to 200
•
density = 3g/cm3 km)
Oceanic • Rock type: Basalt
Crust • Minerals Silica + Iron + Magnesium =
SIMA
• The mantle extends from Moho’s discontinuity to a depth of 2,900 km.
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NOTE: Trick to remember the different boundary names: “May Ram Guide Lakshman” for the Mohorovicic,
Repetti, Gutenberg and Lehmann discontinuities in order from top to bottom.
• The Magnetic Field of the Earth is generated by the motion of molten iron alloys in the Earth’s outer core.
Differences in temperature, pressure and composition within the core cause convection currents in the
molten metal.
• This flow of liquid iron generates electric currents, which in turn produce magnetic fields. This effect is
known as Dynamo Effect
GEOMAGNETIC REVERSAL
• A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet's magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and
magnetic south are interchanged. This happens in a cycle of a few hundred thousand years.
• The intensity of the geomagnetic field is greatest near the poles and weaker near the Equator.
GEOMAGNETIC POLES
• The geomagnetic poles are antipodal points where the axis of a best fitting dipole intersects the surface of
Earth. In contrast, the magnetic poles of the actual Earth are not antipodal; that is, the line on which they lie
does not pass through Earth's center.
• If the Earth's magnetic field were a perfect dipole, the field lines would be vertical to the surface at the
Geomagnetic Poles, and they would coincide with the North and South magnetic poles. However, the
approximation is imperfect, and so the Magnetic and Geomagnetic Poles lie some distance apart.
MAGNETOSPHERE
• A magnetosphere is a region of space surrounding
the Earth (or any other planet or star) in which
charged particles are affected by the geomagnetic
field (or magnetic field of that body).
• It traps charged particles from the solar winds
(ions and electrons emitted by Sun) and funnels
them into a plasma.
• It extends upto 60,000 km on the side facing the
Sun and to a greater extent on the opposite side.
• Its boundary is known as Magnetopause, outside
which is a turbulent magnetic region known as
magneto-sheath.
• It contains the Van Allen radiation belts
containing of high energy charged particles.
• The lower belt contains electrons and protons extending from 1000 to 5000 km above the Earth’s equator.
• The upper belt has mainly electrons extending from 15000 to 25000 km above the equator.
MAGNETIC STORMS
• A period of rapid magnetic field variation is known as magnetic storms.
• They occur when strong gusts of solar winds collide with magnetosphere of earth.
Prelims Mains
• This results in generation of electric currents in the near-earth space. These are known as Ring currents and
they are mostly concentrated over the equator.
• These storms and currents can harm our artificial satellites and long-range radio communication which is
possible because of ionosphere.
• Global positioning systems dependent on satellites and radio communication are also impacted.
AURORAS
• Electrons and ions sometimes descend from the magnetosphere into the upper atmosphere and excite the
molecules of nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere. These excited molecules produce light seen as Auroras.
• Auroras are mostly seen around the poles because of highest intensity of geomagnetic field there.
• The auroras in Earth's Northern Hemisphere are called the Aurora Borealis. Their southern counterpart,
which light up the Antarctic skies in the Southern Hemisphere, are known as the Aurora Australis.
DIRECT SOURCES:
• Mining Areas: The most easily available solid earth material is surface rock or the rocks we get from mining
areas. Gold mines in South Africa are as deep as 3 – 4 km. Going beyond this depth is not possible as it is very
hot at this depth. Through this we came to know temperature and pressure increase with the increasing
distance from the surface towards the interior in deeper depths & density of the material also increases with
depth.
• Projects: Scientists world over are working on two major projects such as “Deep Ocean Drilling Project”
and “Integrated Ocean Drilling Project”. The deepest drill at Kola, in Arctic Ocean, has so far reached a
depth of 12 km. This and many deep drilling projects have provided large volume of information through the
analysis of materials collected at different depths.
• Volcanic Eruption: forms another source of obtaining direct information. As and when the molten material
(magma) is thrown onto the surface of the earth, during volcanic eruption it becomes available for laboratory
analysis.
INDIRECT SOURCES :
• Meteors: The material and the structure observed in the meteors are similar to that of the earth. They are
solid bodies developed out of materials same as, or similar to, our planet. Hence, this becomes yet another
source of information about the interior of the earth.
• Gravity Anomaly: The gravity values differ according to the mass of material. The uneven distribution of
mass of material within the earth influences this value. The reading of the gravity at different places is
influenced by many other factors. These readings differ from the expected values. Such a difference is called
gravity anomaly. Gravity anomalies give us information about the distribution of mass of the material in the
crust of the earth.
• Magnetic Field: Magnetic surveys also provide information about the distribution of magnetic materials in
the crustal portion, and thus, provide information about the distribution of materials in this part.
• Seismic Activity/Earth Quake: An earthquake is an intense shaking of Earth’s surface. The shaking is
caused by movements in Earth’s outermost layer.
EVOLUTION OF LITHOSPHERE
LITHOSPHERE: The lithosphere is the solid, outer part of the Earth. The lithosphere includes the brittle upper
portion of the mantle and the crust, the outermost layers of Earth's structure.
EVOLUTION OF ATMOSPHERE
3 Stages of evolution of Atmosphere:
First Stage: Loss of The early atmosphere, with hydrogen and helium was stripped off as a result of
primordial atmosphere the solar winds. This happened not only in case of the earth, but also in all the
terrestrial planets, which were supposed to have lost their primordial
atmosphere through the impact of solar winds.
Second Stage: Hot Degassing: During the cooling of the earth gases and water vapour were
interior of earth released from the interior solid earth. This started the evolution of the present
contributed to the atmosphere. The early atmosphere largely contained water vapour, nitrogen,
evolution of the carbon dioxide, methane, ammonia and very little of free oxygen. The process
atmosphere through which the gases were outpoured from the interior is called degassing.
Final Stage: Composition of atmosphere modified by living world through the process of
photosynthesis.
EVOLUTION OF HYDROSPHERE:
• Continuous volcanic eruptions contributed water vapour and gases to the atmosphere.
• As the earth cooled, the water vapour released started getting condensed.
• The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere got dissolved in rainwater and the temperature further decreased
causing more condensation and more rains.
• The rainwater falling onto the surface got collected in the depressions to give rise to oceans. (The earth’s
oceans were formed within 500 million years from the formation of the earth).
ORIGIN OF LIFE:
• Initially the earth or even the atmosphere of the earth was not
conducive for the development of life. Modern scientists refer to the
origin of life as a kind of chemical reaction First generated
complex organic molecules Assembled them could duplicate
themselves Converting inanimate matter into living substance.
• The record of life that existed on this planet in different periods is
found in rocks in the form of fossils. The microscopic structures
closely related to the present form of blue algae have been found in
geological formations much older than some 3,000 million years. It
can be assumed that life began to evolve sometime 3,800 million
years ago.
EARTH
• Distance from Sun: 149 Million Km (Average)
• 147.5 million km at Perihelion- closest to the Sun
• 152.2 million km at Aphelion- farthest from Sun
• Shape: Geoid (oblate spheroid): slightly flattened at the Poles and bulging at the Equator.
• Ratio of land to water: 3:7; Northern Hemisphere – 2:3; Southern Hemisphere – 1:4 (southern hemisphere
has larger surface area under water)
• Speed of rotation around axis is maximum at equator and decreases poleward.
• Earth lies in Goldilocks Zone - water can exist in liquid state.
• It is the densest planet in the solar system.
LATITUDE:
• Latitude is the angular distance of a point on the earth’s surface, measured in degrees from the Centre of the
earth.
• Parallel to equator therefore called parallels of latitude.
• These parallels are in form of circles with unequal diameters. Largest circle is Equator (0° latitude) while
at poles they shrink to a point (90° N & S).
• There are 181 latitudes in total.
• Parallels of latitude are drawn at an interval of one degree. If the earth were a perfect sphere, the length of 1̊
of latitude would be a constant value, i.e. 111 km everywhere on the earth. But to be precise, a degree of
latitude changes slightly in length from the equator to the poles. While at the equator, it is 110.6 km at the
poles, it is 111.7 km. i.e. the linear distance of a degree of latitude at the pole is a little longer than at the
equator.
• Important Parallels of Latitudes:
o Tropic of Cancer (23½° N) in the Northern Hemisphere
o Tropic of Capricorn (23½° S) in the Southern Hemisphere
o Arctic Circle at 66½° in north of the equator
o Antarctic Circle at 66½° in south of the equator
• Equator: Equator is an imaginary line running on the globe that divides it into two equal parts.
• The northern half of the earth is known as the Northern Hemisphere and Southern half is known as the
Southern Hemisphere.
• In India Tropic Of Cancer passes through (8 states): Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tripura, Mizoram.
• NOTE: Easy to remember GaRaM Chat & Jalebi With Tea is Ram’s choice
LONGITUTE:
• The longitude of a place is its angular distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. It is also measured in
degrees. The longitudes vary from 0° to 180° eastward and westward of the Prime Meridian. (Also called
meridian)
• Prime Meridian: In 1884,it was decided to choose as zero meridian the one which passes through the Royal
Astronomical Observatory at Greenwich, near London as a Prime Meridian.
• The distance between longitudes decreases from equator towards poles (Maximum at the equator)
• The distance between longitudes at the equator is the same as latitude, roughly 69 miles. At 45 degrees north
or south, the distance between is about 49 miles (79 km).The distance between longitudes reaches zero at
the poles as the lines of meridian converge at that point i.e. the degree of longitude decreases in length from
equator to pole.
• The primary unit in which longitude and latitude are given is degrees (°). There are 360° of longitude (180°
E ↔ 180° W) and 180° of latitude (90° N ↔ 90° S). Each degree can be broken into 60 minutes (’). Each minute
can be divided into 60 seconds (”).
• International Date Line: 1800 longitude is chosen as International Date Line.
• The west side of the line is always one day ahead of the eastern side. A traveller crossing the Date Line
from east to west loses a day and while crossing the Date Line from west to east he gains a day.
• The International Date Line in the mid-Pacific curves from the normal 180° meridian at the Bering
Strait, Fiji, Tonga and other islands to prevent confusion of day and date in some of the island groups that
are cut through by the meridian.
STANDARD TIME
• The local time of places which are on different meridians is bound to differ.
• In India, for instance, there will be a difference of about 1 hour and 45 minutes in the local times of Dwarka
in Gujarat and Dibrugarh in Assam.
• In India, the longitude of 82½° E (82° 30’E) is treated as the standard meridian. The local time at this
meridian is taken as the standard time for the whole country. It is known as the Indian Standard Time (IST).
• States through which IST passes are: UP, MP, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
IMPORTANT TERMS
• An imaginary circle around the sky directly above the Earth's Equator.
• It is always 90 degrees from the poles.
Celestial Equator • All the stars rotate in a path that is parallel to the celestial Equator.
• The celestial Equator intercepts the horizon at the points directly east and west
anywhere on the Earth.
• Stars rise perpendicular to horizon at the Equator and rotate parallel to horizon at
the poles.
• A sidereal day measures the time taken by Earth to complete one rotation.
Sidereal Time • It is 23 hours 56 minutes and 4.1 seconds.
• It helps astronomers keep time and know where to point their telescopes without
worrying about where Earth is in its orbit.
• Time taken by Sun to reappear at the same position in the sky, as seen from a point
on Earth, after one rotation of earth is known as Solar Time.
Solar Time • Its value is approximately 24 hours. The length of a solar day varies through the
year, and the accumulated effect produces seasonal deviations of up to 16 minutes
from the mean.
• Summer Solstice: on 21 June Northern hemisphere titled towards Sun. The rays
of the sun fall directly on the Tropic of Cancer receive more heat.
• The areas near the poles receive less heat as the rays of the sun are slanting. The
North Pole is inclined towards the sun and the places beyond the Arctic Circle
Solstice: The Sun experience continuous daylight for about six months.
shines directly • Since a large portion of the Northern Hemisphere is getting light from the sun, it is
over one of the summer in the regions north of the equator.
tropics. • The longest day and the shortest night at these places occur on 21st June. Areas in the
north of Arctic Circle see 24 hrs sunlight while areas south of Antarctic Circle
experience 24 hrs night.
• Winter Solstice: on 22 December Tropic of Capricorn receives direct rays of
the sun. A larger portion of the Southern Hemisphere gets light.
• Therefore, it is summer in the Southern Hemisphere with longer days and shorter
nights.
• The reverse happens in the Northern Hemisphere. This position of the earth is
called the Winter Solstice. Areas south of Antarctic Circle in 24 hrs sunlight while
areas north of Arctic Circle in 24 hrs darkness.
• When the sun shines directly over Equator – equal lengths of day and night at all
points on Earth.
Equinox • Vernal equinox (spring equinox), 21st March: spring (autumn) in northern
hemisphere.
• Autumn equinox: 23rd September: autumn (spring) in northern hemisphere.
MONTHLY MONTHLY
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• Thus, a difference of 24 hours between the two sides of the 180̊ meridian. This is International Date Line
(IDL).
• Thus while crossing IDL: East to West loses a day
• West to East gains a day
• IDL passes through middle of Pacific Ocean.
ECLIPSE
• It is defined as an astronomical phenomenon which occurs when one spatial object comes within the
shadow of another spatial object.
• It happens when three celestial bodies are in a straight line. This alignment of three celestial objects in a
straight line is known as a syzygy.
• An eclipse takes place when one heavenly body such as a moon or planet moves into the shadow of another
heavenly body. There are two types of eclipses on Earth: an eclipse of the moon (Lunar Eclipse) and an eclipse
of the sun (Solar Eclipse).
SOLAR ECLIPSE:
• As observed from the Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon
passes in front of the Sun.
• This occurs on a new moon phase. Depending on the distance of the
moon from the earth during the event, different types of solar
concealment can be observed. They can be categorized as:
1. Partial: only a portion of sunlight is blocked. Sun, moon and
Earth are not exactly lined up.
2. Annular: Sun can be seen around the edges like a bright ring.
Moon is farthest from Earth.
1. Total: Sun is completely blocked by the Moon. Sun, moon and
Earth direct line.
TYPES OF SHADOWS : During a solar eclipse, the moon casts two shadows on Earth.
UMBRA: This shadow gets smaller as it reaches Earth. It is the dark center of the moon’s shadow.
People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse.
PENUMBRA: Gets larger as it reaches Earth. People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse.
People standing in the umbra will see a total eclipse.
ANTUMBRA It is the lighter area of a shadow that appears beyond the umbra, at a certain distance from
the object casting the shadow.
LUNAR ECLIPSE:
• Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes
through the Earth's shadow.
• This happens only during a full moon, when the
Moon is on the far side of the Earth from the Sun.
Depending on how the sun, the moon, and the earth
line up, lunar eclipse too can be categorized as:
1. Partial: When only a part of the moon moves
into the shadow of the earth. Happens when only
a part of the moon enters Earth's shadow.
2. Total: When the earth passes directly in front of
the moon and casts its shadow on the full moon.
Moon and the sun are on exact opposite sides of
Earth.
STUDENT NOTES:
CH. 2 GEOMORPHOLOGY
MINERALS
• Minerals are naturally occurring substances that
have an orderly atomic structure and a definite
chemical composition & physical properties.
• Minerals can be identified on the basis of their
physical properties such as color, density,
hardness and chemical property such as solubility.
• On the basis of composition, minerals are classified
• into metallic and non-metallic types.
• Basic source of all minerals is the hot magma in
the interior of the earth.
• Coal, petroleum and natural gas are organic
minerals.
• Iron ore, nickel, copper minerals are found in igneous and metamorphic rocks.
• Limestone is found in sedimentary rocks.
METALLIC NON-METALLIC
Contain metals in raw form. Non-metallic minerals do not contain metals
Metals are hard substances that conduct heat and
electricity and have lustre or shine. For example, iron
ore and bauxite
Metallic minerals are of two types: For example, limestone, mica, gypsum, coal and
1. Ferrous- Ferrous minerals contain iron ore, petroleum.
manganese and chromites.
2. Non-ferrous- Non-ferrous minerals do not contain
iron but may contain some other metals like gold,
silver, copper or lead.
EXTRACTION OF MINERALS
• Mining, drilling and quarrying are the three extraction methods of minerals.
• Mining is the process of taking out minerals from rocks buried under the earth’s surface.
• The process of mining includes two methods: (a) Open cast mining, (b) Shaft mining
• Deep wells are bored to take minerals out and this process is called drilling.
• In the process of quarrying, minerals that lie near the surface are simply dug out.
DISTRIBUTION OF MINERALS
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USES OF MINERALS:
• Some minerals which are usually hard are used as gems for making jewellery.
• Copper is used in almost everything from coins to pipes.
• Silicon is used in almost everything from coins to pipes.
• Silicon is used in the computer industry which is obtained from quartz.
• Aluminium is used in automobile, airplanes, bottling industry, building and in kitchen cookware.
ROCKS
• Rocks are aggregate of one or more minerals, they may be hard or soft in varied colours, they do not have
definite chemical composition.
• Petrology is the science of rocks. Petrologist who studies the scientific methods of rocks.
• There are at least 2000 minerals in the crust.
• There are at least six mineral groups which form rocks in the crust
• On the basis of their mode of origin, rocks can be classified into:
Igneous
Sedimentary
Metamorphic
ROCK CYCLE
• Rocks do not remain in their original form for long
but may undergo transformation.
• Rock cycle is a continuous process through which old
rocks are transformed into new ones.
• Igneous rocks can be changed into metamorphic
rocks.
• The fragments derived out of igneous and
metamorphic rocks form into sedimentary rocks.
• Sedimentary rocks themselves can turn into
fragments and may be source for formation of
sedimentary rocks.
• The crustal rocks once formed may be carried down
into the mantle through subduction process and may turn into molten magma.
IGNEOUS ROCKS
• The upper 16 kilometers of the Earth’s crust is made up of 95% Igneous rock, with a thin covering of
sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.
• Igneous rocks are formed when molten rock cools, Forming silicate mineral crystals.
Plutonic Generally, very large crystal and they were formed due to cooling of magma very deep inside
the Earth
Hypabyssal/ Consolidated in a zone above the base of Earth’s crust and hence has distinct structural
subvolcanic characteristics.
Batholiths They extend to greater depths and larger areas.
Laccoliths A sheet intrusion that has been injected between two layers of sedimentary rock.
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
• Sedimentary rocks are made from layers, or strata of mineral particles found in other rocks that have been
weathered and from newly formed organic matter.
• Sedimentary rocks are important because they preserve a record of ancient landscapes, climates, and
mountain ranges, as well as the history of the erosion of Earth.
• In addition, fossils are found in abundance in sedimentary rocks younger than 600 million years and provide
evidence of the evolution of life through time.
• They are found over 95% of the crust but contribute only 5% in the crustal volume.
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METAMORPHIC ROCKS
• Metamorphic rocks are formed from the pre-existing rocks within the Earth’s crust by changes in
temperature and pressure and by chemical action of fluid.
• Rocks are Schist, Gneiss, Slate, Quartzite, Marble and Granite.
SOME EXAMPLES:
GEOMORPHIC PHENOMENA:
EARTHQUAKE
• Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground
suddenly breaks along a fault.
• This sudden release of energy causes the seismic waves
that make the ground shake. These seismic waves
originate in a limited region and spread in all
directions.
• The spot underground where the rock breaks is called
the focus or hypocentre of the earthquake. The place right
above the focus (on top of the ground) is called
the epicenter of the earthquake.
• Nearly 90 percent of all earthquakes occur at depths of less
than 100 km. Shallower is the depth, more destructive an
earthquake is.
MEASUREMENT OF EARTHQUAKE
• Earthquake magnitude refers to amount of energy released.
• It is determined by the use of a seismograph which is an instrument that
Earthquake magnitude: continuously records ground vibration measured using Richter scale.
• An earthquake with a magnitude 7.5 on the Richter scale releases 30
times the energy than one with 6.5 magnitudes.
• An earthquake of magnitude 3 is the smallest normally felt by humans.
• Intensity refers to the impact felt in a locality. So intensity scale measures
the effects of an earthquake where it occurs.
• Thus, an earthquake may have different intensities in different locations
Earthquake intensity: which is measured using MERCALLI SCALE.
• Range of intensity scale is 1-12 and that of magnitude scale which is a
logarithmic scale which is 0-10.
• The Isoseismals are the contours of equal earthquake intensity. The area
that suffers strong shaking and significant damage during an earthquake
is termed as meizoseismal region
• Foreshocks are quakes that occur before a larger one in the same location; around a quarter of all main
shocks happen within an hour of their foreshock.
• Mainshocks are of the highest magnitude.
• Aftershocks are smaller quakes that occur in the same general geographic area for days-and even years-
after the larger, mainshock event.
• Earthquake swarm is a series of many low magnitude earthquakes without a discernible main shock. They
occur in a localised region and over a period of time ranging from days, weeks to even months, without a
clear sequence of foreshocks, main quakes and aftershocks.
• It is when seismic energy piles up inside the Earth and is released in small amounts from certain points, such
a series of earthquakes can occur.
TYPES OF EARTHQUAKE
• Tectonic Earthquakes: These are generated due to sliding of rocks along a fault plane.
• Volcanic Earthquake: These are confined to areas of active volcanoes.
• Collapse Earthquake: In the areas of intense mining activity, sometimes the roofs of underground mines
collapse causing minor tremors.
• Explosion Earthquakes: Ground shaking may also occur due to the explosion of chemical or nuclear devices.
• Reservoir Induced Earthquakes: The earthquakes that occur in the areas of large reservoirs
• Liquefaction: underlying layer of water rich sand compacts and send a column of water and fine sand up
and out onto the surface. The depth of lakes etc become lower and sand is pushed through the ground and
the building sink into the ground.
VOLCANOES
• A vent or opening in the Earth crust is known as Volcano.
• The material that reaches the ground includes lava flows, pyroclastic debris, volcanic bombs, ash and
dust and gases such as nitrogen compounds, sulphur compounds and minor amounts of chlorine, hydrogen
and argon.
• Most volcanoes are nearly conical in shape.
• Lava blown out quickly cools down in small solid Pieces known as cinders.
• The pieces of cooled lava collected around the vent gives rise to cinder cone.
CAUSES OF VOLCANO
• Volcano can be caused along convergent, divergent and some continental plate boundaries.
