With reference to the continent of ‘Antarctica’ which of the following statements are correct? 1. It is larger than Europe in terms of area. 2. It has the highest average elevation as compared to all other continents. 3. Mt. Ross is the highest peak of this continent. 4. Waters of the Southern Ocean (West Wind Drift) move in an anticlockwise direction around it. Select the answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 and 2 only
- (b)1 and 3 only
- (c)1, 2 and 3
- (d)2, 3 and 4
Correct — A, 1 and 2 only. Antarctica covers about 14 million sq km, against Europe's roughly 10 million, so statement 1 holds. Statement 2 holds as well: the ice sheet lifts the continent's mean elevation to about 2,200 metres, higher than any other continent, and it is the ice rather than the rock that does it — much of the bedrock beneath is at or below sea level, pressed down by the weight above. Statement 3 fails. The highest peak of Antarctica is Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains at 4,892 metres; Mount Ross is on Kerguelen, a French island group in the southern Indian Ocean, and lies well outside the continent. Statement 4 fails on its direction. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the West Wind Drift, flows clockwise as seen from the South Pole, that is from west to east, driven by the westerlies of those latitudes. It is the only current that circles the globe without a landmass in its way, and it is what thermally isolates Antarctica from the warmer oceans to the north.
- (b)1 and 3 only — Takes the Mount Ross claim. The continent's highest point is Vinson Massif at 4,892 metres; Mount Ross belongs to the Kerguelen islands.
- (c)1, 2 and 3 — Two sound statements carrying a false third. The area and elevation claims are right; the peak is not.
- (d)2, 3 and 4 — Fails twice over. The highest peak is misnamed and the circumpolar current runs clockwise from the South Pole's point of view, not anticlockwise.
Antarctica is the fifth-largest continent, almost entirely covered by an ice sheet that averages nearly two kilometres thick and holds most of the world's fresh water. That ice is why the continent's mean elevation is the highest of any, and why the rock floor beneath much of West Antarctica lies below sea level. Around it runs the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the largest ocean current on the planet, unobstructed by land and flowing eastward under the westerlies; it separates cold polar water from the subtropical water further north and is a major reason the continent stayed frozen after it drifted into its present position. India maintains research stations there — Maitri, opened in 1989, and Bharati, opened in 2012, after Dakshin Gangotri of 1983 was abandoned to the ice.
Four statements, two of them easy and two of them planted. The area and elevation claims are stock facts and can be taken without hesitation. The other two are the sort that reward one clear mental picture each. For the peak, remember Vinson in the Ellsworth Mountains and note that Kerguelen's Mount Ross is a sub-Antarctic island volcano, not a continental summit. For the current, work from the wind: the belt is the roaring forties and furious fifties, the westerlies blow from the west, so the water they drive must move eastward — which, looked at from above the South Pole, is clockwise. Anticlockwise is the answer for a northern-hemisphere reader who has not stopped to reverse the sense.
- Antarctica covers about 14 million sq km, against roughly 10 million for Europe.
- Its average elevation, at about 2,200 metres, is the highest of any continent, because of the thickness of the ice sheet.
- Vinson Massif in the Ellsworth Mountains, 4,892 metres, is the continent's highest peak.
- Mount Ross is on the Kerguelen islands in the southern Indian Ocean, not in Antarctica.
- The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, also called the West Wind Drift, flows clockwise as seen from the South Pole, that is from west to east, around the continent.
- Naming Mount Ross or Mount Erebus as the highest peak; Erebus is an active volcano on Ross Island but is lower than Vinson.
- Reading the circumpolar current as anticlockwise by carrying a northern-hemisphere habit south.
- Assuming Antarctica's high mean elevation comes from mountainous bedrock; it comes from the ice.
As a multi-statement item on the continent's superlatives, with a misnamed peak or a reversed current direction planted among true statements.
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
Settles statement 2 of this item on its own. UPSC asked the mean-elevation question directly, and the answer is the same continent, for the same reason — the thickness of the ice sheet.
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
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
The same two facts, six months earlier in the same exam cycle. That paper affirmed Mount Vinson as the highest peak, which is exactly the claim the third statement here gets wrong by naming Mount Ross instead.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which is the highest peak of Antarctica?
- (a)Mount Erebus
- (b)Vinson Massif
- (c)Mount Ross
- (d)Dome Argus
Answer(b) Vinson Massif — 4,892 metres in the Ellsworth Mountains; Erebus is an active volcano on Ross Island and Dome Argus is the highest point of the ice sheet, not a peak.
- practice — not a real PYQ
In which direction does the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flow around the continent?
- (a)From west to east
- (b)From east to west
- (c)Radially outward from the pole
- (d)It reverses with the seasons
Answer(a) From west to east — driven by the westerlies, and appearing clockwise when seen from above the South Pole.