Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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Recently, UNESCO placed the Varkala Cliff in Kerala on its tentative list of World Heritage Sites. It is located in Varkala town, Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala. The cliff exposes the Warkalli Formation of the Mio-Pliocene age, dating from 13 lakh to 2.5 crore years ago. It is locally known as Sivagiri Thuruthu. The cliff has laterite and sedimentary layers with fossils and traces of ancient climates. It serves as a crucial aquifer, supports biodiversity, underwater reefs, and coastal fishing. It is India’s 27th national geological monument and the second in Kerala after Angadipuram Laterite.

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Recently, environmentalists raised concerns over unchecked tourism and construction in the Mahendragiri Hills of Odisha, despite its Biodiversity Heritage Site status since 2022. It is located in Gajapati district at 1,501 meters elevation. It is part of the Eastern Ghats. The hills host 1,348 plant species and 388 animal species, including many endemic and threatened ones. Culturally, they are linked to the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and believed to be the site of Lord Parashurama’s penance.

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A recent expedition to Argentina’s Mar del Plata Canyon discovered over 40 possible new deep-sea species, including glass squids and pink lobsters. The Mar del Plata Canyon lies 250–300 km off Buenos Aires Province and is one of Argentina’s largest submarine canyons. It has fine sandy sediments mixed with terrigenous material and planktonic foraminifera. The region is highly productive due to the Argentine Shelf-break Front, where subantarctic waters meet the Falkland-Malvinas Current. A submarine canyon is a steep underwater valley cutting into continental slopes and shelves.

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Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki volcano in Indonesia recently erupted, spewing volcanic ash up to 10 km high, leading authorities to raise the alert to its highest level. It is an active stratovolcano and part of the twin-peaked Lewotobi volcanic complex, along with Lewotobi Perempuan, meaning “female” in Indonesian, while “Laki-laki” means “male.” The volcano is located on the island of Flores in East Nusa Tenggara province, about 30 km southeast of Maumere city, Indonesia. It lies within the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone known for frequent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

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The Rincon de la Vieja volcano in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, had a moderate phreatic eruption recently. It sent a 700-meter-high plume of water vapor, gas, and aerosols, drifting west with the wind. Wet sediments stayed inside the crater, and no ash fall was reported in nearby areas. The Rincon de la Vieja volcano is located in Costa Rica, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste. It is part of the Rincon de la Vieja National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Recently, the Taal Volcano in the Philippines reportedly erupted three times. It is located in Batangas province, about 70 km south of Manila, Philippines. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) classifies it as a complex volcano. Taal is an active volcano within a large caldera, having 38 eruptions in the past 450 years. The caldera formed through prehistoric eruptions between 140,000 and 5,380 BCE. It is a stratovolcano with a crater lake on a 5-km-wide volcanic island. It consists of multiple cones, hills, and craters instead of a single dome, making it geologically unique.

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Lake Suchitlán in El Salvador is facing a crisis due to the rapid spread of invasive water lettuce. Lake Suchitlán is located in El Salvador. Water lettuce is a perennial, free-floating aquatic weed found in tropical regions across Asia, Africa, and the Americas. It is also called water cabbage, Nile cabbage, or shellflower. The plant has lettuce-like leaves with long, feathery white to tan roots hanging below.

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A drying climate in East Africa caused Lake Turkana’s water levels to drop, triggering earthquakes and volcanic activity beneath it. Lake Turkana, formerly Lake Rudolf, is a vast, shallow lake in northern Kenya, extending slightly into Ethiopia. It lies along the Eastern Rift Valley, separated from Lake Logipi by volcanic formations called the Barriers.

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Nearly 70% of corals at UNESCO-listed Ningaloo Reef have died due to Australia’s most intense and prolonged marine heatwave. Ningaloo Reef is Australia’s largest fringing coral reef and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for rich marine life and whale-shark aggregations. It is one of the world’s longest near-shore reef systems, located on the north-west coast of Western Australia, around 1,200 km north of Perth in the East Indian Ocean. The reef formed over millennia through coral limestone growth on a shallow shelf, supported by tectonic uplift of Cape Range and stable sea levels.

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Scottish historian William Dalrymple urged the Maharashtra government to promote lesser-known heritage sites at Ellora Caves. Ellora is located near a village in Maharashtra. Ellora is among India’s first UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The caves show 700 years of Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Sufi, and Naga traditions.