• Subduction of one plate under other in case of converging plate boundary results in melting of rocks due to
high temperature and pressure which rises along the fissures of rocks.
• In case of diverging boundaries, thinning of upper crust leads to reduction in overlying pressure of rocks
causing decrease in rock melting point and formation of magma which rises and erupts as lava from fissure
volcanoes.
• Some continental volcanoes located away from plate Boundaries due to stressing of plates and creation of
faults.
BENEFITS OF VOLCANO
• Volcanic rocks upon weathering and decomposition can Yield very fertile soils.
• The ash and dust are found very fertile for fields and orchards.
• They have great deal of scenic beauty in the form of geysers, springs of hot water.
• The cinders and clots are sold to tourists visiting such areas, for their fantastic shapes.
• These geysers and water springs have potential to be developed as geothermal electricity.
• They add extensive plateaus and volcanic mountains.
• Volcanic activity produces valuable minerals and gases.
TYPES OF VOLCANO
• This material accumulates in the vicinity of the vent openings leading to formation of
layers, and this makes the mounts appear as composite volcanoes.
• They are found at destructive plate margins.
• Examples of composite volcanoes include Mount Fuji Japan.
• These are most explosive of the Earth’s volcanoes.
Caldera • They are usually so explosive that when they erupt, they tend to collapse on
themselves rather than building any tall structure.
• The collapsed depressions are called calderas. Ex: Lonar lake in Maharashtra.
• These volcanoes occur in the oceanic areas.
Mid-ocean ridge • There is a system of mid ocean ridges more than 70,000 km long that stretches
volcanoes through all the ocean basins.
• The central portion of this ridge experiences frequent eruptions.
• These volcanoes outpour highly fluid lava that flows for long distances.
Flood basalt • The Deccan traps from India, presently covering most of the Maharashtra plateau, are
province a much larger flood basalt province.
• It is believed that initially the trap formations covered a much larger area than the
present.
Volcanic • Volcanic Explosivity Index is a scale that measures the Volume of Volcanic Products,
Explosivity Index Height of Plume and other observations to decide which volcano is more explosive.
MAGMA
• Magma is a mixture of molten or semi-molten rock, volatiles and solids.
• Besides molten rock it may contain suspended crystals and dissolved gases like vapour, carbon dioxide,
minor amount of sulphur, chlorine etc.
• The two most abundant elements in earth’s crust and mantle are oxygen and silicon which combine to make
Silica i.e SiO2.
TYPES OF MAGMA
The classification of the Magmas is done primarily on the basis of Silica content in following categories:
VOLCANIC LANDFORMS
Batholiths A large body of magmatic material that cools in the deeper depth of the crust. They
develop in the form of large domes.
Laccoliths These are large dome shaped intrusive bodies with a level base and connected by a pipe-
like conduit from below. Ex: Karnataka plateau is spotted with Domal hills of granite
rocks.
Lapolith A portion of lava moves in a horizontal direction wherever it finds a weak plane. In case
it develops into a saucer shape, concave to the sky body.
Phacolith Rocks found at the base of synclines or at the top of anticline in folded igneous country.
Sill The near horizontal bodies of the intrusive igneous rocks are called sill.
Dykes Lava solidifies almost perpendicularly to the ground. Such structures are called dykes.
These are considered the feeders for the eruptions that led to the development of the
Deccan traps.
RING OF FIRE:
• The Ring of Fire is a long chain of volcanoes and other tectonically active structures that surround the Pacific
ocean.
• The chain runs up along the western coast of South and North America, crosses over the Aleutian Islands in
Alaska, runs down the eastern coast of Asia past New Zealand and into the northern coast of Antarctica.
• The Ring of Fire is one of the most geologically active areas on Earth, and is a site for frequent earthquakes
and powerful volcanic eruptions.
• Many of these volcanoes were created through the tectonic process of subduction whereby dense ocean
plates collide with and slide under lighter continental plates.
• In general, foci of the earthquake in the areas of mid-oceanic ridges are at shallow depths whereas along the
Alpine-Himalayan belt as well as the rim of the Pacific, the earthquakes are deep-seated ones.
EXOGENIC PROCESSES:
• They derive their energy from atmosphere determined by the prime source the sun.
• Gravitational force create gradient towards down slope direction.
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• The basic reason for weathering, mass movement ,erosion and deposition is the development of stress in the
earth materials.
• Temperature and precipitation are the two major elements that control various processes.
• All the exogenic process are covered under general term Denudation.
• Weathering , mass-wasting ,erosion and transportation are included in denudation.
• Different types of rocks offer varying resistances to various geomorphic processes. Therefore varied relief
on earth.
WEATHERING
• Weathering is defined as mechanical disintegration and chemical decomposition of rocks through the
actions of various element .
• In weathering there is no motion of materials takes place so it is in-situ or on site process.
TYPES OF WEATHERING
PHYSICAL BIOLOGICAL CHEMICAL
Thermal changes- Repeated Burrowing and wedging by Dissolution; dissolving action of
temperature change, stress develop organism like earthworks termites water and various organic acids.
and rocks crack and split. (onion
peeling/ exfoliation)
Frost action-sharp angular Rodents help in exposing the new Hydrolysis; reaction with
fragments of rocks are formed surfaces to chemical attack and hydrogen in air or water
assists in the penetration of
moisture and air
Pressure release Oxidation; Reaction of oxygen in
air or water with minerals in the
rock
Hydraulic action; repeated wetting Solution
and drying stress
Hyaloclastite; mechanical Hydration
weathering
Carbonation
SIGNIFICANCE OF WEATHERING
• Responsible for the formation of soils and erosion and deposition.
• Biodiversity is basically depending on depth of weathering .
• Weathering aids mass wasting , erosion and reduction of relief and changes in landforms.
• Weathering of rocks and deposition helps in the enrichment and concentrations of certain valuable ores of
iron manganese, aluminium copper.
• It is an important process of soil formation.
ENRICHMENT:
• When rocks undergo weathering some materials are removed through chemical or physical leaching by
ground water and thereby the concentration of remaining materials increases.
• Without such a weathering taking place, the concentration of the same valuable material may not be sufficient
and economically viable to exploit, process and refine, this is what is called enrichment.
MASS MOVEMENT:
• These movements transfer the mass of rock debris down the slopes under
the direct influence of gravity.
• Air water ice do not carry debris ,but debris carry them.
• When force is greater than resistance mass movement occurs.
• Ex. Weak unconsolidated material, thinly bedded rocks, faults etc.
LIFECYCLES OF STREAM
YOUTH MATURE OLD
• Less streams • More streams • Smaller tributaries
• Less integration • More integration of streams • Few in number
• V-shaped valleys are common • Deep V-shaped valleys • Flood plains are common
• Stream divides are swampy • Wider flood plains • Natural leeves and ox-bow
marshy areas • Meanders are present lakes are also present.
• Waterfalls and rapids are • Rapids and water falls
common disappear
KARST TOPOGRAPHY
• Any limestone or dolomitic region showing typical landforms produced by the action of groundwater through
the processes of solution and deposition is called Karst topography.
• Broad base
• Formed due to evaporation of water
• Broad edge
• They are pillar shape
• Grow from the roof
• Narrow base
STALACTITES • Formed due to condensation
• Sharp edge
• They are conical shape
• The stalagmite and stalactites eventually fuse to give rise to columns and pillars.
GLACIERS
• Masses of ice moving as sheets over the land (continental glacier or piedmont glacier if a vast sheet of ice is
spread over the plains at the foot of mountains) or as linear flows down the slopes of mountains in broad
trough-like valleys (mountain and valley glaciers) are called glaciers.
• The un assorted coarse and fine debris dropped by the melting glaciers is called glacial till.
• Streams form by melting ice at the bottom, sides or lower ends of glaciers.
• Some amount of rock debris small enough to be carried by such melt-water streams is washed down and
deposited. Such glacio-fluvial deposits are called outwash deposits.
• The rivers appear to have been drowned with highly irregular coastline.
• The coastline appears highly indented with extension of water into the
land where glacial valleys (fjords) are present.
• Along high rocky coasts, waves break with great force against the land
shaping the hill sides into cliffs.
• With constant pounding by waves, the cliffs recede leaving a wave-cut
HIGH ROCKY COASTS/ platform in front of the sea cliff.
west coast India • Bars are submerged features and when bars show up above water, they
are called barrier bars.
• Barrier bar which gets keyed up to the headland of a bay is called a spit.
• When barrier bars and spits form at the mouth of a bay and block it, a
lagoon form.
• The lagoons would gradually get filled up by sediments from the land
giving rise to a coastal plain.
• Along low sedimentary coasts the rivers appear to extend their length by
building coastal plains and deltas.
• The coastline appears smooth with occasional incursions of water in the
form of lagoons and tidal creeks.
• The land slopes gently into the water. [Thus, Depositional features
LOW SEDIMENTARY dominate].
COASTS/ East coast India • Marshes and swamps may abound along the coasts.
• When waves break over a gently sloping sedimentary coast, the bottom
sediments get churned and move readily building bars, barrier bars, spits
and lagoons.
• Lagoons would eventually turn into a swamp which would subsequently
turn into a coastal plain.
WINDS
• Wind is one of the two dominant agents in hot deserts.
• Winds cause deflation, abrasion and impact.
• Deflation includes lifting and removal of dust and smaller particles from the surface of rocks.
• The impact is simply sheer force of momentum, which occurs when sand is blown into or against a rock
surface.
• Gently inclined rocky floors close to the mountains at their foot with or without a thin cover of debris, are
called pediments (sheet flooding and lateral erosion)
• Through parallel retreat of slopes, the pediments extend backwards at the expense of mountain front, and
gradually, the mountain gets reduced leaving an inselberg which is a remnant of the mountain.
• That‘s how the high relief in desert areas is reduced to low featureless Pediplains.
STUDENT NOTES:
1. THE ARCHEAN ROCK SYSTEM: It was used for rock systems older than the Cambrian system. These are the
oldest of all rocks and include:
• These are the oldest and were the first to be formed at the time of cooling and
GNEISSES solidification of upper crust ~4000 MYA (Million Years Ago).
AND SCHISTS • They are all azoic (devoid of any animal life), crystalline and extremely faulted.
• They are generally called “Fundamental or Basement complex”.
3. THE DRAVIDIAN ROCK SYSTEM (600-300 MYA): Mostly found in the extra peninsular region and are mostly
absent in the Peninsular region. They contain abundant fossil and hence it’s easier to recognise their age. They
include rocks of the following periods:
• Named after Cambria (Latin for Wales in Britain) and includes slates, clays,
Cambrian quartzites and limestones.
(600 MY old) • They are best developed in N Himalayas. In Spiti valley, Haimanta system is 1600
m thick deposit of slates, quartzite and dolomites. Also found in Lahul, Kullu,
Kumaon region, Baramulla of J&K, The Salt Ranges on Indo-Pak border.
Ordovician • Includes quartzites, sandstones and limestones. They overlie the Haimanta system
(500 MY old) of Himachal and are present in Kashmir and Kumaon.
Devonian • They are devoid of any fossil remains and are identified in Muth quartzite of Spiti
(400 MY old) and Kumaon and Haridwar of Uttarakhand.
Silurian • Found in Spiti valley along with Ordovician. The Lahul and Kullu valleys also have
(400 MY old) them. Limes and Shales of Kumaon belong to the Silurian period.
• Comprise mainly of limestone, shale and quartzite. They are divided into
• Upper carbonifero us made of limestone and dolomite. Mt. Everest is made of
Carboniferous upper carboniferous limestone.
(means coal- • Mid Carboniferous has been the age of great upheavals. Rocks are found in Spiti,
bearing) Shimla, Kashmir and the eastern Himalayas.
(350 MY old) • Lower carboniferous includes slates of different types and are found in Pir Panjal
and Kumaon region.
• Coal formation started in carboniferous age.
4. THE ARYAN ROCK SYSTEM: Has rock formations from upper carboniferous to recent times. It is fairly
preserved in peninsular India and is found in perfect sequence in the Himalayan region along the entire northern
border.
• Derives its names from the kingdom of Gonds- the most primitive people of
Telangana and AP. First discovered in Madhya Pradesh.
• Consists of sandstones with some shales and clays.
• They have a continental origin, fluviatile and lacustrine deposits around 6000m
thick.
• Economically the most important rocks since they have around 98% of coal
The Gondwana
reserves.
system • They have rich deposits of iron ore, copper, uranium, and antimony.
(250 MY old) DISTRIBUTION:
• Damodar valley Jharkhand
• Along Mahanadi in Chhattisgarh and Odisha
• Southern MP
• Along the Godavari from Nagpur up to its delta
• Kashmir, Darjeeling and Sikkim.
The Triassic system • It is almost absent in the peninsula but is found extensively from Hazara to Nepal.
(280-225 MY old)
The Jurassic system • Named after the Jura mountains on the borders of France and Switzerland.
(280-225 MY old) • Covers wide areas in Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, south Ladakh and Spiti
• It underwent marine transgression (for a while was covered by water)
The Cretaceous • Best developed marine systems of India which has a variety of rocks.
Period • It is found deposited on land, sea, estuaries, and lakes.
(135-70 MY Old) • No other system is as widely distributed.
DISTRIBUTION:
• Spiti- sandstones, limestones, quartzites and shales
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• In geological terms, volcanic hotspots are volcanic regions below which volcanism occurs because of a rising
mantle that is hotter than the surrounding mantle.
• The rising mantle is because of lava activity from underneath and may even erupt from time to time.
• The position of tectonic plate boundaries in volcanic hotspots does not in any way affect the hot mantles.
• In many cases, hotspots remain constant while tectonic plates move further away thus leaving a trail of
volcanoes, the oldest being the furthest away from its original location.
• There are different suggestions as to the origin and composition of volcanic hotspots.
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COASTLINE OF INDIA
• The Indian coastline which is 7516.6 km long covers 6100 km of mainland coastline along with the Andaman,
Nicobar and the Lakshadweep islands. The coastline of India touches 13 states and Union Territories. The
western coastal plains are along the Arabian Sea whereas the eastern coastal plains are located along the Bay
of Bengal.
• The Bay of Bengal and the Arabian sea came into being during the cretaceous or early tertiary period after
the disintegration of Gondwanaland.
ICE-AGES IN INDIA
Dharwar ice age • Evidence in Kaldurg in Southern India.
Gondwana ice age • Talcher in Odisha has evidence in form of boulders which are like those found
in Shimla and the Salt Ranges (Pakistan).
Pleistocene ice age • Marked by cold and warm spells in succession. In Himalayas evidence is found
of excessive glaciation up to a height of 1800m.
PHYSIOGRAPHY
• That branch of geography which studies the present relief features of the earth’s surface or of natural features
in their causal relationship. India has a unique personality with respect to physiography.
o 43 % is plains
o 10.7 % is mountainous
o 18.6% is hilly
o 27.7% is plateau
• India is divided in following 6 physiographic regions:
1. The Northern mountains
2. The great plains of North India
3. The peninsular plateau
4. The coastal plains
5. The Indian deserts
6. The islands
a) The Himalayas
• Himalayas are the young fold mountains. This is the highest mountain range of the world. Himalayas act as
natural barrier. The extreme cold, snow and
rugged topography discourage the neighbors
to enter India through Himalayas. They run
from west-east direction from Indus to
Brahmaputra along the northern boundary of
India.
• It also known as the Himadri, Himvan or
Himachal and are the youngest and the
loftiest mountain chains of the world.
• It stretches in length for more than 2400 km
from Indus gorge to Brahmaputra gorge.
• Its width is maximum in Kashmir (500 km)
and minimum in the Arunachal (200 km).
• The Pamir (roof of the world) is the connecting link between the Himalayas and the Central Asian peaks.
• Number of peaks more than 8000m is 14 and more than 7500m is 20.
• The southern boundary is well defined by the foothills while the northern boundary is obscure and merges
with the Tibetan plateau.
• Individual ranges have steep gradient towards the south but a gentler slope towards the north.
• In Awadh and Bengal plains, the Himalayas rises abruptly and attains great heights in short distance from
the plains. Thus, Kanchenjunga and Everest are visible from the plains.
• In contrast the western Himalayas rise gradually through a series of ranges.
ORIGIN OF HIMALAYAS
• It is agreed unanimously that they have
come out of a great geosyncline called
the Tethys sea and they have developed
in phases (Greater-Middle-Shiwalik).
• However, there are divergent views
about the process involved and forces
responsible.
• About 120 MYA PANGEA existed with N
America and Eurasia in its north which
was called ANGARALAND or
LAURASIA.
• The southern part of PANGEA had S
America, Australia, Africa, S India, and
Antarctica; and was called
GONDWANALAND.
• In between ANGARALAND and
GONDWANALAND, there was a long,
narrow sea called the TETHYS sea.
• Sediments deposited from rivers of
both the continents were deposited in the Tethys sea. (Relate to Brahamputra being antecedent i.e., existed
before the Himalayas)
• These sediments were subjected to forces of compression which led to a series of folds one behind another
giving birth to the Himalayas.
• Some fossils of Shiwalik are also found in Tibet indicating similarity in Climate and elevation.
• The lakes of Tibet appear desiccated (dry, weathered) implying water levels were much higher in the past.
• Himalayan rivers are still in youth and there are evidences of rejuvenation due to uplift.
• Frequent earthquakes indicate non-achievement of isostatic equilibrium.
ISOSTASY:
• It is the rising or settling of a portion of the Earth’s lithosphere that occurs when weight is removed or added
to maintain equilibrium between buoyancy forces that push the lithosphere upward, and gravity forces that
pull the lithosphere downward.
• When these two forces balance, the lithosphere is said to be at isostatic equilibrium.
• Isostasy is responsible for the preservation of high mountains long after tectonic uplift has ceased and for
erosional exhumation of deeply buried rock. Isostatic uplift can be on the order of feet per 100 years but only
until isostatic equilibrium is restored.
PLATE TECTONICS:
• It is the most recent and widely accepted theory which gives most satisfactory answers to intricate and
puzzling questions regarding
o Origin of continents and oceans,
o Formation of mountains,
o Occurrence of earthquakes and
o Eruption of volcanoes.
• In this theory lithosphere is believed to be broken
into a series of separate plates that move in
response to the convection cells in the upper
mantle. (mention division of crust).
• There are three types of plate boundaries:
1. Constructive- where two plates diverge (fig
of Mid oceanic ridge above) and lava coming
out expands the crust.
2. Destructive- where plates come towards one another (converging boundaries or subduction zones),
collide and one plate goes into the mantle and is consumed.
3. Conservative/Transform- Where plates move past one another without being subdued or overriding.
DIVISION OF HIMALAYAS:
The Himalayas may be divided into three parallel ranges:
1. Greater Himalayas or Himadari
2. Lesser Himalayas or Himachal
3. Outer Himalayas or Siwaliks.
o Dhaula Dhar, Pir Panjal- In Kashmir is the longest most important range. It
extends from Jhelum to Beas and is separated from Zanskar range by Kashmir
valley.
o Mussoorie- From Mussoorie to Lansdowne.
o Nag Tibba
o Mahabharat Lekh- In Nepal, is a continuation of Mussoorie ranges.
• Majority of hill resorts and located here. E.g., Shimla, Ranikhet, Nainital, Almora and
Darjeeling etc.
• Outer most range of Himalayas and called outer Himalayas.
• With its southern steep slopes, it assumes hogback appearance.
• Runs parallel to lesser Himalayas from Potwar plateau to Brahmaputra valley.
• Except for 80-90 km in which Teesta flows, this is almost an unbroken series of low
hills.
• They comprise of:
o Jammu Hills (Jammu and Dafla)
Outer Himalayas o Miri, Abhor and Mishmi (Arunachal)
or Siwaliks.
o Dhang and Dudwa range (Uttarakhand)
o Churia Ghat (Nepal)
• DUNS/DOONS- Shiwalik hills formed after the Himalayas and obstructed rivers
coming from Himalayas and formed temporary lakes. The debris brought by the
rivers were deposited in these lakes. After rivers cut through the Shiwalik, these lakes
dried up and left behind DUNS OR DOONS. E.g., Dehradun.
• CHOS- The southern slopes are devoid of any vegetation in Punjab and Himachal and
are highly dissected by several streams known as Chos.
Syntaxial bends of Himalayas: East-west trend of Himalayas is suddenly terminated by sharp bends at both
extremities. This bend is called syntaxial bend. The western bend occurs at Naga Parbat while the eastern
bend occurs near the turn of Brahmaputra into India in Arunachal.
MAIN PASSES OF THE HIMALAYAS:
SIGNIFICANCE OF HIMALAYAS:
• Climatic influences
• They interrupt the summer monsoons and cause precipitation. They also prevent cold continental winds and
fronts from Siberia and Central Asia from entering India. They split the Jet stream into two branches and are
especially important in duration of monsoon.
• Defence
• They have made it difficult for outside invaders to enter India unhindered and serve as a barrier.
• River sources
• Fertile soil
• Great rivers and their tributaries carry enormous alluvium. These have nourished the great plains since ages
with new and fertile soils.
• Hydroelectricity
• Forest wealth
• Tourism
• The western extremity consists of the Thar desert (1.75 lakh Km in India). The
proper desert is called “Marusthali” and accounts for greater part of Marwar plains.
1. The Rajasthan • The geological evidence suggests that it is a part of peninsular plateau but from
plains appearance it looks like it is an aggregational plain.
• The area of shifting sand dunes is called DHRIAN.
• Parts of it is formed by deposition of five rivers- Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Chenab, Jhelum.
It is primarily made up of DOABS i.e., land between rivers.
• There are 5 prominent doabs from east to west: (starting letter of the two rivers
involved)
o Bist- Between Beas and Sutlej
o Bari- Between Beas and Ravi
2. The Punjab- o Rachna- Between Ravi and Chenab
Haryana plain o Chaj- Between Chenab and Jhelum
o Sind Sagar Doab- Between Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus.
• The DHAYAS are broad flood plains of khadar and the khadar belt themselves are
called as BET LANDS.
• Numerous local streams exist called CHOS.
• The area between Ghaggar and Yamuna is in Haryana and is called “Haryana Tract”.
It acts like a watershed between Yamuna and Sutlej.
• Ghaggar is considered successor of Saraswati.
