BPSC
1929 posts

Exam date : 17th November

🔆Mali

✅An elaborate attack by an Al Qaeda affiliate in Mali's capital killed around 70 people recently.

✅It is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of 1,240,192 sq. km.
✅Capital: Bamako 
✅Bordering Countries: Mali borders seven other nations: Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Algeria, and Mauritania. 

📍Geography:
✅Approximately 65% of the country is covered by desert or semi-desert.
✅The Sahara Desert makes up a large portion of Mali's total land area. 
✅Mali has a monotonous landscape, with plains and plateaus dominating the country's topography. 
✅The landscape transitions from the Sahara Desert in the north through the Sahel to the zone of Sudanian savanna in the south.
✅It is one of the hottest nations on earth with an average temperature of 114.8 °F (46 °C) in the summer months.
✅The Niger River flows through its interior, serving as its main source of water
✅ethnic groups Bambara, making up 36.5% of the population.
✅Languages: Bambara (most widely spoken

🔆 Falkland Islands

✅Researchers have found evidence that the treeless, rugged, grassland landscape of the Falkland Islands was home to a lush, diverse rainforest up to 30 million years ago

✅Also known as the Malvinas Islands, the Falkland Islands is an internally self-governing overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
✅It is an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 500 km from mainland South America
✅It comprises of two large islands (East Falkland and West Falkland) and several hundred smaller ones.
✅The two large islands are separated by Falkland Sound (strait). 
✅The islands are positioned both in the southern and western hemispheres of the Earth. 
✅Climate: A cool temperate oceanic climate that is characterised by its lack of extremes.
✅Capital: Located on the island of East Falkland, is Stanley (also, Port Stanley) is the capital of the Falkland Islands. 
✅Economy:  depends on sheep farming.
✅Currency: The official currency is the Falkland pound, which is on par with the British pound.

🔆Philadelphi corridor

Israel has been under intense pressure to give up control of the Philadelphi corridor.

Philadelphi corridor:

It is a ribbon of land about 14kms in length and 100 metres wide along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
It was designated as a demilitarised border zone after the withdrawal of Israeli settlements and troops from Gaza in 2005 and runs from the Mediterranean to the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.
The Corridor was originally established under the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty as a 100-meter-wide buffer zone.
The zone was later expanded beginning during the Second Intifada to be several hundred meters wide. It covers the entire 8.7-mile-long border.
The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is within the Philadelphi Corridor.

#Mapping

🔆Mount Erebus

✅In a strange incident, Antarctica's second largest volcano, Mount Erebus, is spewing out gold dust, which has left scientists in complete shock.

📍Mount Erebus

✅It is the world’s southernmost active volcano.
✅Location: It is situated on Ross Island, Antarctica.
✅It was discovered in 1841 by the British explorer Sir James Clark Ross, who named it after his ship, the Erebus.
✅It’s a stratovolcano characterized by a conical shape and layers of hardened lava, tephra, and volcanic ash.
✅Mount Erebus is known for its persistent lava lake.
✅The lake has been active since at least 1972and is one of only a few long-lived lava lakes on Earth.
✅It constantly churns and occasionally spews bombs of molten rock in Strombolian eruptions.

#prelims
#mapping
#geography

🔆Lake Prespa

✅According to experts, of the 450 hectares of Little Prespa Lake in Albania, at least 430 hectares have been transformed into swamps or dried up.

✅It is one of the oldest tectonic lakes in Europe, and also the highest tectonic lake on the Balkan Peninsula.
✅It lies at the junction of three major geological masses: a granite massif on the East, a karstic massif belonging to Galicica on the West, and the Suva Gora on the South.
✅The region is famous for having rocks from the oldest Paleozoic form to sediments belonging to the young Neogene era.
✅It is made up of the Great Prespa Lake (Albania, Greece and the Republic of Macedonia) and Small Prespa Lake.

#Places_in_news
#geography

Join @Mapping_prelims_mains

🔆Sahara Desert

✅The Sahara Desert is undergoing a rare transformation as heavy rainfall brings unexpected greenery to its arid landscape.

📍Sahara Desert:
✅The Sahara, located in Northern Africa, is the world's largest hot desertand the third most extensive desert after the polar deserts of Antarctica and the northern Arctic.
✅It spans over 9,200,000 sq. km (8% of the earth’s land area).
✅The Sahara Desert encompasses a major portion of North Africa, occupying about 31% of the entire African continent.
✅The countries within the Sahara Desert are Morocco, Mali, Mauritania, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Chad, the Niger Republic, some parts of Sudan, a small portion of Nigeria, and a small part of Burkina Faso.
✅The desert is bounded by the Mediterranean Seaand the Atlas Mountains on the northern side; the Red Sea on the eastern side; the Atlantic Ocean on the western side and the semiarid Sahel region on the southern side.
✅The highest peak in the Sahara is Emi Koussi (3,415m), a volcano located in the Tibesti Mountains, Chad.
✅The Sahel region serves as a transition zone between the hot desert in the north and the humid savannas of Sub-Saharan Africain the south.

