Places in News Current Affairs MCQs

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Recently, a major wildfire broke out near the main town of Chios Island in the eastern Aegean Sea, with over 100 firefighters and water-dropping aircraft working to control the flames. Chios is a Greek island located in the Aegean Sea, just 8 kilometres off the western coast of Turkey. It is the fifth-largest island in Greece. Chios is known for producing mastic gum and is often called “the Mastic Island.”

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Recently, the Wandan mud volcano in Taiwan erupted, sending bubbling mud into the air while locals set the escaping gases on fire with burning rags. A mud volcano is a small cone of mud and clay, usually less than a few meters high. It forms from hot water mixed with fine sediment, which either flows gently like lava or bursts out like a fountain due to volcanic gas and boiling water. The craters are shallow and erupt mud on and off, rebuilding cones that erode easily. Mud volcanoes, also called mud domes or sedimentary volcanoes, release gases like methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen along with often salty or acidic water.

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Recently, Japan’s Mount Shinmoedake erupted, sending a huge ash plume into the sky. Mount Shinmoedake is an active stratovolcano on Kyushu Island in Japan. It is part of the Kirishima mountain range in Kagoshima Prefecture. The volcano stands 1420.8 meters above sea level. It shows frequent eruptions and unique geological formations.

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Recently, heavy rainfall caused severe flooding and damage in central Texas, especially along the Guadalupe River. The Guadalupe River is located in Texas, United States. Guadalupe River is a spring-fed river that starts from the North and South Forks in Kerr County, Texas. It flows into San Antonio Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. The river basin includes Canyon Reservoir and Edwards Aquifer in the Balcones Fault Zone, San Antonio portion. The area is known as “Flash Flood Alley” due to frequent flash floods.

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Physicists recently highlighted Helgoland as the birthplace of quantum theory. Helgoland is a small red-sandstone island in the German Bay (Deutsche Bucht) of the North Sea. It covers less than one square kilometre and was once used as a naval fortress. In June 1925, physicist Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, moved to Helgoland for relief. There, he abandoned the idea of electrons orbiting nuclei and focused only on observable experimental data. He organized light absorption and emission data into grids called matrices.

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Recently, Nyangai Island off the coast of Sierra Leone lost two-thirds of its surface area in less than a decade. It now measures only about 200 metres long and 100 metres wide (approximately 650 by 330 feet). Nyangai Island is part of the Turtle Islands archipelago in Sierra Leone. It is a low-lying island located in a region with strong coastal currents, making it highly vulnerable to erosion. The island has long served as a hub for trade, agriculture, fishing, and maritime transport.

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Recently, Mount Rainier in Washington, United States, experienced over 300 small earthquakes, marking the most significant seismic activity since 2009, as reported by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Mount Rainier is the highest mountain in Washington state, standing at 4,392 metres. It covers 260 square kilometers and has the largest single-mountain glacier system in the U.S. outside Alaska. It is an active stratovolcano formed by lava flows that began about one million years ago. Its last eruption occurred around 150 years ago.

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A 2023 false-color satellite image showed twin lava flows and a massive smoke plume from Klyuchevskoy Volcano, highlighting its active state. Klyuchevskoy is a stratovolcano located on the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia. It is the tallest active volcano in Eurasia, with a height of 15,584 feet (4,750 meters). It features a truncated cone with a central crater and about 70 lateral craters and cones on its slopes. It has erupted over 50 times since 1700, often emitting continuous smoke.

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Recently, the Defence Secretary flagged off mountaineering expeditions to Mount Everest and Mount Kilimanjaro at an event held in South Block, New Delhi. Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa’s tallest mountain and the world’s largest free-standing mountain. It is located in northeastern Tanzania near the Kenya border and stretches around 80 km east to west. Kilimanjaro is a stratovolcano made up of three cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira.

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Recently, over 5,000 people applied for a first-ever migration visa to escape climate change impacts in Tuvalu. Tuvalu, formerly called the Ellice Islands, is a small island country in the west-central Pacific Ocean, located between Hawaii and Australia. It has nine islands (four reef islands and five coral atolls) spread over 676 km from northwest to southeast. The entire country is low-lying, with its highest point just 4.5 metres above sea level, making it highly vulnerable to sea level rise.