3. The Ganga • It is the largest unit and stretches from UP to West Bengal.
Plain • It is divided in the upper, middle, and lower Ganga plains.
• The upper Ganga plain extends from Shiwalik in the North, Yamuna in the west
and Peninsular boundary in the south. The western part has the Ganga-Yamuna
doab, the east has Rohilkhand plains.
• The middle Ganga plain occupies eastern part of UP and Bihar. The plain is
drained by many tributaries of Ganga. The area is prone to frequent floods.
• The lower Ganga plain is mostly in WB and parts in Bangladesh. It starts from foot
of Darjeeling Himalayas and ends in the Bay of Bengal. The area is marked by DUARS
and BARINDH plains. The delta of Ganga is in this division and has large number of
mud flats, sandbanks, estuaries, and world-famous SUNDARBANS.
4. The • Although it is treated sometimes an extension of the Gangetic plains, it is well
Brahmaputra demarcated by:
Plain 1. Eastern Himalayas of Arunachal
2. Patkai & Naga hills in the East
3. Garo-Khasi-Jainita and Mikir in the south
4. Lower Ganga plain and Bangladesh border in the west.
• Brahmaputra enters this plain near Sadiya and flows farther to Bangladesh after
turning southwards near Dhubri.
by the Rajmahal-Garo gap now filled by sediments of Ganga. From west to east there are Garo-khasi-Jainita
hills. Shillong is the highest point of the plateau.
8. The Deccan plateau is the largest unit of the peninsula.
• The triangular plateau is bounded by Satpura and Vindhyas in the North West, Mahadeva and Maikal in
the North, western ghats in the west and eastern ghats in the east.
• Its general slope is from west to east indicated by flow of major rivers like Mahanadi, Godavari, Krishna,
and Cauvery.
• It is sub divided into smaller plateaus:
o The Maharashtra plateau
o The Karnataka plateau
o Telangana plateau
o Chhattisgarh plateau
Kutch peninsula • Due to lack of rain and flowing surface water, the work of wind is everywhere,
and this has given rise to arid and semi-arid landscapes.
Kathiawar peninsula • Mt. Girnar is the highest point and is of volcanic origin.
Gujarat plain • Lies east of Kutch and formed by the rivers Narmada, Tapi, Sabarmati and Mahi.
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Karnataka plain • It is from Goa to Mangalore. Sharavati river falls from a slope and makes
Gersoppa falls or Jog falls.
Kerala plain or • Between Mangalore and Kanyakumari. There are lagoons, backwaters, spits etc.
Malabar plains Backwaters are locally called KAYALS are shallow lagoons or inlets at the sea,
Largest one is Vembanad lake. Kochi is situated in the opening to the sea. This
and several other lagoons are joined together to provide inland waterways.
Konkan plain • Lies south of Gujarat plains and extends from Daman to Goa. Mumbai was an
island but now been reclaimed. Some lateritic hillocks rise to 100m above sea
levels.
Utkal plain • Comprises coastal Odisha and has Mahanadi delta at Cuttack’s head. The Chilika
lake is in the south of Mahanadi delta and is the biggest lake in the country.
Andhra plain • Lies south of Utkal and extends to Pulicat lake. It has Sriharikota island. The
combined delta of Godavari and Mahanadi has advanced by 35 km towards the
sea. It has a straight coast and badly lacks good harbours except Vishakhapatnam
and Machilipatnam.
Tamil Nadu plain • Most important feature is the Cauvery delta.
6. THE ISLANDS
• Andaman and Nicobar form an arcuate chain and have 265 small and big islands. The entire chain consist
of two distinct group of islands. The Great Andaman in the N separated by 10-degree channel from the Car
Nicobar Islands.
• Lakshadweep Islands is a group of 25 small islands. Those above 11 degree are called AMENDEVI while
those south of this are called CANNANORE. In the extreme south is the MINICOY. The largest and the most
advanced is the MINICOY.
STUDENTS NOTE:
CARBON DIOXIDE
• It is largely responsible for the Green-House Effect.
• CO 2 is transparent to the incoming solar radiation but opaque to the outgoing terrestrial radiation.
• Also, it absorbs a part of terrestrial radiation & reflects some part of it towards the earth’s surface.
OZONE
• Found between 10 and 50 km above the earth’s surface.
• Ozone acts as a filter& absorbs the ultra-violet rays radiating from the sun & prevents them from reaching
the surface of the earth.
WATER VAPOUR
• Water vapour is a variable gas in the atmosphere, which decreases with:
1. Altitude
2. From The Equator Towards The Poles
• It also absorbs parts of the insolation from the sun & preserves the earth’s radiated heat. Thus, it acts like a
Blanket.
DUST PARTICLES
• These are generally concentrated in the lower layers of the atmosphere.
• The higher concentration of dust particles is found in subtropical and temperate regions due to dry
winds in comparison to Equatorial and Polar Regions.
Weather It is the state of the atmosphere at a specific time (short duration) and place.
Climate It is the average weather in a given area over a longer period.
THE TROPOSPHERE
• It is the lower most layer of the atmosphere
• Its average height is 13 km (8 km near the poles & 18 km near the equator).
• All changes in climate and weather take place in this layer.
• It contains 99% of the water vapour in the atmosphere.
• The temperature in this layer decreases at the rate of 1°C for every 165m of height (Normal Lapse Rate).
• Tropopause: the zone separating the troposphere from the stratosphere.
THE STRATOSPHERE
• It is found above the tropopause and extends up to a height of 50 km.
• It contains the ozone layer.
• The air blows horizontally here. Therefore, considered ideal for flying of aircrafts.
• The lower portion of the stratosphere is also influenced by the polar jet stream and subtropical jet stream
• Temperature increases with increasing height.
THE MESOSPHERE
• Lies above the stratosphere, which extends up to 80 km.
• The temperature starts decreasing with the increase in altitude.
• Absence of Green House Gases.
• ‘Meteors’ or falling stars occur in this layer.
• The upper limit of the mesosphere is known as the mesopause.
THE IONOSPHERE
• It is located between 80 & 400 km above the Mesopause.
• Electrically charged currents flows in the air in this sphere, which is responsible for Auroras or northern
lights, can be seen in this layer.
• Radio waves transmitted from the earth are reflected by this layer.
• The temperature starts increasing again with increasing heights.
THE EXOSPHERE
• The outer most layer of our atmosphere.
• Gases are very sparse in this sphere due to the lack of gravitational force.
Note: The area covered by vertical rays is always less than the slant rays. More slanting resulting in more
absorption, scattering & diffusion.
Fig: depicts the latitudinal variation in the net radiation balance of the earth
• The surplus heat energy from the tropics is redistributed poleward.
• This avoids permanent heating or cooling effect of low and high latitudes respectively.
TEMPERATURE
• Temperature is the measurement in degrees of how hot (or cold) a thing (or a place) is.
Normal Lapse Rate • The rate of decrease of temperature with height is termed as the normal lapse rate.
• It is 6.5°C per 1,000 m
Albedo • Albedo is the amount of sunlight (solar radiation) reflected by a surface. Measured
from scale 0 to 1 (perfect reflector).
• Fresh Snow (0.80) > Ocean ice > Sand > Green gross > Soil > Forest > Open ocean
(0.06) > Charcoal (0.04)
TEMPERATURE ANOMALY:
• It refers to a condition when the temperature of a place is different from the mean temperature of the latitude
of which it is located.
1. Positive anomaly: Temperature > mean temperature of latitude. Ex: Sahara Desert
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2. Negative anomaly: Temperature < mean temperature of latitude. Ex: Mt. Everest
ISOTHERMS:
• Isotherms are imaginary line joining places having an equal temperature.
• Ideally for homogenous Earth isotherms should be following latitudes but, due to land water heat difference,
they bend in different directions.
• General rule: While crossing land the isotherms in any hemisphere bend (towards pole/equator) to negate
the effect of the season. Ex: In January the isotherms deviate to the north over the ocean and to the south
over the continent.
Characteristics of Isotherms:
1. In Northern hemisphere, isotherms are irregular & closely spaced.
2. In Southern hemisphere, isotherms are more regular &widely spaced.
TEMPERATURE INVERSION
• It is a condition in which a warm air layer lies above the cold air layer (negative lapse).
2. Valley Inversion
• The inversion takes place in hills and mountains due to air
drainage.
• Cold air at the hills and mountains, produced during the night,
flows under the influence of gravity.
• Being heavy and dense, the cold air acts almost like water and
moves down the slope to pile up deeply in pockets and valley
bottoms with warm air above. This is called air drainage.
• It protects plants from frost damages.
STUDENTS NOTES
Horse Latitude: In old days, vessels with cargo of horses passing through these belts found difficulty in sailing
under these calm conditions. They used to throw the horses in the sea in order to make the vessels lighter. So
this Belts is called as ‘horse latitudes’.
Types of Wind:
1. Planetary winds or permanent winds
2. Periodic winds
3. Local winds
1. PLANETARY WINDS:
Planetary or permanent winds blow in the same direction
throughout the year. They are:
a. Tropical easterly or trade winds,
b. Westerlies
c. Polar easterlies.
2. Periodic Winds:
• The direction of these winds changes with the change of seasons. Monsoon winds are the most important
periodic winds.
• Other examples of periodic winds include land and sea breeze, mountain and valley breeze, cyclones and
anti-cyclones, and air masses.
3. Local Winds:
• Local differences of temperature and pressure produces local winds.
• Such winds are local in extent and are confined to the lowest levels of the troposphere.
1. Hadley cell :
• The air at the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) rises
because of convection caused by high insolation and a low
pressure is created. The winds from the tropics converge at
this low pressure zone.
• The converged air rises and moves towards the poles. This
causes accumulation of air at about 30ᴼ N and S.
• Part of the accumulated air sinks to the ground and forms a
subtropical high. Another reason for sinking is the cooling of
air when it reaches 30ᴼ N and S latitudes.
• Down below near the land surface the air flows towards the
equator as the easterlies.
• The easterlies from either side of the equator converge in the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
2. Ferrel Cell:
3. Polar Cell:
• At polar latitudes, the cold dense air subsides near the poles and blows towards middle latitudes as the polar
easterlies. This cell is called the polar cell.
• At the 60th parallel, the air rises to the tropopause (about 8 km at this latitude) and moves poleward. As it
does so, the upper level air mass deviates toward the east.
• When the air reaches the polar areas, it has cooled and is considerably denser than the underlying air. It
descends, creating a cold, dry high-pressure area.
• At the polar surface level, the mass of air is driven toward the 60th parallel, replacing the air that rose there,
and the polar circulation cell is complete.
• As the air at the surface moves toward the equator, it deviates toward the west.
• Again, the deviations of the air masses are the result of the Coriolis effect. The air flows at the surface are
called the polar easterlies.
• The outflow of air mass from the cell creates harmonic waves in the atmosphere known as Rossby waves.
• These ultra-long waves determine the path of the polar jet stream, which travels within the transitional zone
between the tropopause and the Ferrel cell.
• By acting as a heat sink, the polar cell moves the abundant heat from the equator toward the polar
regions.
GEOSTROPHIC WINDS
• As winds blow parallel to the pressure gradient force, they are deflected sideways by the Coriolis force.
• In upper troposphere, the pressure gradient force is balanced by equal Coriolis force acting in opposite
direction.
• As a result, winds start flowing parallel to isobars and perpendicular to pressure gradient force. These winds
are known as Geostrophic Winds.
• These winds can also form in a cyclonic or anti cyclonic circulation.
• Balancing of pressure gradient force and Coriolis force is the reason why the air rising from equatorial belt
does not go straight towards pole but descends in the subtropics. One important type of geostrophic winds
are the Jet Streams.
JET STREAMS
• Jet Streams (Upper air westerlies) are narrow bands of meandering high velocity geostrophic winds that
flow in the upper troposphere circumnavigating the poles.
• These winds blow from west to east in both the hemispheres.
• The wave like flow of jet streams is because of changes in Coriolis force with latitudes.
• The meanders formed by these winds are known as Rossby waves.
AIR MASS
• A large body of air having little horizontal variation in temperature and moisture is known as Air Mass.
• When air remains over a homogenous area for a sufficiently longer time, it acquires the characteristics of the
area. These are known as Source Regions.
SOURCE REGIONS
• Source Region imparts heat and moisture characteristics to the overlying air mass.
• These homogenous regions can be the vast ocean surface or vast plains and plateaus which have homogenous
temperature and moisture across long distances.
• The main source regions are in the high pressure belts in the sub tropics (giving rise to tropical hot air
masses) and around the poles (the source for polar cold air masses).
• Areas with high pressure but little pressure difference or pressure gradient are ideal source regions.
• There are no major source regions in the midlatitudes as these regions are dominated by cyclonic and other
disturbances.
• There are five major source regions. These are:
1. Warm tropical and subtropical oceans (warm and moist air masses);
2. The subtropical hot deserts (hot & dry air masses);
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3. The relatively cold high latitude oceans (cool and moist air masses);
4. The very cold snow-covered continents in high latitudes (cold and dry air masses);
5. Permanently ice-covered continents in the Arctic and Antarctica (cold and dry air masses).
TYPES OF AIRMASSES:
• Characteristics of an air mass are not very important for the source region but they are important for the
regions these masses travel to. For ex., air mass over Siberia is not cold for Siberia. This air mass might be
cold air mass for the warmer regions down south. This air mass might even be a warm air mass if it travels
to the arctic region.
• Thus, a cold air mass is one which is colder than the underlying surface.
• A warm air mass is one which is warmer than the underlying surface.
• Air masses are classified into various classes and denoted by following letters:
o c : continental (dry) air mass
o m : maritime (moist) air mass
o T : tropical (warm)
o P : polar (cold)
o A : Arctic or Antarctic (cold)
o E : Equatorial (warm and moist)
• These air masses are characterized by dry, cold and stable conditions.
CONTINENTAL POLAR • Source regions of these air masses are the Arctic basin, northern North
AIR MASS (cP) America, Eurasia, and Antarctica.
• These are also known as Continental Arctic (cA) air masses.
• These are actually those continental polar air masses which have moved over
the warmer oceans, got heated up and have collected moisture.
• The source region of these air masses are the oceans between 40° and 60°
MARITIME POLAR AIR latitudes.
MASS (mP) • The conditions over the source regions are cool, moist, and unstable. These are
the regions which cannot lie stagnant for long.
• The weather during winters is characterized by high humidity, overcast skies
and occasional fog and precipitation.
• During summer, the weather is clear, fair and stable.
CONTINENTAL • The source-regions of the air masses include tropical and sub-tropical deserts
TROPICAL AIR MASS of Sahara in Africa, and of West Asia and Australia.
(cT) • These air masses are dry, hot and stable and do not extend beyond the source.
• They are dry throughout the year.
• The source regions of these air masses include the oceans in tropics and sub-
tropics such as Mexican Gulf, the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans.
MARITIME TROPICAL • These air masses are warm, humid and unstable.
AIR MASS (mT) • The weather during winter has mild temperatures, overcast skies with fog.
• During summer, the weather is characterized by high temperatures, high
humidity, cumulous clouds and convectional rainfall.
STUDENT NOTES:
HUMIDITY
• Water vapour present in the air is known as humidity.
• ABSOLUTE HUMIDITY (AH) is the actual amount of water vapour present in the atmosphere.
• AH is the weight of water vapour per unit volume of air.
• AH is expressed in terms of grams per cubic meter (g/m3).
• RELATIVE HUMIDITY (RH) is the percentage of moisture present in the atmosphere as compared to its full
capacity at a given temperature.
• RH is greater over the oceans and lower over the continents.
• SPECIFIC HUMIDITY (SH) is the mass of water vapour per unit mass of air. SH is preferred over AH as it
doesn’t change with change in the condition of temperature & pressure.
• Humidity Capacity (HC) is the maximum amount of water vapour which an air parcel can hold to become
saturated. HC α Temperature.
• The air containing moisture to its full capacity at a given temperature is said to be saturated.
• Note: The ability of the air to hold water vapour depends entirely on its temperature.
Prelims Mains
• Note: Condensation takes place when the dew point is lower than the freezing point as well as higher than
the freezing point.
• After condensation, the moisture in the atmosphere takes one of the following forms; dew, frost, fog and
clouds.
• Dew is water droplets that appear on the cooler surface of solid objects (rather than on the
nuclei in the air) due to condensation.
• Ideal conditions for dew formation:
1. Clear Sky,
DEW 2. Calm Air,
3. High Relative Humidity
4. Cold and Long Nights &
• The temperature at which a given sample of air saturates is termed as Dew Point.
• The dew point is above the freezing point.
FROST Frost forms on cold surfaces when condensation takes place below freezing point (00C), i.e. the
dew point is at or below the freezing point.
CLOUDS
• Cloud is a mass of floating water droplets or tiny crystals of ice.
• Formed by the condensation of the water vapour in free air at considerable elevations.
• According to their height, expanse, density and transparency or opaqueness clouds are grouped under four
types: (i) cirrus; (ii) cumulus; (iii) stratus; (iv) nimbus.
TYPES OF RAINFALL
• Based on origin, rainfall may be classified into three main types, the convectional, orographic or relief and
the cyclonic or frontal.
FRONTS
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• Front is a three dimensional boundary zone between two converging air masses with contrasting physical
properties like temperature, humidity etc.
• Fronts are commonly formed in the higher latitudes (40° - 65° latitudes) where warm and moist subtropical
air masses come in contact with cold and dry polar air masses.
• The process of formation of a front is known as Frontogenesis and it involves convergence of two distinct
air masses.
• Dissipation of a front is known as Frontolysis where one of the air masses over rides other.
• In northern hemisphere Frontogenesis happens in anti-clockwise direction and in southern
hemisphere, in clockwise direction. This is due to Coriolis Effect.
• Frontogenesis is the reason for the formation of temperate or extra tropical cyclones in mid latitudes.
Based on the mechanism of frontogenesis and the associated weather, the fronts can be studied under
the following types:
• When two contrasting air masses collide and are unable to push against each other,
then the surface position of a front does not change and a stationary front is formed.
STATIONARY • The wind motion on both sides of the front is parallel to the front.
FRONT • Once this boundary resumes its forward motion, it becomes either a warm front or cold
front.
• Cumulonimbus clouds are formed along a stationary front. Overrunning of warm air
along such a front causes frontal precipitation.
• When a cold air mass replaces a warm air mass by advancing into it or the warm air
mass retreats and cold air mass advances, then the transition zone between them is
known as Cold Front.
COLD FRONT • Cold air mass violently displaces the warm air mass upwards causing cloud formation
and heavy rainfall for short duration.
• Severe storms can occur. During the summer months thunderstorms are common.
• Cold front moves up to twice as quickly as warm fronts. Frontolysis begins when the
warm air mass is completely uplifted by the cold air mass.
• When warm air mass slowly ascends over the cold air mass, a gently sloping front is
formed known as Warm Front.
WARM FRONT • As the warm air moves up the slope, it condenses and causes moderate to gentle
precipitation over a large area.
• Unlike a cold front, the temperature and wind direction changes are gradual.
• Such a front is formed when a cold air mass overtakes a warm air mass and goes
OCCLUDED underneath it.
FRONT • Weather along an occluded front is complex— a mixture of cold front type and warm
front type weather. Such fronts are common in west Europe.
TROPICAL CYCLONES:
• Tropical cyclones are strong low pressure centres that originate over oceans in tropical areas and move
over to the coastal areas bringing about large scale destruction due to violent winds, very heavy rainfall
(torrential rainfall) and storm surge.
• Conditions favourable for tropical cyclone formation:
o Large sea surface with temperature higher than 27° C.
o Presence of the Coriolis force to create a cyclonic vortex (hence they do not form at Equator because
Coriolis force is zero).
o Small variations in the vertical wind speed.
o A pre-existing weak low-pressure area or low-level-cyclonic circulation.
TEMPERATE CYCLONES:
• The low pressure systems developing in the mid and high latitude (35° latitude and 65° latitude in both
hemispheres), beyond the tropics are called the Temperate Cyclones or Extra Tropical Cyclones or Mid-
Latitude Cyclones or Frontal Cyclones or Wave Cyclones.
• They are most commonly formed at the polar fronts where warm and moist air masses meet cold and dry air
masses from poles.
• Such conditions occur over sub-tropical high, sub-polar low pressure belts and along the Tropopause.
• The cold air pushes the warm air upwards from underneath. Thus a void is created because of lessening of
pressure.
• The surrounding air rushed in to occupy this void and coupled with the Earth’s rotation, a cyclone is formed
which advances with the westerlies (Jet Streams).
• These cyclones are actually the formation and occlusion of stationary, cold and warm fronts.
• The temperate cyclones occur mostly in winter, late autumn and spring. They are generally associated with
rainstorms and cloudy weather.
• The temperate cyclones are asymmetrical and shaped like an inverted ‘V’. They stretch over large areas
ranging from 500 km to over 2500 km. They have a height of 8 to 11 km.
• The approach of a temperate cyclone is marked by fall in temperature and pressure and a halo around the
Sun and the moon, and a thin veil of cirrus clouds.
• A light drizzle follows which turns into a heavy downpour. These conditions change with the arrival of the
warm front which halts the fall in mercury level and the rising temperature.
• Rainfall stops and clear weather prevails until the cold front of an anticyclonic character arrives which causes
a fall in temperature, brings cloudiness and rainfall with thunder. After this, once again clear weather is
established.
• Since these cyclones move with the westerlies (Jet Streams), they are oriented east-west. If the storm front
is east-west, the centre moves swiftly eastwards.
• These cyclones can cover long distances under the influence of westerlies.
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• The western disturbances arriving in North West India during winters are remnants of such cyclones.
POLAR VORTEX
• A polar vortex is an area of low pressure polar air revolving over the poles.
• Polar vortex is: cold + upper tropospheric (8-9 km) + circumpolar + low pressure + large cyclonic parcel of
air (1000 km diameter).
• This large upper troposphere cyclone spins in anti-clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere
(clockwise in south).
• It is formed mainly in winter and gets weaker in summer.
• It is usually contained above the poles by the polar front jet streams.
• In winters, the vortex becomes stronger and bigger in extent and the polar front jets also shift towards
Equator.
• As a result, a part of polar vortex may split and intrude into the mid latitudes region bringing extremely cold
weather.
• This portion of the polar vortex intruding into lower latitudes is known as Polar Outbreak.
