Match the following.
Ocean
a. Pacific ocean
b. Atlantic ocean
c. Indian ocean
d. Arctic ocean
Trench
i. Java Trench
ii. Mariana Trench
iii. Eurasian Trench
iv. Puerto Rico Trench

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — option (3), 'a – ii, b – iv, c – i, d – iii,' pairs each ocean with the deepest trench actually found in it. The Pacific Ocean (a) pairs with the Mariana Trench (ii): the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific near Guam, contains the Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in any ocean on Earth, at roughly 10,900-11,000 metres. The Atlantic Ocean (b) pairs with the Puerto Rico Trench (iv): this trench, north of the island of Puerto Rico, holds the Atlantic's deepest point (the Brownson/Milwaukee Deep) at around 8,300-8,400 metres. The Indian Ocean (c) pairs with the Java Trench (i), also called the Sunda Trench: running along the southern coast of Java and Sumatra where the Indo-Australian plate subducts beneath the Sunda plate, it is the Indian Ocean's deepest feature, reaching roughly 7,200-7,450 metres. The Arctic Ocean (d) pairs with the Eurasian Trench (iii): the Arctic's deepest water lies in the Eurasian Basin, whose deepest known point (the Molloy Deep, in the Fram Strait between Greenland and Svalbard) reaches roughly 5,500 metres, making it by far the shallowest of these four 'deepest points' — consistent with the Arctic being the shallowest of the world's oceans overall. Each pairing follows the same underlying logic: every major ocean has one characteristic deep trench or basin that geography questions use as its identifying feature, and this item simply asks a candidate to hold all four in memory at once.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Every single pairing here is wrong. It assigns the Puerto Rico Trench to the Pacific (it is Atlantic), the Eurasian Trench to the Atlantic (it is Arctic), the Mariana Trench to the Indian Ocean (it is Pacific), and the Java Trench to the Arctic (it is Indian Ocean). This option is best read as a near-total scramble of the correct set rather than a plausible partial match.  (b) This option pairs the oceans with the trenches in the exact order they are listed (a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv) rather than by their actual geography, and every pairing is wrong as a result: the Java Trench is Indian Ocean, not Pacific; the Mariana Trench is Pacific, not Atlantic; the Eurasian Trench is Arctic, not Indian Ocean; and the Puerto Rico Trench is Atlantic, not Arctic. It is the kind of straight-sequence option a rushed candidate can be drawn to precisely because it looks orderly, not because it is correct.  (d) This option gets the Pacific-Mariana pairing right but gets the remaining three wrong: it assigns the Eurasian Trench to the Atlantic (it belongs to the Arctic), the Puerto Rico Trench to the Indian Ocean (it belongs to the Atlantic), and the Java Trench to the Arctic (it belongs to the Indian Ocean). Getting one of four pairings right is exactly why this option is a believable distractor — a candidate confident about Mariana-Pacific but unsure of the other three can land here without noticing the remaining mismatches.

Concept: Each of the world's major oceans has a defining deepest trench or basin: the Pacific's Mariana Trench (Challenger Deep, ~10,900-11,000 m, the deepest point on Earth), the Atlantic's Puerto Rico Trench (~8,300-8,400 m), the Indian Ocean's Java/Sunda Trench (~7,200-7,450 m), and the Arctic's Eurasian Basin, whose deepest point is the Molloy Deep (~5,500 m). These four form a fixed, frequently-tested fact set in physical geography, and the depths themselves also rank the oceans from deepest (Pacific) to shallowest (Arctic).

State PCS 2025 Q30 — Geography PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q30 — Geography PYQ with Answer