Which of the following statements regarding continent of Antarctica is/are correct? 1. It has the highest average elevation as compared to all other continents. 2. Mount Vinson is the highest peak of this continent. Select the correct answer using the code given below.
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Antarctica is the highest continent on Earth by average elevation — roughly 2,200 metres, because the whole landmass carries an ice sheet up to about 4 kilometres thick, so the surface you stand on is mostly ice piled on rock. No other continent comes close; Asia, which owns the world's tallest individual mountains, averages less than half of that. Statement 2 is also right: the highest point in Antarctica is Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains at 4,892 m (16,050 ft), climbed as one of the Seven Summits. Both statements stand, so the code that takes both is the answer.
- (a)1 only — Rejects statement 2, but Vinson Massif really is the continent's highest peak at 4,892 m. The nearest rival name a candidate might reach for is Dome Argus, and that is an ice dome at about 4,091 m — the highest ice surface, not the highest peak.
- (b)2 only — Rejects statement 1, but the average elevation claim is the more secure of the two. Antarctica's mean elevation of roughly 2,200 m is well above Asia's, and it is a textbook consequence of the ice sheet's thickness.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are correct, so a code that rejects both cannot be right. UPSC itself asked the mean-elevation point in CSE Prelims 1995 and keyed Antarctica.
Antarctica is a continent of rock buried under the largest ice mass on the planet. The ice sheet averages close to 2 km thick and reaches about 4.8 km at its deepest, and it is that ice, not the bedrock, that lifts the continent's mean surface elevation to roughly 2,200 m — the highest of any continent. Peaks that pierce the ice are called nunataks; the highest of them, Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains, tops out at 4,892 m. Because the ice is so heavy, much of the bedrock beneath East Antarctica is actually pressed below sea level.
The two statements test different things and both survive. For statement 1, the reasoning shortcut is that average elevation is not about the tallest mountain — Asia has Everest and still averages under 1,000 m, because it also has vast low plains. Antarctica has almost no low ground at all: the ice sheet raises nearly the whole surface at once. For statement 2, the trap is Dome Argus, an ice dome often quoted at 4,091 m; it is the highest point of the ice sheet but not a peak, and it is lower than Vinson anyway. If you know either statement securely and cannot fault the other, the both-correct code is the safer read.
- Antarctica has the highest average elevation of any continent, around 2,200 m, because of its ice sheet.
- Vinson Massif, in the Ellsworth Mountains, is the highest peak in Antarctica at 4,892 m (16,050 ft).
- Dome Argus, at about 4,091 m, is the highest point of the Antarctic ice sheet but is lower than Vinson.
- India's operational Antarctic research stations are Maitri (1989) and Bharati (2012); the first station, Dakshin Gangotri (1983), was abandoned in 1990 after being buried in ice.
- Assuming the continent with the world's tallest mountain must have the highest average elevation — Asia does not.
- Confusing Dome Argus, the highest point of the ice surface, with Vinson Massif, the highest rock peak.
- Reading 'highest average elevation' as a statement about bedrock; much of East Antarctica's bedrock lies below sea level.
Asked as a two-statement code item pairing a physical-geography superlative with a named peak — CDS and UPSC both favour this format for Antarctica.
Which one of the following is the continent with the highest mean elevation in the world?
- (a) Antarctica
- (b) North America
- (c) Asia
- (d) South America
Answer(a) Antarctica — its ice sheet lifts the mean surface elevation to about 2,200 m, more than double Asia's.
Exactly the point statement 1 makes, asked directly by UPSC as a single-line item — proof that this superlative is standing exam property and not a one-off.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which mountain range contains the highest peak of Antarctica?
- (a)Transantarctic Mountains
- (b)Ellsworth Mountains
- (c)Prince Charles Mountains
- (d)Gamburtsev Mountains
Answer(b) Ellsworth Mountains — Vinson Massif, at 4,892 m, stands in the Ellsworth range; the Gamburtsev Mountains are buried entirely beneath the ice sheet.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The principal reason Antarctica has the highest mean elevation among the continents is
- (a)the height of its mountain ranges
- (b)the thickness of its ice sheet
- (c)recent tectonic uplift
- (d)the absence of river erosion
Answer(b) the thickness of its ice sheet — an ice cover averaging about 2 km raises the whole surface, which no mountain range alone could do.