• The basic cause of monsoon climates is the difference in the rate of heating and cooling
of land and sea.
• In the summer, when the sun is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, low pressure is
created in Central Asia.
Climate:
• Winds blow outwards as the South-East Monsoon, to Java, and after crossing the
equator are drawn towards the continental low-pressure area reaching the Indian sub-
continent as the South-West Monsoon.
• In winter, the conditions are reversed.
• Average monthly temperature is above 18ᴼC, maximum temperature can reach 45ᴼC.
Temperature: • The average temperature in the summer is around 30ᴼC.
• Mean temperature during winters is around 25ᴼC.
Vegetation: • Dry deciduous forests, with broad-leaved hardwood trees.
• Less luxuriant than tropical forests with fewer species.
• Supports high- population density.
• Subsistence farming is the main occupation.
Life and
• Intensive cultivation in regions with irrigational facilities.
Economy:
• Shifting cultivation is followed in North-East India and South-East countries.
• Major crops include rice, sugar, cotton, jute, spices, etc.
• Cattle and sheep rearing for domestic and commercial purposes.
1. The cool, dry season (October to February): Out Blowing dry winds, the North- East
Monsoon brings little or no rain to the Indian sub-continent. However, a small amount of
rain falls in Punjab from cyclonic sources (Western Disturbances).
Tropical 2. The hot dry season (March to mid-June): The sun’s northward shift to the Tropic of
Monsoon Cancer causes a sharp temperature rise. Coastal districts are a little relieved by sea breezes
Seasons: Three and little rain.
distinct seasons 3. The rainy season (mid-June to September): ‘Burst’ of the South-West Monsoon in
mid-June, torrential downpours sweep across the country. Almost all the rain for the year
falls within this rainy season. Concentrated Heavy rainfall in summer is a characteristic
feature of the Tropical Monsoon Climate.
• Sudan type of climate is characterized by an alternate hot, rainy season and cool,
Climate: dry season.
• No distinct rainy season like Monsoon climate.
• In Northern Hemisphere, Rainy season from May to September.
• In Southern Hemisphere, Rainy Season from October to March.
• The amount of rainfall and the length of the rainy season decreases from equator
Rainfall:
to pole-wards towards the desert fringes.
• Trade winds bring rains to the eastern coasts but become dry by the time they
reach interiors of the continents.
• Mean annual temperature is greater than 18° C.
Temperature: • Highest temperatures do not coincide with the period of the highest sun but fall
just below the onset of rains.
• Extreme diurnal range of temperatures. Days are hot and nights are cold.
• The prevailing winds (the Trade Winds) brings rain to the coastal districts.
Winds: • They are strongest in the summer but are relatively dry in continental interiors
or the western coasts.
• The savanna is known as the ‘big game country’ as thousands of animals are
Animal Life of the trapped or killed each year.
Savanna: • There are two main groups of animals in the savanna, the grass-eating
herbivorous animals and the fleshing-eating carnivorous animals.
• Masai tribes of the East African plateau are pastoralists whereas Hausa of
northern Nigeria are settled cultivators.
Life and Economy: • The old grazing grounds of Masai tribes in the Kenyan Highlands were taken over
by the immigrant white settlers for plantation agriculture (coffee, tea, cotton)
and dairy farming.
• Agriculture is barely practiced.
DESERT CLIMATE
Deserts are regions of scanty rainfall which may be:
• Hot like the hot deserts of the Saharan typeor
• Temperate as are the mid-latitude deserts like the Gobi.
HOT DESERTS:
• Also called the ‘Trade Wind Deserts’ because the aridity of the hot deserts is mainly due to the effects of
off-shore Trade Winds.
• The major hot deserts of the world are located on the western coasts of continents between 15°-30° north
and south latitudes.
MID-LATITUDE DESERTS:
• Land of Orchads.
• Trees with small broad leaves are widely spaced and never very tall.
Natural vegetation: • The absence of shade is a distinct feature of Mediterranean lands.
• A wide range of citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons, limes, citrons and
grapefruit are grown.
Local Winds: • Sirocco: hot & dry dusty (blood rain) wind originates in the Sahara Desert.
• Brings a warming effect to the colder Mediterranean region.
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• Mistral: is a cold wind.
• The velocity of the Mistral is intensified by the funnelling effect in the valley
between the Alps and the Central Massif [Plateau in France].
Economic activities: • The area is important for fruit cultivation, cereal growing
• Wine-making and agricultural industries as well as engineering and mining.
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS:
• The grasslands are practically treeless.
• The grasses are not only shorter but also wiry and
sparse.
• Climate is continental with extremes of temperature.
• This type of climate in the southern hemisphere is never
severe due to maritime influence.
• The summers are hot and the winters are cold.
• The heaviest rain comes in June and July (late spring and
early summer).
• About 45 cm is the average annual rainfall.
• Wheat and Maize cultivation is predominant.
• Local wind - Chinook: is a hot wind, also called ‘snow eater’. It melts the snow-covered pastures and
animals can be driven out of doors to graze in the open fields.
• Due to extensive, mechanized wheat cultivation and are now the ‘granaries of the world’.
• The warm temperate eastern margins are the most productive parts of the middle
Economy: latitudes.
• World’s greatest rice-growing areas, warm wet and lowland favour rice cultivation.
• Cane sugar, cotton, tobacco, maize, dairy products etc.
Climatic Conditions: • Bitterly cold winter of long duration, and cool brief summer.
• Siberia often referred to as the ‘cold pole of the earth'.
• Annual Rainfall: 35 to 65 Cm
• Permanent snowfields are absent (as in Alps & Himalayas) due to melting in
spring & summer.
Natural Vegetation: • The coniferous forest belts of Eurasia and North America are the richest
sources of softwood.
• There are four major species in the coniferous forests:
a) Pine, e.g., white pine, red pine, Scot’s pine, Jackpine,
b) Fir, e.g., Douglas fir and balsam fir,
c) Spruce and
d) Larch.
Economy: • The coniferous forest regions of the northern hemisphere are comparatively
little developed.
• Only in the more accessible areas are the forests cleared for lumbering.
• Paper industries due to the availability of Softwood.
•
Characterized by cold, dry winters and warm, wet summers.
•
Winter temperature is below freezing-point.
Climatic Conditions: •
Summers are as warm as the tropics (21° - 27°C).
•
75 to 150 cm rainfall distributed throughout the year with a maximum during
summer.
• Dry Westerlies that blow from continental interiors dominate winters.
• Cool temperate forest.
Natural Vegetation: • Forest tends to be coniferous north of the 50°N latitude.
• Oak, beech, maple and birch are the principal trees.
• Lumbering and its associated timber, paper and pulp industries are the most
Economy important economic undertaking.
• Agriculture is less important because of the severity of the winter and its long
duration.
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THE ARCTIC/POLAR/TUNDRA CLIMATE:
• Found in regions north of the Arctic Circle and south of Antarctic Circle.
STUDENTS NOTES:
CH.8 OCEANOGRAPHY
• 3/4th or 71% of the globe is covered by hydrosphere and remaining 29% by lithosphere.
• Only 2.05% of water on the surface is fresh; the remaining 97% resides in the ocean.
HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
• There is a continuous exchange of water between the atmosphere, the oceans and the continents through the
processes of evaporation, transpiration, condensation and precipitation.
Evaporation Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it
into vapor or steam. The water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes
into the air.
Transpiration Transpiration is the process of water movement through a plant and its evaporation from
aerial parts, such as leaves, stems and flowers.
Condensation Condensation is the process by which water vapor in the air is changed into liquid water.
Condensation is crucial to the water cycle because it is responsible for the formation of
clouds.
Precipitation Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it
anymore. The clouds get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail,
sleet or snow.
• Water vapor carried by the atmosphere condenses as clouds and falls as rain far from where it evaporated.
• Water evaporates from the surface of the ocean, mostly in warm, cloud-free subtropical seas. This cools
the surface of the ocean, and the large amount of heat absorbed the ocean partially buffers the greenhouse
effect from increasing carbon dioxide and other gases.
KEY TERMINOLOGIES:
A gulf is a portion of the ocean that penetrates land. Gulfs vary
greatly in size, shape, and depth. They are generally larger and
Gulf more deeply indented than bays. Like bays, they often make
excellent harbors. Many important trading centers are located on
gulfs.
Important Oceans:
1. Pacific Ocean (165,000,000km2)
2. Atlantic Ocean (82,000,000km2)
3. Indian Ocean (73,000,000km2)
• Average depth of ocean 3,800m
• Average height of lithosphere 840m
• Thus, depth of ocean > height of lithosphere
• A major portion of the ocean floor is found between 3-6 km below the sea level.
• The floors of the oceans are rugged with the world’s largest mountain ranges, deepest trenches and the
largest plains.
• These features are formed, like those of the continents, by the factors of tectonic, volcanic and depositional
processes.
Divisions of the Ocean Floors The ocean floors can be divided into four major divisions:
1. The Continental Shelf
2. The Continental Slope
3. The Deep Sea Plain
4. The Oceanic Deeps.
Besides, these divisions there are also major and minor relief features in the ocean floors like ridges, hills, sea
mounts, guyots, trenches, canyons, etc.
CONTINENTAL SHELF:
• Continental Shelves are the seaward extension of the
continent from shoreline to continental edge.
• It extends from the coast to depths of 100–200 metres
(330–660 feet).
• It is the shallowest part of the ocean. Average slope is 1°
or even less.
• Width varies greatly from a few miles (North Pacific off
the continent of North America) to hundred miles (off
North West Europe) depending upon the nature of reliefs
of the coastal land. The Siberian shelf in the Arctic Ocean,
the largest in the world, stretches to 1,500 km in width.
• Entirely absent: where coasts are extremely mountainous, such as the Rocky Mountain and Andean coasts.
• The shelves are almost absent or very narrow along some of the margins like the coasts of
• Chile, the west coast of Sumatra, etc. (Ocean– Continent Convergence and Ocean – Ocean
Convergence).
• On the contrary, the Siberian shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the largest in the world, stretches to 1,500 km in
width.
• Covers 7.5% of the total area of the oceans.
• It has deposits brought by rivers and streams.
• According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, every nation has a continental shelf extending no more
than 200 nautical miles from the nation's coastline.
• Continental Shelves of India: Compared to the western continental margin of India, the shelf in the eastern
continental margin of India is found to be irregular and narrower, with a variable width.
CONTINENTAL SLOPE:
• The continental slope connects the continental shelf and the ocean basins.
• It begins where the bottom of the continental shelf sharply drops off into a steep slope.
• The gradient of the slope region varies between 2-5°.
• The depth of the slope region varies between 200 and 3,000 m.
• The slope boundary indicates the end of the continents.
• Canyons and trenches are observed in this region.
• On an average, the slope is a narrow band 41 km wide that encircles all continents and islands.
• The passive margin slopes of the South Atlantic Ocean are the widest on average (73 km), although the slope
attains its greatest width of 368 km in the North Atlantic, where the slope protrudes south of Newfoundland.
• The most narrow, active margin, slopes are in the Mediterranean and Black Seas (25.8 km). The average
width of active slopes (35.6 km) is somewhat less than the average width of passive margin slopes (45.7 km).
• The gradient of the slope is lowest off stable coasts without major rivers and highest off coasts with young
mountain ranges and narrow continental shelves.
• Most Pacific slopes are steeper than Atlantic slopes. Gradients are flattest in the Indian Ocean.
• It is important to note, the wider the continental shelf, the steeper the continental slope, reflecting that when
deposition is farther out to sea, the water depth deepens.
• The relief of the continental slope varies considerably due to faulting, submarine slides, and numerous
submarine canyons.
SUBMARINE CANYONS:
• Long, narrow and very deep valleys or trenches located on the continental shelves and slopes with vertical
walls resembling the continental canyons are called submarine canyons because of their location under
oceanic water.
• Some are comparable to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River.
• Submarine canyons are formed via erosion and mass wasting events, particularly on steep continental slopes.
• They are sometimes found cutting across the continental shelves and slopes, often extending from the
mouths of large rivers.
• The Hudson Canyon is the best known submarine canyon in the world.
CONTINENTAL RISE:
• Continental rise is a major depositional regime in oceans made up of thick sequences of continental
material that accumulate between the continental slope and the abyssal plain.
• The continental slope gradually loses its steepness with depth. When the slope reaches a level of between
0.5° and 1°, it is referred to as the continental rise.
• With increasing depth the rise becomes virtually flat and merges with the abyssal plain.
MID-OCEANIC RIDGES:
• It is composed of two chains of mountains separated by a large depression.
• The mountain ranges can have peaks as high as 2,500 m and some even reach above the ocean’s surface.
Iceland, a part of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, is an example.
• They are a few hundred kilometers wide and hundreds and often thousands of kilometers in length on the
floors of oceans. Running for a total length of 75,000 km, these ridges form the largest mountain systems on
earth.
• These ridges are either broad, like a plateau, gently sloping or in the form of steep-sided narrow mountains.
• These oceanic ridge systems are of tectonic origin and provide evidence in support of the theory of Plate
Tectonics.
ABYSSAL HILLS:
• These are elevated features of volcanic origin
• A submarine mountain or peak rising more than 1,000 metres above the ocean floor is known as a seamount.
The Emperor seamount, an extension of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, is a good example.
• The flat topped seamounts are known as guyots. They show evidences of gradual subsidence through stages
to become flat topped submerged mountains. It is estimated that more than 10,000 seamounts and guyots
exist in the Pacific Ocean alone.
ATOLL:
• An atoll is created as a ring of coral surrounds an undersea volcano that has risen above the water's surface.
• Volcano receded into the ocean atoll remains.
• Atoll encloses a lagoon. Thus, It may be a part of the sea (lagoon), or sometimes form enclosing a body of
fresh, brackish, or highly saline water.
Lagoon: A lagoon is a shallow body of water protected from a larger body of water (usually the ocean) by
sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs.
Source of Temperature:
• Major source: Sun
• Some energy, though insignificant, is also received from below the bottom and through the compression of
sea water.
First Layer: • Also called epilimnion represents the top-layer of warm oceanic water.
• 500 m thick.
• Temperature range: 20-to-25-degree C.
• Present within the tropics throughout the year but it develops in mid-latitudes only
during summer. The epipelagic zone (or upper open ocean) is the part of the ocean
where there is enough sunlight for algae to utilize photosynthesis (the process by
which organisms use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into food). This zone reaches
from the sea surface down to approximately 200 m.
Thermocline • Also called metalimnion. Represents vertical zone of oceanic water below the first
Layer: layer.
• Characterized by rapid rate of decrease of temperature with increasing depth
Third Layer: • Also called hypolimnion. This layer is very cold and extends up to the deep ocean floor.
The polar areas have only one layer of cold water from the surface (sea level) to the
deep ocean floor.
• Though the sea temperature decreases with increasing depth but the rate of decrease of temperature is not
uniform. The change in sea temperature below the depth of 2000m is negligible.
• Diurnal and annual ranges of temperature ceases after the depth of 5 fathoms (30 feet) and 100 fathoms (600
feet) respectively.
• The rate of decrease of temperature with increasing depth from equator towards the pole is not uniform.
• Though the surface temperature of the seas decreases from equator towards the poles but the temperature
at ocean bottoms is uniform from equator towards the pole, which means that the rate of decrease of
temperature with increasing depth is more rapid near the equator than towards the poles.
• In the Arctic and Antarctic circles, the surface water temperatures are close to 0° C and so the temperature
change with the depth is very slight (ice is a very bad conductor of heat). Here, only one layer of cold water
exists, which extends from surface to deep ocean floor.
• Sea surface water driven away by offshore winds upwelling of water from below low temperature at
sea surface Thus rate of decrease of temperature with increasing depth becomes low.
• Contrary to this, onshore winds pilling of sea water record relatively high temperature at sea surface
thus rate of decrease of temperature with increasing depth becomes rapid.
• The enclosed seas of high latitudes register inversion of temperature i.e. the temperature of sea surface is
lower than the temperature below due to high insolation throughout the year and lesser mixing of the warm
and cold’ waters. e.g.: Sargasso Sea, Red Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Sulu Sea, etc.
MARGINAL SEAS:
• The North Sea, in spite of its location in higher latitudes, records higher salinity due to more saline water
brought by the North Atlantic Drift.
• Baltic Sea records low salinity due to influx of river waters in large quantity.
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“UDAAN” - Quick and Comprehensive Revision Series GEOGRAPHY: INDIA AND WORLD
WAVES
• Waves are actually the energy, which moves across the ocean surface.
• Most of the waves are caused by the wind driving against water.
• Water particles only travel in a small circle as a wave passes.
• Origin: A wave’s size and shape reveal its origin. Steep waves fairly young ones and probably formed by
local wind. Slow and steady waves originate from faraway places, possibly from another hemisphere.
• Source of energy: Wind. Wind causes waves to travel in the ocean and the energy is released on shorelines.
• The motion of the surface water seldom affects the stagnant deep bottom water of the oceans.
• The largest waves are found in the open oceans approaches the beachslows down (This is due to the
friction occurring between the dynamic water and the sea floor) when the depth of water is less than half
the wavelength of the wave, the wave breaks.
• Waves continue to grow larger as they move and absorb energy from the wind.
• When a breeze of two knots or less blows over calm water, small ripples form and grow as the wind speed
increases until white caps appear in the breaking waves. Waves may travel thousands of km before rolling
ashore, breaking and dissolving as surf (surf: the swell of the sea that breaks upon the shore)
• The maximum wave height is determined by the strength of the wind, i.e. how long it blows and the area over
which it blows in a single direction.
• Circular motion: Waves travel because wind pushes the water body in its course while gravity pulls the crests
of the waves downward. The falling water pushes the former troughs upward, and the wave moves to a new
position. The actual motion of the water beneath the waves is circular.
• It indicates that things are carried up and forward as the wave approaches, and down and back as it passes.
Movement of water caused by meteorological effects (winds and atmospheric pressure changes) is called surges.
Surges are not regular like tides.
TIDES
• The periodical rise and fall of the sea level, once or twice a day, mainly due to the attraction of the sun and
the moon, is called a tide.
• Major cause for tide: Moon’s gravitational pull>Sun’s gravitational pull.
• Even though the sun is much more massive and therefore has stronger overall gravity than the moon, the
moon is closer to the earth so that its gravitational gradient is stronger than that of the sun.
• Another factor is centrifugal force, which is the force that acts to counter balance the gravity.
• Together, the gravitational pull and the centrifugal force are responsible for creating the two major tidal
bulges on the earth.
• On the side of the earth facing the moon, a tidal bulge occurs while on the opposite side though the
gravitational attraction of the moon is less as it is farther away, the centrifugal force causes tidal bulge on the
other side.
Tidal Bulges:
Types of tides:
Perigee Moon’s orbit is closest to the earth High and low tides occur. During this time the tidal range is
greater than normal
Apogee When the moon is farthest from The moon’s gravitational force is limited and the tidal
earth ranges are less than their average heights
Perihelion Earth is closest to the sun Around 3rd January each year, tidal ranges are also much
greater, with unusually high and unusually low tides
Aphelion Earth is farthest from the sun Around 4th july each year, tidal ranges are much less than
average
ebb The time between the high tide and low tide, when the water level is falling
Flow or flood The time between the low tide and high tide, when the tide is rising
OCEAN CURRENTS :
• Ocean currents are large masses of surface water that circulate in regular patterns around the oceans.
• They are the continuous, predictable, directional movement of seawater driven by gravity, wind (Coriolis
Effect), and water density.
Insolation • Insolation water expands. Hence, water near equator is about 8 cm higher in level
than middle latitudes caused slight gradient water flows down slope
Wind • Blowing wind pushes water to move.
• Friction between the wind and the water surface affects the movement of the water
body in its course.
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“UDAAN” - Quick and Comprehensive Revision Series GEOGRAPHY: INDIA AND WORLD
• The Planetary Winds: Trade winds: between the equator and the tropics moves
equatorial water pole wards and west wards.
• E.g. North-East Trade Winds move the North Equatorial currents and its derivatives,
the Florida Current and the Gulf Stream Drift to the warm southern and eastern coast
of U.S.A.
• Similarly, South-East Trade Winds drive the South Equatorial Current which warms
the eastern coast of Brazil as the warm Brazilian Current.
• Westerlies: Temperate latitudes result in a north-easterly flow of water in
Northern Hemisphere thus; warm Gulf Stream is driven to the western coast of
Europe as the North Atlantic Drift.
• Westerlies of Southern Hemisphere drive the West Wind Drift equator wards as
the Peruvian Current off South America and the Benguela Current off Southern Africa.
• Monsoon Winds: In Northern Indian Ocean direction of the current changes
completely with the direction of the monsoon winds which comes from North-east in
winter and South-west in summer.
Gravity • Gravity tends to pull the water down the pile and create gradient variation.
• Coriolis force causes water to move Right in Northern Hemisphere thus
clockwise direction. (e.g.: the circulation of the gulf stream drift and the Canaries
Coriolis Force Current)
• Left in Southern Hemisphere thus, anti-clock wise direction. (e.g. The Brazilian
Current and the West Wind Drift)
• Warm equatorial water lighter and rises move slowly along the surface pole
Temperature wards.
• Heavier Cold water of the polar region creep slowly along the bottom of the sea
equator.
• High salinity dense flow below water of low salinity
Salinity • e.g. In Mediterranean region , there less saline water of open Atlantic flows into the
Mediterranean , and this is compensated by an outflow of denser bottom water from
the Mediterranean.
• A land mass obstructs and diverts a current.
• E.g. the tip of Southern Chile Diverts part of the WEST Wind Drift northwards as
Land Peruvian Current.
• Also shoulder of the Brazil at Cape Sao Roque, divides the west-flowing equatorial
currents into the Cayenne Current which flows north-westwards and Brazilian Current
flows south-westwards.
GYRES:
• Gyre is vast circular system made up of ocean currents that spirals about a central point. Larger, sustained
currents—the Gulf Stream, for example—go by proper names. Taken together, these larger and more
permanent currents make up the systems of currents known as gyres.
• There are five major gyres: the North and South Pacific Subtropical Gyres, the North and South Atlantic
Subtropical Gyres, and the Indian Ocean Subtropical Gyre.
Surface Constitute about 10 per cent of all the water in the ocean, these waters are the
Current: upper 400 m of the ocean.