#prelims

🔆English Channel:

✅It is a narrow arm of the Atlantic Ocean. 
✅It separates the southern coast of England (part of Great Britain) from the northern coast of France. 
✅The channel and the North Sea are connected by the Strait of Dover in the east. 
✅The current name, “English Channel,” dates back to the 18th century. Before then, the English mostly referred to the waterway as a “Narrow Sea.”
✅The French refer to the Channel as “la Manche” because of its sleevelike shape.
✅It is one of the world’s busiest shipping areas, linking southern England, the United Kingdom to northern France.
✅It accounts for up to 20% of the global maritime trade and connects the Atlantic Ocean to the North Sea. 

🔆Sudan

📍In news?

✅The fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has severely impacted Sudan’s economy and led to shortages of essential resources.

✅It is located in northeastern Africa.
✅It is the third largest nation in all of Africa occupying an area of 1,886,068 sq. km.
✅Sudan shares a border with its seven neighbors: South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, Libya, Chad, and the Central African Republic. 
✅Sudan also has a significant coastline along the Red Sea.

📍 Darfur region:
✅It is a region in western Sudan that has been plagued by violent conflict and humanitarian crises.
✅ The area has experienced ethnic tensions between Arab and African communities, leading to widespread violence and human rights abuses.

#gs2
#mapping
#Places_in_news

🔆Godavari River:

✅It is India's second-longest river after the Ganga and the third-largest in India drains about 10% of India's total geographical area. 
✅It is also called Dakshina Ganga, which translates into the South Ganges River.

📍Course:
✅The origin of the Godavari River is in Brahmagiri Mountain at Trimbakeshwar in the Nashik district of Maharashtra. 
✅It runs for a length of about 1,465 kilometers.
✅It finally empties itself into the Bay of Bengal at Narasapuram in West Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh.
✅The river mainstem travels through three states: Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh, while its basin includes Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, parts of Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
✅Tributaries: The principal tributaries of the river are the Pravara, the Purna, the Manjra, the Penganga, the Wardha, the Wainganga, the Pranhita (combined flow of Wainganga, Penganga, Wardha), the Indravati, the Maner, and the Sabri.

#gs1
#prelims
#geography
#mapping

🔆Bushveld Igneous Complex

✅Researchers recently discovered pockets of living microbes in a 2-billion-year-old rock from the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, providing insights into early life on Earth and potentially aiding the search for life on Mars.

📍Bushveld Igneous Complex

✅It is the largest layered igneous intrusion within the Earth's crust.
✅It is located in northern South Africa, exposed at the edge of the Transvaal Basin.
✅It covers a pear-shaped area of over 66,000 sq. Km
✅The complex varies in thickness, sometimes reaching 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) thick. 
✅It is renowned for containing some of the richest ore deposits.
✅The complex contains the world's largest reserves of platinum-group metals (PGMs), i.e., platinum, palladium, osmium, iridium, rhodium, and ruthenium, along with vast quantities of iron, tin, chromium, titanium, and vanadium.

#geography

Join @Mapping_prelims_mains

🔆Roopkund Lake

✅Climate change is affecting Roopkund Lake in Uttarakhand, causing it to shrink annually.

📍Roopkund Lake:

✅Roopkund, also known as the " lake of skeletons” is a glacial lake in Uttarakhand.
✅It is situated at 16,500 feet above sea level at the base of Mt. Trishul in the Garhwal Himalayas. 
✅Measuring a mere 130 feet in width, the lake is encased in ice for the majority of the year.
✅It is surrounded by snow-capped peaks and lush green meadows.

📍Mystery: 
✅It is called the "lake of skeletons" as the glacial body conceals numbers of human skeletons, some with preserved flesh. These skeletons become visible when snow melts in the region.
✅These skeletal remains, dating back to around the 9th century AD, have led to various theories about the cause of death.
✅A 2019 study by scientists from India, the US, and Germany challenged the belief that the skeletons belonged to a single group that perished in a single event, instead suggesting they were genetically diverse individuals who died over a span of up to 1,000 years.

#geography
#mapping

🔆Chagos Islands

✅The Chagos Islands, a remote archipelago in the Indian Ocean, hold a rich history of cultural connections, colonial struggles, and significant ecological importance.
✅The islands, comprising seven atolls, are geographically close to the Maldives and share deep historical ties with the region.
✅It is imperative to explore the historical claims of the Maldives over the Chagos Islands, the cultural and navigational connections between the regions, and the contemporary issue of marine conservation.

#geography
#mapping

📍M Laxmikant /the Hindu / PYQ Polity Governance MCQ

CLICK HERE TO attempt

🔆Caspian Sea

📍In news?
✅The Caspian Sea has been shrinking since the mid-1990s, but the rate at which it's disappearing has sped up since 2005.

✅It is the world’s largest inland body of water, covering a total surface area of about 386,400 sq km .
✅It is located between Asia and Europe.
✅It lies to the east of the Caucasus Mountains and to the west of the vast steppe of Central Asia. 
✅Bordering countries: It is bordered by Russia and Azerbaijan on the west, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on the north and east, and Iran on the south. 
✅The sea was named for the Kaspi, ancient peoples who once lived on its western shores.

✅Three major rivers—the Volga, the Ural, and the Terek—empty into the Caspian from the north.
✅Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is the largest city on the Caspian. Another important city along the Caspian is Iran’s Nowshahr.
✅It is the source of most of the world’s caviar. 

#mapping
#Places_in_news
#Sea_series

Join @Mapping_prelims_mains