Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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Ships of Indian Navy’s First Training Squadron (1TS), INS Tir and ICGS Sarathi, reached Réunion Island, while INS Shardul arrived in Port Louis, Mauritius, during training deployment. Réunion Island is a French territory in the Western Indian Ocean. Réunion is volcanic, with rugged mountains and short torrential rivers like Marsouins and Galet. It has the highest peak in the Indian Ocean, Piton des Neiges, and an active volcano, Piton de la Fournaise. The capital is Saint-Denis, on the northern coast.

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Recently, Tanzania stopped a large-scale soda ash mining project at Lake Natron to protect its ecosystem. Lake Natron is a salt lake on the Tanzania–Kenya border, part of the Great Rift Valley. It was designated as a Ramsar Site of International Importance in 2001. It is the only reliable breeding ground for Lesser Flamingos in Africa, hosting 75% of the world’s population. The proposed mining project by Ngaresero Valley Company threatened flamingos, fragile hydrology, and the livelihoods of 65,000 Maasai pastoralists. Government allowed only small-scale traditional soda ash collection and emphasized sustainable ecotourism as the future.

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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, more than 1,200 earthquakes around Greece’s Santorini Island showed that Santorini and Kolumbo volcano share an underground magma reservoir. The Santorini and Kolumbo volcanoes are located in Greece, in the southern Aegean Sea, forming part of the Hellenic Volcanic Arc. Seismic and GPS data (2024–25) proved both volcanoes are interconnected through a common magma system. This is the first scientific evidence of their magmatic link, complicating eruption forecasting and highlighting the need for real-time monitoring. Both lie in the Hellenic Volcanic Arc, one of Europe’s most active volcanic zones, critical for global disaster management studies.

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A collaborative research team led by University of Tasmania scientists completed a 54-day voyage on CSIRO research vessel (RV) Investigator to study the 2022 Hunga Volcano eruption in Tonga. It is a submarine stratovolcano in the Tongan archipelago, southern Pacific Ocean. The volcano has erupted regularly over past decades. On January 15, 2022, it had an explosive eruption, one of the largest of the 21st century. The eruption sent volcanic plume into the stratosphere, triggered shock waves, and caused tsunami waves across ocean basins. The voyage collected data to understand volcanic impacts, seafloor changes, and tsunami risks, aiding Pacific disaster preparedness.

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A 6.7 magnitude earthquake recently struck Leyte Island in the Philippines. Leyte Island is part of the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is the eighth-largest island and sixth most populated in the country. The island has forests, mountains, and the Leyte Valley, a major farming area. Historically, known as Tandaya, Leyte saw rapid population growth post-1900.

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India’s only mud volcano at Baratang, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, has recently erupted. It is located in the North and Middle Andaman district, about 150 km from Port Blair. Previous eruption occurred in 2005 due to oceanic seismic shifts. Mud volcanoes in Baratang are the only known volcanoes in the Indian subcontinent. The eruption is significant for geological study and tourism in the region.

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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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Scientists have warned that the Axial Seamount underwater volcano near the Oregon coast, USA, may erupt soon due to increased earthquakes. It lies about 300 miles off Oregon’s coast in the Pacific Ocean. Axial Seamount is a shield volcano with a large caldera at its summit. It rises to a depth of 1,400 metres below sea level. It is part of the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) and houses the New Millennium Observatory (NeMO), the world’s first underwater volcanic observatory. NeMO transmits real-time volcanic data via undersea cables to Pacific City, Oregon, aiding scientific research.