DEPTH Deep These waters move around the ocean basins due to variations in the density
Water and gravity. Deep waters sink into the deep ocean basins at high latitudes,
Current: where the temperatures are cold enough to cause the density to increase.
Cold Bring cold water into warm water areas. Found on the west coast of the
currents: continents in the low and middle latitudes (true in both hemispheres) and on
the east coast in the higher latitudes in the Hemisphere.
TEMPERATURE Warm Bring warm water into cold water areas and observed on the east coast of
currents: continents in the low and middle latitudes (true in both hemispheres). In the
northern hemisphere they are found on the west coasts of continents in high
latitudes.
• Warm currents flow parallel to the east coasts of the continents in tropical and subtropical latitudes. This
results in warm and rainy climates. These areas lie in the western margins of the subtropical anti-cyclones.
• The mixing of warm and cold currents help to replenish the oxygen and favour the growth of planktons, the
primary food for fish population. The best fishing grounds of the world exist mainly in these mixing zones.
CORAL REEFS
• Coral reefs are built by and made up of thousands of tiny animals known as “coral polyps”.
• These polyps extract calcium salts from sea water to form hard calcareous exoskeletons. Coral reefs over a
period of time transform or evolve into coral islands and various other marine landforms like fringing reefs,
barrier reefs, atolls.
• Many marine organisms live in close association with corals, with tight resource coupling and recycling,
allowing coral reefs to have extremely high productivity and biodiversity, such that they are referred to as
‘the Tropical Rainforests of the Oceans’.
CORAL BLEACHING
• Corals live in a symbiotic relationship with zooxanthellae, an autotrophic microorganism which assists the
corals in food production through photosynthesis.
• The host coral polyp in return provides zooxanthellae with a protected environment to live within, and a
steady supply of carbon dioxide for its photosynthetic processes.
• The bright colours seen in coral colonies are due to these zooxanthellae.
• When these zooxanthellae are subject to some external stress resulting in a decline in their numbers, the
colours of corals disappear. This is known as coral bleaching.
heating of land and sea creates different air pressure zones in different seasons in and
around the Indian subcontinent.
The Himalayan The Himalayas prevent the cold winds from Central Asia from entering the
Mountains subcontinent. It is because of these mountains that this subcontinent experiences
comparatively milder winters as compared to central Asia.
So, These factor have different mechanism with reference to winter and summer season of the yearly separately:
Weather condition in winter season
Weather condition in summer season
• The pressure and wind conditions over India are unique. During winter, there is a
high-pressure area north of the Himalayas. Cold dry winds blow from this region
to the low-pressure areas over the oceans to the south. In summer, a low-pressure
area develops over interior Asia as well as over north-western India.
• During the northern hemisphere 's winter, High pressure area is built in Central
Surface pressure and west Asia. This center of high pressure give rise to the flow of air at the low
and wind level from the north towards the Indian subcontinent.
• These continental winds come in contact with trade wind over northwestern
india.
• Now, the contact zone is not stable and sometimes it shift up to the middle Ganga
valley thus bringing the entire North-western india the influence of the North-
Westerly winds.
• During winter season the
upper air westely jet
streams are positioned in
asia.These are bifurcated in
two branches due to the
tibetian Himalyan
obstruction. North branch
blows north of himalays and
Jet stream and the Tibetan Plateau.Southern
upper air branch blows south of the
circulation mighty mountains.In winter
the sub-tropical westerly jet
stream bring rain to the
western part of india.
• This jet stream is responsible for bringing western disturbances4 from the
Mediterranean region into Indian sub-continent. Winter rain and hail storms in
northwestern plains and occasional heavy snowfall in hilly regions are caused by
these disturbances.
Western cyclonic • The western cyclonic disturbances are weather phenomena of the winter
disturbance and months brought in by the Westerly flow from the Mediterranean region. The
Tropical cyclone usually influence the weather of the north and north-western regions of India. It
brings little rain in winter month which is god for the wheat crops.
• Tropical cyclones occur during the monsoon as well as in October -November,
and are part of the easterly flow. These disturbances affect the coastal regions of
the country. These tropical cyclones have very high wind velocity and heavy
rainfall and hit the Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa coast.
• The easterly jet stream steers the tropical depressions into India. These
depressions play a significant role in the distribution of monsoon rainfall over the
Western cyclonic Indian subcontinent.
disturbance and • The tracks of these depressions are the areas of highest rainfall in India. The
Tropical cyclone frequency at which these depressions visit India, their direction and intensity, all
go a long way in determining the rainfall pattern during the southwest monsoon
period.
• Some Other Feature like unity of Indian Climate Such as Himalaya mountain ranges prevent the cold
northerly wind of central Asia from entering into India and Plurality of season occurs like as winter, fall of
winter, spring, summer rainy and autumn.
INDIAN MONSOON
• The term monsoon is derived from Arabic word ‘mausim’ meaning ‘season’. Arabians were known to
general pattern of winds in different seasons. As such, Arabians used to sail their ships for the movement of
goods and people. Monsoon is actually a wind regime operating at a level of 20 km from the earth’s surface.
It is characterised by seasonal reversal of wind direction at regular intervals.
• Although the monsoon is a global phenomenon influenced by a variety of factors not yet completely
understood, the real monsoon rains cover mainly the South Asian region, represented by India, Myanmar, Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and parts of South East Asia.
Two factors are mainly responsible for this very strong development of monsoons:
1. Vast size of the Indian subcontinent and adjacent seas.
2. Very high and extensive mountain systems of the Himalayas.
• Tibet plateau plays a crucial role in initiating the monsoon circulation. The plateau of Tibet extends over
an area of about 4.5 million sq. km. The average height of these highlands is 4000 m. Due to its enormous
height it receives 2-3 Degree Celsius more insolation than the neighboring areas.
• Heating of these areas leads to a clockwise air circulation in the middle troposphere and two-wind streams
originate from this area. One of these wind streams blow southward and develops into the tropical easterly
jet stream (TEJ).
• The other stream blows in an opposite direction towards the North Pole and becomes the westerly jet stream
over Central Asia.
ROLE OF ENSO:
• El Nino/Southern Oscillation and La Nina - Both terms refer to large-scale changes in sea-surface
temperature across the eastern tropical Pacific and the most powerful phenomenon of the Earth. These are
best known for altering the climate across more than half of the planet that also impact the weather patterns
of India.
• El Nino during winter causes warm conditions over the Indian subcontinent and during summer, it leads to
dry conditions and deficient monsoon. Whereas La Nina results in better than normal monsoon in India.
• India experienced deficient rainfall during El Nino years 2002 and 2009 whereas monsoon was normal
during El Nino years 1994 and 1997. It means that in about 50 per cent of the year with El Nino during
summer, India experienced droughts during monsoon.
• Crops like Paddy, Maize, Groundnut, Guar, Castor, Tur, Moong and Bajra would suffer due to El Nino.
• During appearance of El-Nino or negative SOI, the ascending branch of the walker cell shifts to the central
regions of the Pacific Ocean from west pacific region. In result, the Indian Ocean cell shifts towards east.
The surface winds or Southwest monsoon winds are weaker than normal conditions.
RAIN-BEARING SYSTEMS
• The southwest monsoon splits into two branches, the Arabian Sea Branch
and the Bay of Bengal Branch near the southernmost end of the Indian
Peninsula.
• First originate in the Bay of Bengal causing rainfall over the plains of north
India. Second is the Arabian Sea current of the southwest monsoon which
brings rain to the west coast of India. The latter extends toward a low-
pressure area over the Thar Desert and is roughly three times stronger
than the Bay of Bengal branch.
The Arabian Sea branch of the southwest monsoons is divided into three distinct
streams on arriving in the mainland of India.
1. The first stream strikes the west coast of India and gives extremely heavy
rainfall of over 250 cm. It strikes perpendicular to Western Ghats causing
plentiful Orographic Rainfall (400 to 500 cm annual rainfall on the windward
side). Rainfall is drastically reduced to about 30-50 cm on the leeward side of
the crest. There is a narrow belt of marked aridity on the immediate leeward
The Arabian Sea side of the Western Ghats. But once it is passed, the air starts rising again and
branch the amount of rainfall increases further east.
2. The second stream enters Narmada - Tapi troughs (narrow rift valley) and
reaches central India. It does not cause much rain near the coast due to the
absence of major orographic obstacle across the rift. Some parts of central India
receive rainfall from this stream (Ex: Nagpur).
3. The third stream moves parallel to the Aravalli Range without causing much
rainfall. Consequently, the whole of Rajasthan is a desert area. However, some
orographic effect is occurring on the south-eastern edge of the Aravalli
Range. Mt. Abu gets about 170 cm rainfall while the surrounding plains have
only 60 to 80 cm rainfall.
The Bay of Bengal Branch of the southwest monsoon is divided into two distinct
streams.
1. The first stream crosses the Ganga - Brahmaputra delta and
reaches Meghalaya. Here that the orographic effect results in intense rainfall.
Cherrapunji receives an annual rainfall of 1,102 cm, major portion of which
occurs from June to August. Mawsynram located at 1,329 m above sea level
just 16 km to the west of Cherrapunji records higher annual rainfall of 1,221
The Bay of Bengal cm. Both the stations are located on the southern slopes of the Khasi hills at
Branch the northern end of a deep valley running from south to north.
2. The second stream of the Bay of Bengal branch moves along Himalayan
foothills as they are deflected to the west by the Himalaya and brings
widespread rainfall to Ganga plain. The rainfall by this stream is characterized
by a steady decline as we move from east to west up the plain. The Tamil
Nadu coast remains relatively dry during the south-west monsoon period
because of:
Rain shadow effect of the Arabian Sea current and
Bay of Bengal current which flows parallel to the coast.
RETREAT IN MONSOON
In simple words, retreating means withdrawal. So, withdrawal of south-west monsoon winds from skies of north
India during months of October and November is known as retreating monsoon. The withdrawal is gradually and
takes about three months.
General Characteristic • Monsoon winds are retreating gradually and sudden rise of temperature with
October heat.
• With retreat of the monsoons, the clouds disappear and the sky becomes clear.
Temperature • The day temperature starts falling steeply.
• The diurnal range of temperature increases due to lack of cloud cover.
• As the monsoons retreat, the monsoon trough weakens and gradually shifts
southward. Consequently, the pressure gradient is low. Unlike south-west
Wind Disturbance monsoon, the onset of the north monsoon is not clearly defined.
• The direction of winds over large parts of the country is influenced by the local
pressure conditions.
• October-November is the main rainy season in Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas
of Andhra Pradesh to the south of the Krishna delta as well as a secondary rainy
Rainfall period for Kerala.
• The retreating monsoons absorb moisture while passing over the Bay of Bengal
and cause this rainfall.
• Uneven Distribution of rainfall: - Its spatial distribution is also uneven which ranges from 12 cm to more
than 250 cm.
DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL
• The distribution of rainfall in any region is mostly influenced by the relief features on the surface of the
Earth and the direction of the rain-bearing winds in that region. Another important factor which
influences the distribution of annual rainfall in India is the path followed by the cyclonic depressions.
The region located on the windward side of mountains, hills or plateaus receives comparatively more rainfall
than the leeward side.
• Broadly, India can be divided into the following four regions, depending upon the average annual rainfall
received by those regions.
VARIABILITY OF RAINFALL
• A characteristic feature of rainfall in India is its variability. The variability of rainfall is computed with the
help of the following formula:
• Where C.V. is the coefficient of variation the values of coefficient of variation show the change from the
mean values of rainfall. The actual rainfall in some places deviates from 20-50 per cent.
• The degree to which rainfall amounts vary across an area or through time is an important characteristic of
the climate of an area. This subject area in meteorology/climatology is called "rainfall variability." There
are two types (or components) of rainfall variability, areal and temporal.
TEMPERATE INDIA
TROPICAL INDIA
• The above mentioned major climatic types are further subdivided depending upon the seasonal distribution
of rainfall or degree of dryness or cold.
a: hot summer, average temperature of the warmest month over 22°C
c: cool summer, average temperature of the warmest month under 22°C
f: no dry season
w: dry season in winter
s: dry season in summer
g: Ganges type of annual march of temperature; hottest month comes before the solstice and the summer
rainy season.
h: average annual temperature under 18°C
m (monsoon): short dry season.
• The capital letters S and W are employed to designate the two subdivisions of dry climate:
1. semi-arid or Steppe (S) and
2. arid or desert (W).
• Capital letters T and F are similarly used to designate the two subdivisions of polar climate
1. tundra (T) and
2. Icecap (F).
• Koeppen based his scheme of Climatic classification on monthly values of temperature and precipitation. He
identified five major climatic types, namely:
Greenhouse Gases: Gases like carbon dioxide, water vapour, methane, chlorofluorocarbons, and nitrous oxide
which are present in much smaller concentrations in the atmosphere, together with carbon dioxide are known
as greenhouse gases. These gases are absorbers of long wave terrestrial radiation and contribute to global
warming.
IMPACT ON INDIA
• Unusual and unprecedented spells of hot weather are expected to occur far
EFFECT ON more frequently and cover much larger areas.
TEMPERATURE • Under 4°C warming, the west coast and southern India are projected to shift
PATTERNS to new, high-temperature climatic regimes with significant impacts on
agriculture.
• A decline in monsoon rainfall since the 1950s has already been observed.
The frequency of heavy rainfall events has also increased.
• A 2°C rise in the world’s average temperatures will make India’s summer
monsoon highly unpredictable.
• At 4°C warming, an extremely wet monsoon that currently has a chance of
occurring only once in 100 years is projected to occur every 10 years by the
EFFECT ON end of the century.
PRECIPITATION • An abrupt change in the monsoon could precipitate a major crisis, triggering
more frequent droughts as well as greater flooding in large parts of India.
• India’s northwest coast to the south eastern coastal region could see higher
than average rainfall.
• Dry years are expected to be drier and wet year’s wetter. Droughts are
expected to be more frequent in some areas, especially in north-western
India, Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh.
• Crop yields are expected to fall significantly because of extreme heat by the
2040s (Source: World Bank).
• At 2.5°C warming, melting glaciers and the loss of snow cover over the
Himalayas are expected to threaten the stability and reliability of northern
India’s primarily glacier fed rivers, particularly the Indus and the
EFFECT ON HIMALAYAN Brahmaputra.
GLACIERS • Alterations in the flows of the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers could
significantly impact irrigation, affecting the amount of food that can be
produced in their basins as well as the livelihoods of millions of people.
• Even without climate change, world food prices are expected to increase due
to growing populations and rising incomes, as well as a greater demand for
EFFECT ON biofuels.
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD • Seasonal water scarcity, rising temperatures, and intrusion of sea water
SECURITY would threaten crop yields, jeopardizing the country’s food security.
• Under 2°C warming by the 2050s, the country may need to import more
than twice the amount of food-grain than would be required without climate
change.
• Climate change is expected to have major health impacts in India- increasing
EFFECT ON PUBLIC malnutrition and related health disorders such as child stunting - with the
HEALTH poor likely to be affected most severely.
• Child stunting is projected to increase by 35% by 2050 compared to a
scenario without climate change.
STUDENT NOTES:
•Geometrical shape
•Geological structure
Climate conditions
•Denudational history
• For e.g., trellis pattern, dendritic pattern, parallel pattern etc. Examples of drainage systems are consequent,
subsequent, obsequent, re-sequent, antecedent, and superimposed streams.
• The origin and evolution of any DRAINAGE SYSTEM in a region is determined and controlled by two main
factors:
1. Nature of Initial surface and slope
2. Geological structure (folds, faults, joints etc.)
1. SEQUENT STREAMS: are those that follow the slope and are well adjusted to the geological structure. They
are of the following type:
• These are the first to originate in a particular region. Here slopes are primary
determinant, and the rivers are known as “dip streams”.
Consequent Streams • The first streams to be initiated on a newly emerged coastal plain are these. The
longest stream of the whole system is called “master consequent”.
• Most of the streams of coastal India are examples- Krishna, Cauvery, Rivers
draining the western ghats etc.
• These streams originated after the master streams. They are generally
Subsequent Streams transverse to the master stream i.e., 90 degrees; and their flow is largely
determined by geological structure.
• e.g., River Son (for River Ganga) and River Asan (for Yamuna)
• These also follow the slope of the surface but move in opposite direction before
Obsequent Streams meeting the master stream.
• e.g., Sun Kosi which flows opposite to Master consequent Ganga before meeting.
Resequent Stream • These follow the slope and move in the same direction before meeting the master
stream. These are of recent origin.
2. INSEQUENT OR CONSEQUENT STREAMS: are those not adjusted very well to the geological structure and not
follow the present-day natural slope. They are of the following types:
• These are those that have originated prior to the upliftment of land and they
Antecedent Streams make their way up by vertically eroding the uplifted surfaces.
• E.g., Indus, Sutlej, Kosi etc.
• These exhibit discordance to the underlying rock structure as the cover of rocks
on which they originated has been lost to erosion.
Superimposed • The old rock structure maybe deeply buried under a set of sediments. A river
Streams that starts from that sediment surface after eroding, reaches the underlying
layers of the rocks and finds itself out of adjustment with ancient rock surface.
• E.g., Damodar, Son, Subarnarekha etc.
DRAINAGE PATTERNS
The DRAINAGE PATTERN means the ‘geometrical forms’ of the drainage systems and spatial arrangement of
streams in particular locality or region. Generally divided into the following types:
JHELUM Rises in SE Kashmir valley and flows through the Pir Panjal ranges. It is joined by Kishanganga
river near Muzaffarabad. It joins Chenab in Pakistan.
Originates from near Bara Lacha La near Lahaul Spiti of Zanskar range. Two small headstreams
CHENAB are Chandra and Bhaga and join to form the Chandrabhaga which flows through Pir Panjal and
enters Jammu and Kashmir as the Chenab, it joins Sutlej after receiving waters from Jhelum and
Ravi.
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RAVI Origin is near Rohtang pass in Kullu hills. Flows between the Dhola-Dhar and Pir Panjal ranges. It
joins Chenab in Pakistani Punjab.
Originates near Rohtang pass near Pir Panjal range close to the source of Ravi. It crosses Dhola
BEAS Dhar and meets Shiwalik hills and into the plains. Then it meets River Sutlej at Harike in Punjab. It
lies entirely within India. It lies entirely within the Indian territory.
It rises from Mansarovar-Rakas lake near Damra pass in Western Tibet. It cuts a gorge near Naina
SUTLEJ Devi where Bhakhra Nangal dam has been constructed. It is joined by Beas at Harike. During its
journey it receives collective waters of Ravi, Chenab, and Jhelum. It finally joins Indus in Pakistan.
• Indus empties into the Arabian Sea south of Karachi before forming a delta.
• Water of Indus is shared by India and Pakistan as per the Indus Water Treaty according to which, India can
utilize only 20% of its total discharge.
• Ghaghra originates south of Mansarovar lake in Tibet and cuts through the Himalayas. Sarda and Saryu are
its important tribuataries.
• River Kali forms the border between Nepal and Kumaon region of India and has many feeders.
• River Gandak originates near Tibet-Nepal border receives large number of tributaries in Nepal.
• Burhy Gandak originates from Sumesar hills near Indo-Nepal border. It joins Ganga near Munger town.
• Kosi consists of seven streams and is popularly known as Saptakaushki. The seven streams join into three
and then these three meets at Triveni, north of Mahabharat range. It joins Ganga near Kursela. It is called the
“Sorrow of Bihar”.
• It witnesses heavy siltation and is very wide and braided in lower Assam. Near Dibrugarh it has many islands;
most important of which is Majuli (world’s largest river island).
• Up to Dibrugarh it is navigable (from its mouth)
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• It goes around the Garo hills and enters Bangladesh near Dubri. Here it is known by the name of Jamuna and
joins Ganga.
• The united steams of Ganga and Jamuna is known by the name of Padma.
• Padma merges in Meghna and falls into the Bay of Bengal after forming a broad estuary.
• Left Bank Tributaries: Dibang, Lohit, Dhansiri, Kolong etc.
• Right Bank Tributaries: Kameng, Manas, Raidak, Jaldhaka, Teesta, Subansiri etc.
Why so?
• West flowing rivers, especially Narmada and Tapi flow through hard rocks and are not able to form
distributaries before they enter the Sea.
THE MAHANADI
• The Mahanadi basin extends over states of Chhattisgarh and Odisha and comparatively smaller portions of
Jharkhand, Maharashtra and MP.
• The Mahanadi has its source in the northern foothills of Dandakaranya in Raipur District of Chhattisgarh.
• It is bounded by the Central India hills on the north, by the Eastern Ghats on the south and east and by the
Maikal range on the west.
• The Mahanadi is one of the major rivers of the peninsular rivers, in water potential and flood producing
capacity, it ranks second to the Godavari.
• Other small streams draining directly into the Chilka Lake also forms the part of the Mahanadi basin.
• At Sambalpur, the Hirakud Dam (one of the largest dams in India) on the river has formed a human-made
lake 35 miles (55 km) long.
• It enters the Odisha plains near Cuttack and enters the Bay of Bengal at False Point by several channels.
• Left bank Tributaries: Seonath, Hasdeo, Mand and Ib etc.
• Right bank Tributaries: Ong, Tel and Jonk etc.
THE GODAVARI
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• Largest system of the peninsula and is revered as Vridha Ganga or Dakshin Ganga.
• Below Rajmundry, it divides itself into two streams Gomati Godavari and Vashishta Godavari before
forming a delta and falling into Bay of Bengal.
• Left bank tributaries are: Wardha joins Wainganga and becomes Pranhita which joins Godavari, Penganga
rises from Buldhana range and joins Wardha, Wainganga, Sabari.
• Right bank tributaries: Manjra is the only important one and it joins Godavari after passing through Nizam
Sagar.
THE KRISHNA
• The Krishna is the second largest east flowing river of the Peninsula.
• The Krishna Basin extends over Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.
• Rises in the Western Ghats just north of Mahabaleshwar and flows into the Bay of Bengal.
• Left bank tributaries: Bhima, Musi (Hyderabad located on its banks), Munneru etc.
• Right bank tributaries: Ghatprabha, Koyna, Malprabha, Tungabhadra (largest) etc.
• Important dams on this river include Nagarjuna Sagar, Sri Sailam, Almatti and Basava Sagar etc.
