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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At least 900 tourists were stranded near Machu Picchu, Peru’s ancient Inca citadel. The disruption occurred after passenger train services were suspended due to a protest in the Cusco region. PeruRail reported the route was blocked by rocks of various sizes and that “third parties” had excavated part of the rail line, affecting track stability. Protesters demanded transparency and fairness in replacing the tourist bus operator Consettur, whose concession had expired. Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca site located 80 km northwest of Cuzco, Peru, in the Cordillera de Vilcabamba of the Andes Mountains.

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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 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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A rare burst of winter rains in Chile’s Atacama Desert has triggered the “Desierto Florido” or flowering desert phenomenon. It transformed one of Earth’s driest landscapes into vast carpets of fuchsia wildflowers visible even from space. The Atacama Desert is the world’s driest non-polar desert, located in northern Chile. It stretches about 1,000–1,100 kilometres between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and European Space Agency (ESA) use it as a Mars-like testing site due to its extreme dryness and high ultraviolet radiation. The bloom is caused by Cistanthe longiscapa, locally known as “pata de guanaco.” This annual herb lies dormant for years and blooms rapidly after rare rains.

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An artificial intelligence (AI) model has revealed new geological structures at Campi Flegrei volcano, located in Italy. A clear “ring fault” was detected, which could trigger magnitude 5 earthquakes. Campi Flegrei, also called the Phlegraean Fields, is an active volcanic region in the densely populated Bay of Naples, Italy. It is a volcanic system, not a single volcano, spread across a large caldera. It is the largest active volcanic caldera in Europe, bigger and more active than Mount Vesuvius.

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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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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.