UPPSC 2021 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 87 of 150

Correct — B, A-4 B-1 C-2 D-3. The four volcanic mountains map to their countries as: A. Mount Rainier → U.S.A. (4) — a glacier-clad stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of Washington State; B. Mount Etna → Italy (1) — Europe's largest and one of its most active volcanoes, on Sicily; C. Mount Pericutine (Paricutin) → Mexico (2) — the cinder-cone volcano that famously burst out of a farmer's field in Michoacan in 1943; D. Mount Apo → Philippines (3) — a stratovolcano on Mindanao and the highest peak in the Philippines. That gives A-4 B-1 C-2 D-3 → option (b).

• (a)A-4, B-2, C-1, D-3 — Wrong — it swaps B and C: Etna is in Italy (1), not Mexico (2), and Paricutin is in Mexico (2), not Italy (1). Rainier-USA and Apo-Philippines are right, but the middle pair is inverted.
• (c)A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3 — Wrong — it misplaces Rainier and Paricutin: Mount Rainier is in the U.S.A. (4), not Mexico (2), and Paricutin is in Mexico (2), not the U.S.A. (4). Only Etna-Italy and Apo-Philippines are correct here.
• (d)A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1 — Wrong — it puts Etna in the Philippines (3) and Apo in Italy (1). Etna is in Italy and Apo is in the Philippines, so both those pairs are reversed; only Rainier-USA and Paricutin-Mexico are right.

This is a 'famous volcano ↔ country' location test. All four are stratovolcanoes/cones on active plate margins: Mount Rainier (USA) and Paricutin (Mexico) sit along the Pacific 'Ring of Fire' subduction belt; Mount Etna (Italy) lies where the African plate meets the Eurasian plate in the Mediterranean; and Mount Apo (Philippines) is on the western Pacific arc. Knowing the home country of each iconic volcano is a recurring UPPSC/UPSC static-geography item.

The reliable match-list tactic is to anchor on the pairs you are certain of and eliminate. Mount Etna-Italy and Mount Rainier-USA are near-universal knowledge; fixing those two already rules out options (c) and (d). Between the remaining choices, recall that Paricutin is the Mexican 'new-born' volcano of 1943 and Mount Apo is the Philippines' highest peak — giving C-2 and D-3, i.e. option (b).

• Mount Etna (Sicily, Italy) is Europe's most active and largest volcano.
• Mount Rainier is a glaciated stratovolcano in Washington State, U.S.A. (Cascade Range).
• Paricutin (Michoacan, Mexico) erupted from a farmer's field in 1943 — a classic 'new' cinder-cone volcano.
• Mount Apo is a stratovolcano on Mindanao and the highest mountain in the Philippines.

• Interchanging Etna (Italy) with a Latin-American volcano such as Paricutin (Mexico)
• Forgetting that Mount Apo — not a Japanese/Indonesian peak — is the Philippines' highest volcanic mountain

UPPSC and UPSC frequently ask 'volcano/mountain ↔ country' or 'volcano ↔ location' match-lists — memorise the iconic pairs (Etna-Italy, Vesuvius-Italy, Fuji-Japan, Krakatoa-Indonesia, Rainier & St Helens-USA, Paricutin-Mexico, Apo-Philippines).

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Paricutin, a volcano that famously emerged from a farmer's field in 1943, is located in which country?

  • (a)Italy
  • (b)Mexico
  • (c)Philippines
  • (d)Chile

  Answer(b) Mexico — Paricutin is a cinder-cone volcano in Michoacan, Mexico, that first erupted in a cornfield in February 1943.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following volcanic mountains is located in the U.S.A.?

  • (a)Mount Etna
  • (b)Mount Apo
  • (c)Mount Rainier
  • (d)Mount Cotopaxi

  Answer(c) Mount Rainier — a glaciated stratovolcano in Washington State, U.S.A.; Etna is in Italy, Apo in the Philippines and Cotopaxi in Ecuador.