• It forms a large delta which appears to merge with that of Godavari and it extends 35 km into the sea.
THE CAUVERY
• The Kaveri River rises in the Brahmagiri range, Kodagu (Coorg) district of Karnataka.
• The Cauvery basin extends over states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Union Territory of Puducherry.
• Also, a revered river of the south and called Dakshin Ganga.
• It flows eastward 800 km before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
• Its upper catchment area receives rain by SW monsoon during summer and the lower catchment area
receives rain by NE monsoon during winter.
• Therefore, it is almost a perennial river and is useful in power generation and irrigation.
• The river descends from the South Karnataka Plateau to the Tamil Nadu Plains through the Shivasamudram
waterfalls (101 m high).
• At Hogennekkal Falls, it takes Southerly direction and enters the Mettur Reservoir.
• In the last stage, the river divides into two parts, the Northern branch being called ‘The Coleron’ and
Southern branch remains as Cauvery, and from here the Cauvery Delta begins.
• After flowing for about 16 km, the two branches join again to form ‘Srirangam Island’.
• Left bank tributaries: Harangi, Hemavati, Shimsha and Arkavati etc.
• Right bank tributaries: Lakshmantirtha, Kabbani, Bhavani, Noyil and Amravati etc.
THE SUBARNAREKHA
• The Subarnarekha (395 km) originates from the Ranchi Plateau in Jharkhand forming the boundary between
West Bengal and Odisha in its lower course before joining the Bay of Bengal.
• It forms an estuary between the Ganga and Mahanadi deltas.
THE BRAHMANI
• The Brahmani (800 km) comes into existence by the confluence of the Koel and the Sankh rivers near
Rourkela, Odisha.
• The basin is surrounded by the Chhotanagpur plateau and the Mahanadi basin.
• The basin flows through Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa States and drains into the Bay of Bengal.
Prelims Mains
THE PENNER
• The Pennar (597 km) rises in the Chenna Kesava hill of the Nandidurg range, in Chikkaballapura district of
Karnataka and flows towards east eventually draining into the Bay of Bengal.
• Its basin extends over states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
• Seshachalam Hills (famous for Red Sanders) and Paliconda ranges are important hill ranges in the basin.
• Left bank tributaries: Jayamangali, Kunderu and Sagileru etc.
• Right bank tributaries: Chiravati and Papagni etc.
THE NARMADA
• It is the largest of all west flowing rivers of peninsular India. It rises from the western flanks of
Amarkantak in MP.
• Flows westward in a rift valley between the Vindhyas and the Satpuras.
• It forms famous falls: Dhuandhar Falls (known as Marble Falls) near Jabalpur, Kapildhara Falls near
Amarkantak and Sahasradhara Falls near Maheshwar, both in Madhya Pradesh.
• It meanders through alluvial plains past Bharuch (GJ) and forms an Estuary before falling into the Gulf of
Khambhat.
• There are several riverine islands in Narmada’s estuary-Aliabet is the largest.
• Major hydropower projects in the basin include Indira Sagar, Sardar Sarovar, Omkareshwar, Barg and
Maheshwar etc.
• Tributaries: Hiran (right bank), Kolar (right bank), Tawa (left bank).
Rift Valley
• Linear faults created in the crust due to tensional diastrophic forces.
• Narmada and Tapti did not form their own valleys and instead flow in rifts (faults) created during the bending
of the peninsular block.
• This bending happened because of the collision with Eurasian plate and formation of Himalayas.
THE SABARMATI
• The Sabarmati is the name given to the combined streams of the Sabar and Hathmati.
• The Sabarmati basin extends over states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• The total length of the river from origin in Aravalli Hills (Rajasthan) to outfall into the Arabian Sea is 371 km.
• Industrial city of Ahmedabad is located on its banks.
• It falls in the Gulf of Khambhat and has few tributaries: Sedhi, Wakul, Meshwa.
THE MAHI
• The Mahi basin extends over states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• It originates from the northern slopes of Vindhyas in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh and drains into
Gulf of Khambhat covering 580 km.
• Hydro Power stations are located in Mahi Bajaj Sagar dam and at Kadana Dam.
• It crosses the Tropic of Cancer twice.
• Main tributaries are: Som, Anas, Panam.
RIVER REGIMES
• It is the seasonal fluctuation in the volume of water in a river. The climatic differences in the sources of the
Himalayan and Peninsular rivers lead to differences in drainage patterns.
• Regimes of Himalayan rivers are both monsoonal and glacial while that of Peninsular rivers are only
monsoonal.
1. GANGA
o Minimum flow from January to June.
o Maximum from August to September.
o Rate of flow steadily falls after September and thus Ganga has a monsoonal regime.
2. JHELUM
o Attains its max flow in June or even in May due to snowmelt.
3. NARMADA
o It has a very low volume of discharge from January to July which suddenly rises in August when the
maximum is attained.
4. GODAVARI
o Flows at a low level until May and has a double maximum: In May-June and July-August
o After August there is a sharp fall.
• The potential energy of the water stored in reservoirs can be tapped to generate electric power in hydel
power projects.
• India ranks fourth after China, USA and Russia in terms of number of dams.
• Tehri dam on Bhagirathi river (Uttarakhand) is the tallest dam in India (260 m) and also the eighth highest
dam in the world.
• Hirakud dam on Mahanadi river (Odisha) is the longest dam in India.
• Indira Sagar Project on Narmada river (Madhya Pradesh) has the largest reservoir in terms of storage of
water.
STUDENT NOTES:
CH.11 SOILS
• Soil is the mixture of rock debris and organic materials which develop on the earth’s surface. Pedogenesis is
the natural process of soil formation that includes a variety of processes such as weathering, leaching,
calcification etc.
• Components of the soil are mineral particles, humus, water and air.
The actual amount of each of these factors depend upon the type of soil.
SOIL PROFILE
• The vertical section of the soil showing different layers from
the surface to the parent material is known as soil profile.
• Soil particle sizes varies which further determine soil profile.
Soil horizon: A layer generally parallel to the soil surface, whose physical characteristics differ from the layers
above and beneath. These are defined in most cases by obvious physical features, chiefly colour and texture.
ALLUVIAL SOILS
• They are depositional soils, transported and deposited
by rivers and streams.
• About 40 per cent of the total area of the country.
• The alluvial soils vary in nature from sandy loam to
clay.
• In the Upper and Middle Ganga plain, two different
Characteristics types of alluvial soils have developed:
1. Khadar: New alluvium; deposited by floods annually, which enriches the soil
by depositing fine silts; Contain calcareous concretions (Kankars).
2. Bhangar: older alluvium; deposited away from the flood plains; Contain
calcareous concretions (Kankars).
• These soils are loamier and more clayey in the lower and middle Ganga plain and
the Brahmaputra valley. The sand content decreases from the west to east.
• The colour of the alluvial soils varies from the light grey to ash grey.
• Alluvial soils are intensively cultivated.
Minerals • They are generally rich in potash but poor in phosphorous.
• Alluvial soils are widespread in the northern plains and the river valleys.
Areas • Through a narrow corridor in Rajasthan, they extend into the plains of Gujarat.
• In the Peninsular region, they are found in deltas of the east coast and in the river
valleys.
BLACK SOILS
• The black soil is very deep. These soils are also
known as the ‘Regur Soil’ or the ‘Black Cotton Soil’.
• Generally clayey, deep and impermeable.
• They swell and become sticky when wet and shrink
Characteristics when dried.
• So, during the dry season, these soils develop wide
cracks. Called ‘self-ploughing’ because of this
character of slow absorption and loss of moisture, it retains the moisture for a very
long time, which helps the crops, especially, the rain fed ones, to sustain even
during the dry season.
• The colour of the soil ranges from deep black to grey.
• Rich in lime, iron, magnesia and alumina.
Minerals • They also contain potash.
• But they lack in phosphorous, nitrogen and organic matter.
• Black soil covers most of the Deccan Plateau which includes parts of Maharashtra,
Areas Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and some parts of Tamil Nadu.
• In the upper reaches of the Godavari and the Krishna, and the north western part
of the Deccan Plateau.
LATERITE SOILS
• Laterite has been derived from the Latin word ‘Later’
which means brick.
• Develop in areas with high temperature and high rainfall.
• Result of intense leaching due to tropical rains.
Characteristics • Humus content of the soil is removed fast by bacteria
that thrives well in high temperature.
• Suitable for tree crops like cashew nut.
• Laterite soils are widely cut as bricks for use in house construction.
• These soils have mainly developed in the higher areas of the peninsular plateau.
• With rain, lime and silica are leached away, and soils rich in iron oxide and
Minerals aluminum compound are left behind.
• These soils are poor in organic matter, nitrogen, phosphate and calcium, while iron
oxide and potash are in excess.
Areas • The laterite soils are commonly found in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,
Madhya Pradesh and the hilly areas of Odisha and Assam.
ARID SOILS
• Arid soils range from red to brown in colour.
• They are generally sandy in structure and saline in
nature.
• In some areas, the salt content is so high that common
Characteristics salt is obtained by evaporating the saline water.
• Lower horizons are occupied by ‘kankar’ layers
because of the increasing calcium content downwards.
• The ‘Kankar’ layer formation in the bottom horizons restricts the infiltration
of water, so soil moisture remains unavailable for plant growth.
Minerals • These soils are poor and contain little humus and organic.
• Nitrogen is insufficient and the phosphate content is normal.
Areas • Characteristically developed in western Rajasthan, which exhibit characteristic
arid topography.
SALINE SOILS
• They are also known as Usara soils.
• They are infertile, and do not support any vegetative
growth.
Characteristics • Their structure ranges from sandy to loamy.
• In the Rann of Kuchchh, the Southwest Monsoon
brings salt particles and deposits there as a crust.
• Seawater intrusions in the deltas promote the occurrence of saline soils. In the
areas of intensive cultivation with excessive use of irrigation, the fertile alluvial
soils are becoming saline.
• Excessive irrigation with dry climatic conditions promotes capillary action, which
results in the deposition of salt on the top layer of the soil.
• In such areas, especially in Punjab and Haryana, farmers are advised to add
gypsum to solve the problem of salinity in the soil.
Minerals • Saline soils contain a larger proportion of sodium, potassium and magnesium
• They lack in nitrogen and calcium.
Areas • They occur in arid and semi-arid regions, and in waterlogged and swampy areas.
• More widespread in western Gujarat, deltas of the eastern coast and in
Sunderban areas of West Bengal, Rann of Kuchchh.
PEATY SOILS
• They are found in the areas of heavy rainfall and high
humidity, where there is a good growth of vegetation.
Characteristics • Organic matter in these soils may go even up to 40-50 per
cent.
• These soils are normally heavy and black in colour. At many
places, they are alkaline also.
Minerals • Large quantity of dead organic matter accumulates in these areas, and this gives a
rich humus and organic content to the soil.
Areas • It occurs widely in the northern part of Bihar, southern part of Uttaranchal and
the coastal areas of West Bengal, Orissa and Tamil Nadu.
FOREST SOILS
• Formed in the forest areas where sufficient rainfall is available.
• The soils vary in structure and texture depending on the mountain environment
where they are formed.
• They are loamy and silty on valley sides and coarse-grained in the upper slopes.
Characteristics • In the snow-bound areas of the Himalayas, they experience denudation, and are
acidic with low humus content.
• The soils found in the lower valleys are fertile.
• Heterogeneous in nature and their character changes with parent rocks, ground-
configuration and climate.
• They are especially suitable for plantations of tea, coffee, spices and tropical fruits.
Minerals • The forest soils are very rich in humus but are deficient in potash, phosphorus and
lime.
Areas • Himalayan region, Western and Eastern Ghats as well as in some parts of the
Peninsular plateau.
1) Splash Erosion: First stage of erosion process. Occurs when raindrop hit bare soil.
2) Sheet Erosion: Uniform movement of a thin layer of soil across an expanse of land devoid of vegetative
cover.
3) Rill Erosion: When sheet flows begin to concentrate on the land surface. Rill erosion leaves visible
scouring on landscape.
4) Gully Erosion: Rill erosion evolves into gully erosion. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but
are metres to tens of metres in depth and width.
SOIL CONSERVATION
• Soil conservation is a methodology to maintain soil fertility, prevent soil erosion and exhaustion, and improve
the degraded condition of the soil.
• Lands with a slope gradient of 15 - 25 per cent should not be used for cultivation. If at all the
• land is to be used for agriculture, terraces should carefully be made.
• Over-grazing and shifting cultivation must be checked by educating villagers about the
• consequences.
• Contour bunding Contour terracing, regulated forestry, controlled grazing, cover cropping, mixed farming
and crop rotation are some of the remedial measures which are often adopted to reduce soil erosion.
• In arid and semi-arid areas, efforts should be made to protect cultivable lands from encroachment by sand
dunes through developing shelter belts of trees and agro forestry.
IMPORTANT TERM
• Contour Bunding: Contour bunding or contour ploughing or contour farming is the practice of creating a
water break (bunds) along the contour lines in hilly areas to reduce the speed of water flowing downslope.
• Check Dams: A small dam constructed across the waterway to counteract erosion.
• Wind Breaks or shelter belts: A belt of trees planted around the fields to provide shelter from winds.
GOVERNMENT INITIATIVE:
• UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), met in the Indian capital of New Delhi for COP14,
adopting a series of breakthrough measures in the accord, known as the Delhi Declaration.
• India will restore 26 million hectares of degraded land /land degradation neutrality by the SDG target year
of 2030.
STUDENT NOTES:
TYPES OF FOREST
MONTAIN FOREST
NORTHERN MONTAIN FOREST (HIMALAYAS)
• Western Ghats, the Vindhyas and the Nilgiris, Satpura and the Maikal ranges,
Location Anamalais, Palni hills, Kalakadu, Mundanthurai and Kanyakumari in the states
of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Rainfall • Rainfall:150 to 300 cm
• As are closer to the tropics, and only 1,500 m above sea level, vegetation is
temperate in the higher regions, subtropical on the lower regions of Western
Characteristics Ghats, especially in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
• Red-colored young leaves turning into different colors on maturity is a
prominent characteristic of the Shola forests.
• The temperate forests are called Sholas also known as rolling grasslands in
Species found the Nilgiris, Anaimalai and Palani hills.
• Others include magnolia, laurel, cinchona and wattle.
SACRED GROVES:
• Sacred groves refer to a piece of natural vegetation that is protected by a certain community due to religious
reasons.
CARBON STOCK
• Total carbon stock in the country's forest: estimated to be 7,124.6 million tonnes.
• There is an increase of 42.6 million tonnes in the carbon stock of the country as compared to the last
assessment of 2017.
• State-wise Maximum carbon stock: Arunachal Pradesh > Madhya Pradesh > Chhattisgarh > Maharashtra
• State-wise Maximum per hectare carbon stock: Sikkim > Andaman & Nicobar Islands > Jammu & Kashmir
> Himachal Pradesh > Arunachal Pradesh
• Soil organic carbon is the largest pool of forest carbon followed by Above Ground Biomass (AGB), Below
Ground Biomass (BGB), Litter and dead wood.
FOREST CONSERVATION:
• Forests have an intricate interrelationship with life and environment. These provide numerous direct and
indirect advantages to our economy and society. Hence, conservation of forest is of vital importance to the
survival and prosperity of humankind.
• Accordingly, the Government of India proposed to have a nation-wide forest conservation policy, and
adopted a forest policy in 1952, which was further modified in 1988.
• According to the this forest policy, the Government will emphasise sustainable forest management in order
to conserve and expand forest reserve on the one hand, and to meet the needs of local people on the other.
• The Ministry of Environment released the draft National Forest Policy in the year 2018. The basic thrust of
the draft Policy is for conservation, protection, and management of forests along with addressing other issues
associated with forest and forest management.
• Social forestry means the management and protection of forests and afforestation
on barren lands with the purpose of helping in the environmental, social and rural
Social forestry development.
• According to the National Commission on Agriculture (1976), these are urban
forestry, Rural forestry and Farm forestry.
• Urban forestry pertains to the raising and management of trees on public and
privately owned lands in and around urban centres such as green belts, parks,
roadside avenues, industrial and commercial green belts, etc. Gandhinagar leads
Urban forestry in per capita urban greenery among Indian cities with Chandigarh taking second.
• Cities renowned for their urban green spaces often have 20% to 35% coverage of
total geographical area. For Chandigarh it is 35%, Delhi 20% and Gandhinagar it
is 57.13%.
Rural forestry • Rural forestry lays emphasis on promotion of agro-forestry and community-
forestry.
• Agro-forestry is the raising of trees and agriculture crops on the same land
inclusive of the waste patches. It combines forestry with agriculture, thus, altering
the simultaneous production of food, fodder, fuel, timber and fruit.
Agro-forestry • A policy which deals with problems faced by agroforestry sector, including
adverse policies, weak markets and a dearth of institutional finance was approved
by the Cabinet in February 2014.
• India became the world's first country to adopt a comprehensive agroforestry
policy.
• Community forestry involves the raising of trees on public or community land
such as the village pasture and temple land, roadside, canal bank, strips along
railway lines, and schools etc.
Community forestry • Community forestry programme aims at providing benefits to the community as
a whole.
• Community forestry provides a means under which the people of landless classes
can associate themselves in tree raising and thus, get those benefits which
otherwise are restricted for landowners.
• Farm forestry is a term applied to the process under which farmers grow trees for
commercial and non-commercial purposes on their farm lands.
• Forest departments of various states distribute seedlings of trees free of cost to
Farm forestry small and medium farmers.
• Several lands such as the margins of agricultural fields, grasslands and pastures,
land around homes and cow sheds may be used for raising trees under non-
commercial farm forestry.
Isolate Dwellings • Such settlement consists of individual units. It can be termed as the initial state of
development of a settlement.
• An isolated dwelling would only have 1 or 2 buildings or families in it
Hamlets • When many individual units are cluster together, they form hamlets. The grouping
may be due to similar occupation patterns, religion, cultural factors etc.
• A hamlet has a tiny population
Villages • When many hamlets combine they from a village. The reason for such grouping may
be due to interdependencies of one hamlet on another, thus to form a self-sufficient
unit.
Towns • A town is a larger entity which is more self-sufficient and has a stronger economic
base.
Cities • Where large concentration of people exists, multiple economic activities exist.
Metropolis • A metropolis is a large city, with a population of at least one million living in its urban
agglomeration.
Megalopolis • An extensive, metropolitan area or a long chain of continuous metropolitan areas.
RURAL SETTLEMENTS:
URBAN SETTLEMENTS:
The definition of urban areas has been refined in 2011 according to which urban areas are comprised of two
types of administrative units - Statutory Towns and Census Towns.
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• Statutory Towns: All administrative units that have been defined by statute as urban like Municipal
Corporation, Municipality, Cantonment Board, Notified Town Area Committee, Town Panchayat, Nagar Palikas
etc., are known as Statutory Towns.
• Census Towns: Administrative units satisfying the following three criteria simultaneously are treated as
Census Towns as mentioned below:
A minimum population of 5000;
At least 75 percent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural sector;
A density of population of at least 4,000 persons per square kilometer.
City Towns with population of 1,00,000 and above are categorised as cities.
An Out Growth (OG) is a viable unit such as a village or a hamlet or an enumeration
Outgrowth block made up of such village or hamlet and clearly identifiable in terms of its
boundaries and location. Some of the examples are railway colony, university campus,
port area, military camp, etc
Cities with population of one million and over are known as metropolitan cities. The
Metropolitan Cities main activities in these cities are industries, trade, commerce, transport, cultural and
political. The number of metropolitan cities increased from 12 in 1981 to 53 in
2011.
Cities with population of 5 million and above are known as mega cities,
Mega Cities according to Census of India. But United Nations considers mega cities as those that
have a population of 10 million and above. In India, Greater Mumbai, Kolkata and
Delhi are examples of mega cities.
This term was coined by Patrick Geddes. It comes into being by coalescence of urban
settlements which were separated by open space in the past.
Conurbation The coalescence usually occurs through Ribbon Development along the main
inter-urban transport routes. Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are good examples of
conurbations in India
It is a Greek word which is derived by combining two terms ‘great’ and ‘city’. It is just
Megalopolis like conurbation and is formed when a large city of Boston to sprawls and brings
into its fold, the smaller adjacent towns and cities. This term was first used by
Gottman in 1964
STUDENTS NOTES:
TERMS DEFINITION
Crude birth rate The annual number of live births per 1,000 people.
General fertility rate The annual number of live births per 1,000 women of childbearing age (often taken to
be from 15 to 49 years, but sometimes from 15 to 44)
Age- specific fertility The annual number of live births per 1,000 women in particular age groups (usually
rate 15- 19, 20-24 and so on).
Crude death rate The annual number of deaths per 1,000 people
Infant mortality rate The annual number of deaths of children of age less than 1-year-old per 1,000 live
birth
Life expectancy The number of years which an individual at a given age can expect to live at present
mortality levels. Life expectancy of India is 69.16 years (2017)
Total fertility rate The number of live births per woman completing her reproductive life, if her
childbearing at each age reflected the current age-specific fertility rates.
Gross reproduction The number of daughters who would be born to a woman completing her
rate reproductive life at current age-specific fertility rates
Net reproduction rate The number of daughters who would be born to a woman according to current age-
specific fertility and mortality rates.
Maternal mortality Defined as the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births due to pregnancy or
rate (MMR) termination of pregnancy, regardless of the site or duration of pregnancy
Population pyramid Also called an "age-gender-pyramid", is a graphical illustration that shows the
distribution of various age groups in a population (typically that of a country or region
of the world), which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing.
Sex ratio The number of females per thousand males is referred to as sex ratio.
Child mortality rate Number child deaths under the age of 5 years per 1000 live births. It’s about 50 in
2016. SDG Target - 11
Dependency ratio Measure of the number of dependents aged zero to 14 and over the age of 65,
compared with the total population aged 15 to 64
Demographic Defined to be that period of time in a nation's demographic evolution when the
window proportion of population of working age group is particularly prominent.
Demographic The economic growth potential that can result from shifts in a population’s age
dividend structure, mainly when the share of the working-age population (15 to 64) is larger
than the non-working-age share of the population (14 and younger, and 65 and older).
DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION:
• The percentage shares of population of the states and Union Territories in the country show that Uttar Pradesh
has the highest population followed by Maharashtra, Bihar and West Bengal.
• U.P., Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh along with Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Karnataka and Gujarat, (10 states) together account for about 76 per cent of the total population of the country.
• Some states like UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh etc. are very densely populated. While
States like Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and UT like Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have very less
population density.
• The national population density is 382 persons per square kilometer. But the population is unevenly
distributed.
• A steady increase of more than 200 persons per sq km over the last 50 years, as the density of population
increased from 117 persons/ sq km in 1951 to 382 persons/sq km in 2011.
GROWTH OF POPULATION:
• It is the change in the number of people living in a particular area between two points of time. Its rate is
expressed in percentage.
• The growth rate of population in India over the last one century has been caused by annual birth rate and
death rate and rate of migration and thereby shows different trends.
The Natural Growth Rate: The difference between the crude birth rates and death rates between two
points of time is known as the natural growth rate.
The Induced Growth Rate: It is explained by the volume of inward and outward movement of people in
any given area.
• The States like Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha,
Puducherry, and Goa show a low rate of growth not exceeding 20 per
STATES WITH LOW cent over the decade.
GROWTH RATES • Kerala registered the lowest growth rate (9.4) not only in this group of
states but also in the country as a whole.
• Nagaland experienced decline in population.
• A continuous belt of states from west to east in the north-west, north, and
north central parts of the country has relatively high growth rate than the
STATES WITH HIGH southern states.
GROWTH RATES • It is in this belt comprising Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Punjab,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Assam,
West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, the growth rate on
the average remained 20-25 per cent.
DEMOGRAPHIC TRANSITION
• Demographic transition theory (DTT) can be used to describe and predict the future population of any area.
• The theory tells us that population of any region changes from high births and high deaths to low births and
low deaths as society progresses from rural agrarian and illiterate to urban industrial and literate society.
These changes occur in stages which are collectively known as the demographic cycle.
• High Fertility
First stage • High Mortality
• Life Expectancy Is Low
• Low Levels of Technology
• Fertility remains high in the beginning of second stage but it declines with time.
Second stage • This is accompanied by reduced mortality rate. Improvements in sanitation and health
conditions lead to decline in mortality. Because of this gap the net addition to population
is high.
In the present day, different countries are at different stages of demographic transition. Demographic Transition
Theory.
TERMS TO KNOW:
Labour force • The percentage of persons in the labour force (i.e., working or seeking or
participation rate available for work) in the population.
Female Labour Force • The share of working-age women who report either being employed, or being
Participation Rate available for work.
Worker Population • Defined as the percentage of employed persons in the population.
Ratio (WPR)
• The number of females per thousand males is referred to as sex ratio.
Sex Ratio • According to the 2011 census, the sex ratio in India is 940 which was 933 in
2001. (Kerala –highest -1084-Kerala is the only state where the number of
females is more than that of males)
• The number of females per thousand males in the age group of 0–6 years in the
Child Sex Ratio human population.
• According to Census 2011, Child Sex Ratio in India is 918 which is lowest since
Independence.
MIGRATION
• In the Indian Census, migration is signified by two types:
1. Migration by birthplace
2. Migration by place of last residence
• Migration can be of various types:
1. Temporary
2. Permanent
3. Voluntary
4. Permanent
It is the movement by people from one place to another with the intention of settling,
Human Migration permanently or temporarily in a new location (within or outside the home country). Such
people are called migrants.
Immigration Immigration is coming to a foreign country with the intention of permanently living there.
Emigration Emigration is leaving a resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere.
These are the people who have been forced to flee their resident country because of war,
Refugees violence or persecution. Such people are protected by international law, specifically the
1951 Refugee Convention.
Enroute Migrants in between origin and destination are known as enroute.
Return Migration When groups of people move back to where they came from.
Seasonal When people move with each season (e.g. farm workers following crop harvests or
Migration working in cities off-season).
Migration stream A number of migrants sharing a common origin and destination form a migration stream.
and counter- For every stream there is a reverse counter-stream.
stream
Diaspora is commonly understood to include Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), Persons of
Diaspora Indian Origin (PIOs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), of which PIO and OCI card
holders were merged under one category - OCI - in 2015.
• As per the report, India continued to be the largest country of origin of international migrants. It had the
largest number of migrants living abroad (17.5 million), followed by Mexico (11.8 million) and China (10.7
million).
• The top three remittance recipients were India ($78.6 billion), China ($67.4 billion) and Mexico ($35.7 billion).
• It states that Syria has the highest internally population of displaced people, at 6.1 million, followed by
Colombia (5.8 million) and the Congo (3.1 million)
• With respect to the impact of climate and weather disasters, the report notes that Typhoon Mangkhut in the
Philippines contributed to the fact that 3.8 million people were newly displaced there at the end of 2018, the
largest number globally.
STUDENTS NOTES:
It is important to note that area under actual forest cover is different from area classified as
Forests forest. The latter is the area which the Government has identified and demarcated for
forest growth. The land revenue records are consistent with the latter definition. Thus,
there may be an increase in this category without any increase in the actual forest cover.
Land put to Non- Land under settlements (rural and urban), infrastructure (roads, canals, etc.), industries,
agricultural shops, etc. are included in this category. An expansion in the secondary and tertiary
Uses: activities would lead to an increase in this category of land-use.
Barren and The land which may be classified as a wasteland such as barren hilly terrains, desert lands,
Wastelands: ravines, etc. normally cannot be brought under cultivation with the available technology.
Area under Most of this type land is owned by the village ‘Panchayat’ or the Government. Only a small
Permanent proportion of this land is privately owned. The land owned by the village panchayat comes
Pastures and under ‘Common Property Resources
Grazing Lands:
Area under The land under orchards and fruit trees are included in this category. Much of this land is
Miscellaneous privately owned.
Tree Crops and
Groves (Not
included in Net
sown Area):
Culturable Any land which is left fallow (uncultivated) for more than five years is included in this
Waste-Land: category. It can be brought under cultivation after improving it through reclamation
practices.
This is the land which is left without cultivation for one or less than one agricultural year.
Current Fallow: Following is a cultural practice adopted for giving the land rest. The land recoups the lost
fertility through natural processes.
Fallow other This is also a cultivable land which is left uncultivated for more than a year but less than
than Current five years. If the land is left uncultivated for more than five years, it would be categorized
Fallow: as culturable wasteland.
Net Area Sown: The physical extent of land on which crops are sown and harvested is known as net sown
area.
What is Desertification?
According to Article 1 of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD, Paris, 1994),
desertification means “land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors,
including climatic variations and human activities”.
STUDENTS NOTE:
CH.16 AGRICULTURE
• India is an agricultural economy where approx. 49% of the people depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.
About 80 percent of farmers own less than two hectares.
• Net sown area still accounts for about 47% of the total land area of India.
• In India, over 80 per cent of water is used in irrigation. Of the net sown area of around 140 million hectares
(Mn ha), close to half (68.4 Mn ha) is irrigated (2019)
• Major states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha among others are still majorly
dependent on Agriculture.
• Primitive subsistence agriculture is practiced on small patches of land with primitive tools
like hoe, dao and digging sticks, and family/community labour.
• It purely relies on monsoon, natural fertility of soil and other environmental suitability
conditions.
• Also known as shifting or slash and burn agriculture.
Primitive • Practiced in tropics (by tribes)
Subsistence • Jhum North-eastern India
Agriculture • Vevar and Dahiyaar Bundelkhand Region (Madhya Pradesh)
• Deepa Bastar District (Madhya Pradesh)
• Zara and Erka Southern States
• Batra South-eastern Rajasthan
• Podu Andhra Pradesh
• Kumari Hilly Region of the Western Ghats of Kerala
• Kaman, Vinga and Dhavi Odisha
• This type of farming is largely found in densely populated regions of monsoon Asia.
• Basically, there are two types of intensive subsistence agriculture:
Intensive 1. One is dominated by wet paddy and
Subsistence 2. Another is dominated by crops such as sorghum, soybeans, sugarcane, maize, and
Agriculture vegetables.
• Areas of Intensive Subsistence Farming are: Tonkin Delta (Vietnam), lower Menem
(Thailand); lower Irrawaddy (Myanmar); and the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta, Eastern
Coastal Plains (India).
• Commercial farming is profit oriented type of farming. The main characteristic of this
type of farming is the use of higher doses of modern inputs, e.g. high yielding variety
(HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides in order to obtain higher
productivity. Food is produced with the help of advanced technological innovation and is
Commercial meant to be sold in the market for profit making.
Farming • Plantation is a type of commercial farming. In India, some of the important plantation
crops are: tea, coffee, rubber, sugarcane, banana, etc. Usually a single crop is grown over a
large piece of land using capital intensive inputs and cheap labour. Tea plantation in
Assam is a perfect example of plantation commercial farming.
• Here the prime motive is to earn profit, hence the production is mainly market oriented.
At some places, plantation farming hugely depends on market demand.
AGRICULTURAL FACTS
• India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products.
• India's fruit production has grown faster than vegetables, making it the second largest fruit producer in the
world.
• Agricultural export constitutes 10 per cent of the country's exports and is the fourth-largest exported principal
commodity.
• Accounts for about 35% of our national income.
• Share in GDP - around 14 %.
• Provides food for the people and fodder for the animals.
• Main source of raw materials to the agro-based industries viz. sugar, textile, edible oil, etc.
• Predominance of food crop - 2/3rd of total cropped area.
• 1st rank in Milk (17% of world production), Mango, banana, coconut, cashew, papaya, peas, cassava and
pomegranate.
• Largest producer and exporter of spices, Millets, Pulses, Dry Bean, Ginger.
• Overall, second largest producer of vegetable, fruits and fishes.
• Have three main cropping seasons viz. Kharif, Rabi & Zaid
• Positives:
To achieve self-sufficiency in food
Shorter Life cycles
Increased productivity
Benefited Wheat & Rice
HYV (High Benefitted Punjab, Haryana, UP, TN, Andhra Pradesh & Maharashtra
Yielding
Variety) • Negatives:
Seeds: Input cost increased
More water & fertilizer required
Chemical poisoning of soil
Salinity & Alkalinity increased which makes soil impermeable
Depletion of ground water
Loss of fertility of soil
Limited to selective states only
• Limited to selected crops
• Modified form of agricultural plants to enhance desired traits such as increased
resistance to herbicides or improved nutritional content
Genetically • Using the latest molecular biology techniques & genetic engineering, plants are
Modified Food undertaken breeding to get the desired results
• • Last decade, genetically modified (GM) crops were introduced esp. for Cotton & Brinjal
in India but as of now only GM Bt. Cotton production is allowed.
INDIAN CROPS
• 20 – 27 Degree C of average Temperature
• 150 cm of average Rainfall
Rice • Require Warm & Humid climate
• Clayey or alluvial moisture retentive soil
• Labour intensive crop
• 15 - 20* C of average Temperature
• 75 cm of average Rainfall
Wheat • Require moderate cool climate
• Clayey or well drained fertile soil
• Machine intensive crop
• 18 - 27* C of average Temperature
• 75 cm of average Rainfall
Maize • At least 140 frost free days
• Require Warm climate
• Alternate Rainy & Sunny Season is best for this crop
• Belongs to Bamboo family
• Indigenous to India
• Long duration crop - 10 - 15 months
Sugarcane • 20 - 27* C of average Temperature
• 75 - 150 cm of average Rainfall
• No from with moderately warm climate
• Soil exhausting crop - Requires heavy dose of fertilizers
• Special Feature - Ratooning
• 20 - 30* C of average Temperature
• 40 - 60 cm of average Rainfall
Millets • Requires warm & dry climate
• Can be grown on medium to low fertility soil
• Best is sandy loamy soil with good drainage
• Bigger millets are called Sorghums
• For example Jowar - Great Millet
• 20 - 30* C of average Temperature
Cotton • 50 - 100 cm of average Rainfall
• Requires approx. 210 frost free days
• Requires mineral rich black lava soil (Regur)
• Soil exhausting crop - Requires heavy dose of fertilizers
• Obtained from the bark of the plant
• 25 - 35* C of average Temperature
• 120 - 150 cm of average Rainfall
Jute • Requires Hot & Humid climate
• Soil exhausting crop -- Requires heavy dose of fertilizers
• Requires rich delta or alluvial soil
• Famous Jute substitutes -- Mesta, Kenaf
• More than 18* C of average Temperature
Tobacco • 50 cm of average Rainfall
• Requires 120 - 180 frost free days
• Sandy soil with good drainage
• 20 - 30* C of average Temperature
Tea • 150 - 250 cm of average Rainfall
• Requires heavy rainfall but no stagnant water
• Hence grown on hill slope
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FISHERIES SECTOR
• Present statues – 6.58 % of GDP agriculture + forest + fishing
• Total fish production =13.42 million metric tons (3.71 (marine) + 9.71 (inland))
• Largest producer of marine: Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil nadu
• Largest producer of Inland: Andhra Pradesh, west Bengal, UP
• Largest producer of Fisheries (both): Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat
STUDENTS NOTE:
CH.17 INDUSTRY
TYPES OF INDUSTRY DEFINITION
1. Agro based Industries: Raw material sourced from agriculture sector. E.g.:
Cotton, sugar etc.
On The Basis Of Raw 2. Mineral based Industries: Raw material sources from mining, E.g.: Iron & steel,
Materials cement etc.
3. Forest based Industries: Raw material sourced from forest. E.g.: Paper
industry, Timber etc
1. Basic or key industries: Supply their goods to other industries. E.g.: Iron &
On The Basis Of Input steel
2. Consumer Industries: Produce goods for direct consumption. E.g. Toothpaste,
Television etc
1. Public sector: Owned & operated by govt. E.g. BHEL, SAIL etc.
On The Basis Of 2. Private sector: Owned & operated by private individuals. E.g. TISCO, RIL.
Ownership 3. Joint sector: Jointly run by state & private players. E.g. OIL
4. Cooperative sector: Owned & operated by the producers and suppliers of raw
materials, workers or both. E.g. Sugar industry in Maharashtra.
1. Labour Intensive Industry: Large no. of skilled unskilled or semi-skilled labour
is employed. E.g. Textile, leather & footwear.
On The Basis Of Mode Of 2. Capital goods Industry: Manufactures machine tools, heavy electrical
Operation equipment, heavy transport vehicles, mining & earth moving tools etc.
3. Industries with strategic significance: Industries which are critical for the
purpose of earning foreign exchange, research & defense. E.g. Aerospace,
shipping, electronics & telecommunication, defense equipment etc.
1. It refers to the amount of capital invested, number of people employed and
the volume of production. 1. Small scale industries: Use lesser amount of
capital investment and technology, and produce small volume of products.
On Basis Of Size E.g.: handicrafts, cottage industries etc.
2. Large scale industries: Investment of capital is higher and the technology used
is superior in large scale industries. E.g.: automobile industry, heavy
machinery industry etc.
Raw material :
• Bulk inputs of iron & steel industry are iron ore (gross/weight-losing raw material), fuel (coal; weight-losing),
limestone (flux) & water (required for cooling & worker safety).
• Mostly large integrated steel plants are located close to source of
raw materials, as they use large quantity of heavy and weight
losing raw materials.
• Concentration of Iron and steel industry in Chota Nagpur region -
Presence of Iron ore & coal in this region. TISCO at Jamshedpur.
CURRENT AFFAIRS:
• Largest steel producer :
1. China (54%)
2. India (6%)
3. Japan
• Largest steel consumer:
1. China (49%)
2. USA
3. India (6%)
• PURVODAYA INITIATIVE (2020): Set up steel plants in Eastern
india.
JUTE INDUSTRY
• The British setup the first jute industry in India in 1855 in the Hooghly valley near Kolkata.
• There is the availability of local fibres like Mesta (important commercial fibre crop after cotton and Jute. Jute
and Mesta fibre together is known as raw jute)
• Producer of jute: West Bengal alone accounts for 72% of India’s jute production.
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• Jute packaging material act 1987: 100% of food grains and 20% of sugar must be packed in jute bags.
FERTILIZER INDUSTRY
• One of eight core industries (least weighted)
• About 70% of units producing nitrogenous fertilizers use naphtha as basic raw material. That’s why they are
located near oil refineries.
• Hajira – Vijaipur - Jagdishpur gas pipeline has given birth to plants at Vijaipur, Jagdishpur, Babrala etc.
• Phosphatic fertiliser plants are dependent on mineral phosphate which is largely imported but reserves are
also found in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
• Current developments: DBT of fertilizer -2018, urea subsidy, neem coated urea.
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
• There is a huge increase in automobile production with a catalyst effect by indirectly increasing the demand for
a number of raw materials like steel, rubber, plastics, glass, paint, electronics and services.
• India has emerged as Asia's fourth largest exporter of automobiles, behind Japan, South Korea and Thailand.
• The country is expected to top the world in car volumes with approximately 611 million vehicles on the
nation's roads by 2050.
STUDENTS NOTES:
Surface • Only about 690 cubic km (37 per cent) of the available surface water can be utilized because:
Water Over 90% of annual flow of the Himalayan rivers occur over a four-month period.
Resources Potential to capture such resources is complicated and limited by suitable storage
reservoir sites.
• The total replenishable groundwater resources in the country are about 432 cubic km.
• India uses most groundwater in the world.
Ground • Ganga and the Brahmaputra basins, have about 46 per cent of the total replenishable
Water groundwater resources.
Resources • The level of groundwater utilization is relatively high in the river basins lying in north-
western region and parts of south India
• The groundwater utilisation is very high in the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and
Tamil Nadu.
efficiency by 20%.
'Jal Shakti' Ministry Merging erstwhile two ministries, namely: Ministry of Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga Rejuvenation + Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation.
Atal Bhujal Yojana Aims to promote sustainable ground water management with community participation
in select over-exploited and water stressed areas
Restructured Improving coverage of piped drinking water in rural areas. Increase level of service
National Rural delivery. Thrust on coverage of water quality affected habitations.
Drinking Water
Programme
STUDENT NOTES:
FERROUS MINERALS
FERROUS CHARACTERISTICS
MINERALS
• Basic mineral and the backbone of industrial development.
• India is endowed with fairly abundant resources of iron ore.
• India is rich in good quality iron ores. Magnetite is the finest iron ore with a very high
content of iron up to 70 per cent. It has excellent magnetic qualities, especially valuable in
the electrical industry.
Iron Ore • Hematite ore is the most important industrial iron ore in terms of the quantity used, but
has a slightly lower iron content than magnetite. (50-60 per cent).
NON-FERROUS MINERALS
NON-FERROUS CHARACTERISTICS
MINERALS
• India is critically deficient in the reserve and production of copper.
• Being malleable, ductile and a good conductor, copper is mainly used in electrical cables,
Copper electronics and chemical industries.
• The Balaghat mines in Madhya Pradesh, Khetri mines in Rajasthan and Singhbhum district
of Jharkhand are leading producers of copper.
• Odisha was the largest bauxite producing state in India with 34.97 per cent of the
country’s total production in 2009-10.
• Bauxite, a clay-like substance that alumina and later aluminum is obtained. Bauxite
deposits are formed by the decomposition of a wide variety of rocks rich in aluminum
Bauxite silicates
• It combines the strength of metals such as iron, with extreme lightness and also with good
conductivity and great malleability.
• Mainly found in the Amarkantak plateau, Maikal hills and the plateau region of Bilaspur-
Katni.
NON-METALLIC MINERALS
• Mica is a mineral made up of a series of plates or leaves. It splits easily into thin sheets.
These sheets can be so thin that a thousand can be layered into a mica sheet of a few
centimeters high.
• Mica can be clear, black, green, red yellow or brown. Due to its excellent di-electric
Mica strength, low power loss factor, insulating properties and resistance to high voltage, mica
is one of the most indispensable minerals used in electric and electronic industries. Mica
deposits are found in the northern edge of the Chota Nagpur plateau.
• Koderma Gaya – Hazaribagh belt of Jharkhand is the leading producer. In Rajasthan, the
major mica producing area is around Ajmer. Nellore mica belt of Andhra Pradesh is also an
important producer in the country.
• Limestone is found in association with rocks composed of calcium carbonates or calcium
and magnesium carbonates. It is found in sedimentary rocks of most geological
Rock minerals formations.
• Limestone is the basic raw material for the cement industry and essential for smelting iron
ore in the blast furnace.
ENERGY RESOURCES
CONVENTIONAL DESCRIPTION
SOURCES OF
ENERGY
Gondwana coal: a little over 200 million years in age major resources of Gondwana coal,
•
which are metallurgical coal, are located in Damodar valley (West Bengal-Jharkhand).
Jharia, Raniganj, Bokaro are important coalfields. The Godavari, Mahanadi, Son and
Wardha valleys also contain coal deposits.
• Tertiary coal: occur in the north eastern states of Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh
and Nagaland.
• Coal is the most abundantly available fossil fuel. It provides a substantial part of the
Coal nation’s energy needs.
• Used for power generation, to supply energy to industry as well as for domestic needs.
• India is highly dependent on coal for meeting its commercial energy requirements.
• Lignite is a low-grade brown coal, which is soft with high moisture content. The principal
lignite reserves are in Neyveli in Tamil Nadu and are used for generation of electricity.
• Coal that has been buried deep and subjected to increased temperatures is bituminous
coal. It is the most popular coal in commercial use.
• Metallurgical coal is high grade bituminous coal which has a special value for smelting
iron in blast furnaces. Anthracite is the highest quality hard coal.
• Petroleum refineries act as a “nodal industry” for synthetic textile, fertiliser and
numerous chemical industries.
• 63 per cent of India’s petroleum production is from Mumbai High, 18 per cent from
Gujarat and 16 per cent from Assam.
• Ankaleshwar is the most important field of Gujarat.
Petroleum • Assam is the oldest oil producing state of India. Digboi, Naharkatiya and Moran-Hugrijan
are the important oil fields in the state.
• Petroleum or mineral oil is the next major energy source in India after coal. It provides
fuel for heat and lighting, lubricants for machinery and raw materials for a number of
manufacturing industries.
• Associated with anticlines and fault traps in the rock formations of the tertiary age.
• Since it has low carbon dioxide emissions is called the fuel for the present century.
Natural gas • Resource found in association with or without petroleum. It is used as a source of energy
as well as an industrial raw material in the petrochemical industry.
• 1700 km long Hazira-Vijaipur-Jagdishpur cross country gas pipeline links Mumbai High
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and Bassien with the fertilizer, power and industrial complexes in western and northern
India.
• This artery has provided an impetus to India’s gas production. The power and fertilizer
industries are the key users of natural gas. Use of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for
vehicles to replace liquid fuels is gaining wide popularity in the country.
• As per the NITI Aayog Report, India has 96
Trillion Cubic feet of recoverable Shale gas
resources.
• Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can
be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas.
• Shale Gas refers to the natural gas that is
trapped within shale formations.
• Lately Shale gas has become an important source
Shale gas of fuel in the United States and the rest of the world
itself has taken interest in the shale formations
within their geographical boundaries.
• Shale Gas is produced through a method known as
hydraulic fracturing, most popularly known as fracking. Shale gas reserves are usually
distributed horizontally rather than vertically
• To strengthen its hydrocarbon resource base, India has identified six basins as areas for
shale gas exploration: Cambay (Gujarat), Assam-Arakan (North East), Gondwana (Central
India), Krishna Godavari onshore (East Coast), Cauvery onshore, and Indo-Gangetic
basins.
STUDENT NOTES:
NATIONAL HIGHWAYS
National Highways • The main roads which are constructed and maintained by the Central Government
On the basis of the width of track of the Indian Railways, three categories:
Broad gauge: The distance between rails in broad gauge is 1.676 metre. The total length of broad gauge
lines was 60510 km in March 2016.
Metre gauge: The distance between rails is one metre. Its total length was 3880 km in March 2016.
Narrow gauge: The distance between the rails in this case is 0.762 metre or 0.610 metre. The total length of
narrow guage was 2297 km in March 2016. It is generally confined to hilly areas.
WATER TRANSPORT
• It is a fuel-efficient and eco-friendly mode of transport.
• The water transport is of two types– (a) inland waterways, and (b) oceanic waterways.
INLAND WATERWAYS
• It was the chief mode of transport before the advent of railways.
• It, however, faced tough competition from road and railway transport.
• Moreover, diversion of river water for irrigation purposes made them non-navigable in large parts of their
courses.
• India has 14,500 km of navigable waterways, contributing about 1% to the country’s transportation.
• It comprises rivers, canals, backwaters, creeks, etc.
• At present, 5,685 km of major rivers are navigable by mechanized flat bottom vessels.
• For the development, maintenance and regulation of national waterways in the country, the Inland Waterways
Authority was set up in 1986.
• The backwaters (Kadal) of Kerala have special significance in Inland Waterway.
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• Apart from providing cheap means of transport, they are also attracting a large number of tourists in Kerala.
WATERWAYS STRETCH
NW-1 Allahabad-Haldia stretch (1,620 km)
NW-2 Sadiya-Dhubri stretch (891 km)
NW-3 Kottapuram -Kollam stretch
NW-4 Specified streches of Godavari and Krishna rivers along with Kakinada Puducherry stretch of
canals (1078 km)
NW-5 Specified stretches of river Brahmani along with Matai river, delta channels of Mahanadi and
Brahmani rivers and East Coast canals (588km).
OCEANIC ROUTES
• India has a vast coastline of approximate 7,517 km, including islands.
• Thirteen major and 200 minor ports provide infrastructural support to these routes.
• Approximately 95 per cent of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70 per cent by value moves through ocean
routes.
AIR TRANSPORTATION
• Air transport in India made a beginning in 1911 when airmail operation commenced over a little distance of 10
km between Allahabad and Naini.
• But its real development took place in post-Independent period.
• The Airport Authority of India is responsible for providing safe, efficient air traffic and aeronautical
communication services in the Indian Air Space.
• The authority manages 125 airports.
• The air transport in India is managed by Air India.
• Now, many private companies have also started passenger services.
STUDENTS NOTE:
CH.21 CONTINENTS
1. ASIA
• World’s most diverse and largest continent
• Home to the largest (Russia) and most populous (China)
nations
• Occupies the eastern four-fifths of the giant Eurasian
Landmass
• Asia is bounded by the Arctic Ocean to the north,
the Pacific Ocean to the east, the Indian Ocean to the south,
the Red Sea (as well as the inland seas of the Atlantic Ocean—the Mediterranean and the Black) to the
southwest, and Europe to the west
• Countries in Asia: 48.
• Dependencies or Areas of Special Sovereignty: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau.
PHYSICAL FEATURES
Mountain Ranges of Asia:
• Altay (or Altai): Mountain range in East-Central Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan come
together.
• Caucasus: Mountain system at the intersection of Europe and Asia, stretching between Black sea in the west
and Caspian Sea in the east.
• Himalayas: The world's highest mountain range, located north to the Indian sub-continent and home to the
world's highest peaks.
• Kunlun: One of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending across western China and the Tibetan Plateau.
• Tien (or Tian) Shan: Located in Central Asia. It's positioned to the north and west of the Taklamakan Desert
near the border region of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and western China.
• Ural: They form a natural border between Asia and Europe Russia.
• Zagros: are the largest mountain range in Iran and Iraq spanning the whole length of the western and
southwestern Iranian plateau and ending at the Strait of Hormuz.
Plains:
• West Siberian plain – between the Ural mountains in the west and the Yenisey river valley in the east,
drained by Ob, Irtysh, Yenisey rivers and their tributaries.
• Manchurian plain – heart of the central lowland of north eastern China, drained by Liao River system.
Peninsula:
• Indian Peninsula – south to Indo-Gangetic Plain, formed following the Gondwana Breakup and presence of
two types of landscape: Granite-gneissic (undulating plains) and Deccan Trappean (flat-topped, stepped
hills)
• Arabian Peninsula – is the largest peninsula, second largest desert on Earth. (Bedouin tribes are common
inhabitants)
Plateau:
• Central Siberian plateau – is situated in Krasnoyarsk kray region, bounded by Yenisey and Lena rivers.
• Tibetan plateau – highest plateau on Earth, also called “Roof of the World”, source of various rivers such as
Salween, Mekong, Yellow, Yangtse rivers etc.
RIVER SYSTEM
RIVER SOURCE MOUTH
Ob- Forms longest estuary Altai Mountains Gulf of Ob (Arctic Ocean)
Yenisey North Mongolia Yenisey Gulf (Arctic Ocean)
Lena (Fifth longest river) Lake Baikal Lavtev Sea (Arctic Ocean)
Irtysh Altai Mountains Ob river
Yellow or Hwang He Bayan Har Mountains (Qinghai Bohai Sea (ultimately Yellow River)
Province)
Yangtze (3rd longest River) Qinghai Province East China Sea
Amur (longest river of the Confluence of river Argun and Shilka Sea of Okhotsk (Pacific Ocean)
Russian Far East)
LAKES
• Caspian Sea: Located in western Asia on the eastern edges of Europe. Largest lake on the planet (area).
• Lake Baikal: Positioned in south eastern (Siberia) Russia, directly to the north of Mongolia. Largest
freshwater lake by volume.
• Aral Sea: Positioned in far-western Asia, just to the east of the Caspian Sea, located in the countries of
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It is disappearing (evaporating) and is almost totally polluted by fertilizer runoff,
weapon testing residue.
• Lop Nur: former saline lake, now largely dried up, remains as salt-encrusted lake bed (China’s nuclear
weapons test site)
• Dead Sea Saline: lake bordered by Jordan, Israel and West Bank territory. Jordan river flows into it.
• Sea of Galilee: World’s lowest freshwater lake (second lowest after Dead Sea, which is saline) in Israel.
OTHER DETAILS
Asia is dominated by a varied mix of climatic regions:
• Polar, subarctic and temperate climates occur along the continent’s northern and
Climatic north eastern fringes.
Conditions • Arid and highland climates occur in the continent’s interior and southwestern
reaches.
• A mix of grassland and tropical rainforest climates occur along its southern fringe.
• Six areas of prime industrial significance of Russia are:
o The Moscow Region
o The Ukraine Region
o Leningrad Region
Industrial o Middle Volga Region
Regions o The Urals Region
o Siberian Region
• Most industrialized nations are Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore
o Iron and Steel industry – China, Japan, Russia, India
o Textile industry – India, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan,
• IT industry – Bangalore Region of India
• China - Largest producer of rice, wheat, tea, honey, many vegetables and fruits
including potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, grapes, apples etc.
Miscellaneous • China – largest shale gas reserve.
• India- Largest producer of milk, pulses, jute, banana, mango. Largest exporter of rice
• Indonesia – Largest producer of palm oil, followed by Malaysia, Thailand
2. AFRICA
• Second largest continent (after Asia)
• Covers about one-fifth of the total land
surface of Earth.
• The continent is bounded on the west by
the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by
the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by
the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and on
the south by the mingling waters of the
Atlantic and Indian oceans
• It is known as "Dark Continent" and is
divided roughly into two parts by the
equator and surrounded by sea except
where the Isthmus of Suez joins it to Asia.
• 54 Sovereign Countries
• Dependencies: Western Sahara (disputed)
o Reunion (France)
o Mayote (France)
o Saint Helena (UK)
• Highest elevation (Africa): Mount
Kilimanjaro (Dormant volcano in Tanzania)
• Longest River (World): Nile (4132miles)
• Largest hot desert: Sahara
• Largest lake (Africa, 2nd largest in world):
Lake Victoria
PHYSICAL FEATURES
• Atlas: mountain range across the north-
western stretch of Africa through Algeria,
Morocco and Tunisia
• Drakensberg: mountain range in south east
Africa, enclosing Central Southern African
Plateau
• Ethiopian Highland: rugged mass of
mountains, covers much part of Ethiopia and
Central Eritrea
• Katanga Plateau: occupies south eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo, rich of
copper, cobalt, uranium etc
• Sahara Desert: largest hot desert on earth,
Tuaregs: main inhabitants
• Kalahari Desert: large semi-arid sandy
savannah in Southern Africa
• Namib Desert: coastal desert in southern
Africa
• Congo Basin: second largest tropical
rainforest in the world, defined by the
watershed of Congo River, located primarily
in Democratic Republic of Congo.
RIVER SYSTEM
OTHER DETAILS
Climatic • The Equator, the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer pass through this
Conditions continent
• Africa records high temperatures throughout the year as it lies in the tropical zone.
• Africa has agro-based industries which produce items like sugar, cigarette, wine,
Industrial and cotton clothes.
Regions • The leather and woollen industries have also flourished in several areas of Africa.
• Heavy industries like the cement industry and the iron and steel industry are mostly
located in South Africa and Egypt.
• World’s major gold reserves are found in the African continent. Example:
Witwatersrand mines in South Africa (produced more than 40 percent of world’s
produce)
Miscellaneous • South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Central African Republic, and Ghana are leading
producers of gold.
• Diamond mines are found in Botswana, Angola, Congo, South Africa and Namibia.
• Africa is the largest producer and exporter of diamonds.
STUDENT NOTES:
3. EUROPE
• Second smallest of the world’s continents
• Occupies nearly one-fifteenth of the world’s total land area.
• It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the west by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south (west to
east) by the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea.
• Total countries: 44
• Highest mountain: Mount Elbrus
• Longest River: River Volga
PHYSICAL FEATURES
• Alps: Highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe. Highest Peak: Mount
Blanc; it is also home to Matterhorn Mountain (Switzerland has expressed solidarity with India in its fight
against Coronavirus Pandemic by projecting Tricolour on it)
• Caucasus: Located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, between Black Sea and Caspian Sea. It is home to
Mount Elbrus.
• Pyrenees: Separates the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, small glaciers on Mount Perdu (World
Heritage Site) has been projected to fully get disappeared by 2040
• Balkans: Mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The countries present in the Balkan
Peninsula are also known as Balkans (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina etc.)
• Carpathian: WWF’s Gift to the Earth was awarded to Carpathian Convention for its exceptional role in
promoting Sustainable Development in the Carpathian mountain region.
• Iberian Peninsula: Mountainous region that is most associated with the countries of Spain and Portugal. Its
name derives from its ancient inhabitants called Iberians, after the Ebro (Iberus) river.
• North European Plain: It is part of Great European Plain. It is home to many navigable rivers. Including
Rhine, Elbe, Oder etc.
• Central Plateau of France: also called Massif Central, is a highland region in the middle of Southern France.
• Vosages and Black Forest: Block mountains, Hercynian mountains. Rhine river valley is enclosed by it.
• Bohemian Plateau: also called Bohemian-Moravian Highlands which separates the former historic
provinces of Bohemia and Moravia, now in the Czech Republic.
RIVER SYSTEM
RIVER SOURCE MOUTH
Danube Black Forest Danube Delta (Black Sea)
Rhine Swiss Alps North Sea
Seine Seinne, Commune English Channel
Rhone Rhone Glacier, Swiss Alps Mediterranean Sea
Loire Central Massif Atlantic Ocean
Volga Valdai Hills Caspian Sea
OTHER DETAILS
Climatic • Europe’s Climate varies from subtropical to polar
Conditions
• Great Britain
o The Midlands
Industrial o Yorkshire Nottinghamshire
Regions o Lancashire Region
• Ruhr region in Germany
• Lorraine region of France
• Po river valley in Northern Italy
• Steppe region of Ukraine is called the Granary of the world or ‘Bread Basket of the
world’
• 3-4th of potato produced in the world is grown on European soil
Miscellaneous • Milan: Manchester of Italy
• Moscow: Port of Five Seas as it is connected to five seas – Caspian Sea, Black Sea,
Baltic Sea, White Sea and Lake Ladoga.
• International Seed Bank is established in the Svalbard Island of Norway.
4. NORTH AMERICA
• Third largest of the world’s continents, lying for the most part between the Arctic Circle and the Tropic of
Cancer.
• Mainland NA is shaped roughly like a triangle, with its base in the north and its apex in the south; associated
with the continent is Greenland, the largest island in the world
• It is bounded on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the south by
the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific Ocean.
• Largest lake in the world: Lake Superior
• Highest Peak: Mount Mckinley
• Longest River: Mississippi River
PHYSICAL FEATURES
• Rocky Mountains: forms a part of the American Cordillera (Volcanic in origin, created by Ocean-Continent
Convergence). The Cordillera includes Rockies, Sierra Nevada, Cascades, Brooks Range, Alaska Range and
small Pacific coastal ranges.
• Appalachian Mountains: is a great highland system of North America, among oldest mountains on Earth
(presence of most ancient crystalline rock)
• Mackenzie Mountains: an extension of Rocky Mountains and Canadian mountain range forming part of
Yukon territory
• Canadian Shield: also called Laurentian Plateau, it constitutes the largest mass of exposed Precambrian rock
on the face of Earth
• Great Plains: lies between west of the Mississippi river tallgrass prairie in the U.S. and east of the Rocky
Mountains in the U.S. and Canada
• Yucatan Peninsula: separates Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea
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LAKES
• Great Lakes:
o Lake Superior: Largest of the Great Lakes, also world’s largest freshwater (by area)
o Lake Michigan: Only Great Lake located entirely in USA
o Lake Huron: Third largest freshwater lake in world
o Lake Erie: Second smallest lake among Great Lake
o Lake Ontario: Easternmost and smallest in area of the Great Lakes
• Great Slave Lake – Deepest lake in North America, located in Canada
• Great Bear lake
• Lake Winnipeg
RIVER SYSTEM
RIVER SOURCE MOUTH
Mackenzie (Longest river system in Great Slave Lake Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean)
Canada)
Mississippi (forms a bird’s foot delta) Lake Itasca, USA Gulf of Mexico
Missouri Rockies, USA Mississippi
Hudson Adirondack mountains Atlantic Ocean
St. Lawrence Lake Ontario, USA Atlantic Ocean
Colorado (forms Colorado) Rockies, USA Gulf of California
Columbia Rockies, USA Pacific Ocean
Yukon British Columbia, Canada Bering Sea
OTHER DETAILS
• North America embraces every climatic zone, from tropical rain forest and savanna
on the lowlands of Central America to areas of permanent ice cap in central
Climatic Greenland.
Conditions • Subarctic and tundra climates prevail in N Canada and N Alaska, and desert and
semiarid conditions are found in interior regions cut off by high mountains from
rain-bearing westerly winds.
Major manufacturing and industrial regions are:
• Western Great Lakes
• St. Lawrence Valley
• Mohawk Valley
Industrial • New England states
Regions • Middle Atlantic states
• Pittsburgh-Lake Erie regions
• Detroit Industrial Region
• Canada: St. Lawrence Valley and southern Ontario between the two cities of Quebec
and Windsor
• Grand Bank near Newfoundland and Georges Bank near Nova Scotia are extensive
Miscellaneous fishing grounds in North America
• Cuba is the major producer of sugarcane, hence called ‘Sugar Bowl of the World’
• Silicon Valley in San Francisco is famous for software and computer industry
• The U.S.A. is the world’s largest producer of crude oil.
STUDENT NOTES:
5. SOUTH AMERICA
• Fourth largest of the world’s continents
• It is the southern portion of the landmass generally referred to as the New World, the Western Hemisphere,
or simply the Americas.
• South America is bounded by the Caribbean Sea to the northwest and north, the Atlantic Ocean to the
northeast, east, and southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
• In the northwest it is joined to North America by the Isthmus of Panama.
• Drake Passage, south of Cape Horn, separates South America from Antarctica.
• Highest Peak: Mount Aconcagua
• Largest drainage system (by volume, in World): Amazon River
• Largest country in South America: Brazil
• Brazil touches border of every countries of South America except Chile and Ecuador
• Highest Waterfall (in World): Angel waterfall in the Guyana Highland
PHYSICAL FEATURES
• Andes: Created by Ocean-Continent Convergence, majority of the Andean mountain chains are volcanic,
home to Lake Titicaca-world’s highest navigable body of water. Mount Cotopaxi, an active stratovolcano is
also located in it.
• Brazilian Highlands: This highland meets the Atlantic Coast in a steep slope called “the Great Escarpment”.
Three major river systems – the Amazon, the Parana and the Sao Francisco drain the region.
• Guyana Highlands: Geologically similar to the Brazilian Highlands, mostly tropical rainforest
• Bolivian Plateau: or Altiplano Plateau is an intermontane plateau which is located between two ranges of
Andes Mountain
• Mato Grosso Plateau: Part of Brazilian Highlands and is an ancient erosional plateau that occupies much of
Central Mato Grosso state.
• Patagonia desert: Mix of desert and semidesert that covers the Patagonian tableland that extends from the
Andes to the Atlantic Ocean
• Atacama Desert: Coastal desert plateau in Chile. One of the driest places on Earth and the only non-polar
region to receive less precipitation than polar regions.
• Amazon Basin: Drained by the Amazon river and its tributaries. The Basin’s tropical rainforest generates
more than 20% of the world’s oxygen and home to 10% of world’s known biodiversity.
RIVER SYSTEM
RIVER SOURCE MOUTH
Amazon Rio Mantaro, Peru Atlantic Ocean
Orinoco Guiana Highlands, Venezuela Atlantic Ocean
Rio de la Plata Paranaiba River, Brazil Atlantic Ocean
Parana Confluence of Parana and Uruguay river Atlantic Ocean
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OTHER DETAILS
• North America embraces every climatic zone, from tropical rain forest and savanna
on the lowlands of Central America to areas of permanent ice cap in central
Climatic Greenland.
Conditions • Subarctic and tundra climates prevail in N Canada and N Alaska, and desert and
semiarid conditions are found in interior regions cut off by high mountains from
rain-bearing westerly winds.
Industrial development has been most marked in South America, perhaps the best
endowed of all the southern continents. Major industrial centres are:
Industrial • Brazil – Sao Polo, Rio de Janeiro
Regions • Argentina
• Uruguay
• Chile – Santiago, Valparaiso
• Brazil is the largest producer of sugarcane, coffee.
Miscellaneous • Chile is the largest producer of nitrate Chuquicamata plateau of Chile – famous for
the production of copper, thus known as “Copper Capital of the World”.
• The Galapagos island is the natural fertility centre of Olive Ridley Turtle.
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS:
PHYSICAL FEATURES
• Great Dividing Range: It is also
called Eastern Highland, Australia's
largest mountain range. It is the third
longest land-based range in the world.
It is a block mountain range with a
complex of plateaus and uplands.
• Central Lowlands: It stretches from
Australia’s largest river basin, the
Murray-Darling, through the Great
Artesian Basin and extend north to the
Gulf of Carpentaria.
• Australian Alps: are the highest range
in the Great Dividing Range. Mount
Kosciuszko (2228 m) is the highest
peak in mainland Australia located in
Australian Alps. Eastern coast of
Australia experiences good
orographic rainfall because of this
range.
• Kimberley Plateau: Located in
Western Australia, composed chiefly
of sandstone with patches of basalt
(Kimberley Block).
• Great Victoria Desert: Largest of
Australia’s Desert, an active sand-ridge desert and home to many reserves such as Great Sandy Desert Nature
Reserve, Yeolake Nature Reserve etc.
• Gibson Desert: Lies south to Tropic of Capricorn between Great Sandy Desert and Great Victoria Desert
• Great Artesian Basin: It is one of the largest and deepest artisan Basin in the world. It connects with the
Murray – Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre Basin and lies beneath parts of Northern Territory.
OTHER DETAILS
• The continental islands of Australia, New Zealand, and to a lesser degree, Papua
New Guinea, have a diversity of climates.
Climatic • Australia’s north coast is tropical while the southern region has a Mediterranean
Conditions climate.
• Climate in New Zealand is colder and suited to livestock grazing and ranching.
• Main industrial area is in south-east where the presence of coalfields around Sydney
and iron ore resources led to the establishment of the iron and steel industry,
Industrial especially at Newcastle and Port Kembla
Regions • Other industrial centres are:
o Melbourne
o Brisbane
o Perth
• Zealandia – was identified as an eight geological continent, formerly a part of
Miscellaneous Gondwana and today it is 94% submerged.
• Australia is the world’s leading producer of bauxite, alumina in the world.
• Second largest producer of Uranium, lead, zircon, lithium
STUDENT NOTES:
Schedule
EDUCATION
Feasible plan/schedule Exam oriented Concept Proper Tests to analyze Study Material to limit
to follow and reach to- building Lecture Series your preparation level your sources along with
-wards your goal to keep you ahead of at regular intervals detailed PPT of lectures
other students
Explanation