Category: Geography Current Affairs

New Karst Sinkhole: A cave exploration team has discovered an ancient forest with trees nearly 40 metres high at the bottom of a giant karst sinkhole in Leye County in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. In Mandarin, giant sinkholes are called Tiankeng or “heavenly pit”. Sinkholes are depressions formed in the ground when layers […]

Ramban Tunnel: The Centre has constituted a committee of three independent experts to investigate the reasons for the recent collapse of a part of an under-construction tunnel in Ramban on Jammu-Srinagar highway and suggest remedial measures. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways office order, Professor J.T. Sahu of the IIT, Delhi will […]

Sela Tunnel project : Arunachal Pradesh The strategically-significant Sela Tunnel project in Arunachal Pradesh is nearing completion. Located in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, the tunnel project will provide an alternate axis to the Sela pass, which is at 13,700 feet. It will be on the BCT Road – the Balipara, Charduar and Tawang […]

What Is An Urban Heat Island? Several parts of the country are reeling under heat wave conditions. Cities, especially, are a lot hotter than rural areas. This is due to a phenomenon called an “urban heat island”. An urban heat island is a local and temporary phenomenon experienced when certain pockets within a city experience […]

Kanheri Caves: Union Minister of Tourism, Culture and DoNER inaugurates amenities at ancient Kanheri Caves on the occasion of Buddha Purnima. The Kanheri Caves are a group of caves and rock-cut monuments cut into a massive basalt outcrop in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, on the former island of Salsette in the […]

Amalthea : Jupiter’s Satellites According to recent findings, Amalthea appears to radiate out more heat than it receives from the sun, which NASA suggests may be due to Jupiter’s magnetic field or from tidal stresses. Amalthea is tidally locked to Jupiter in synchronous rotation — it always aligns with the planet along its long axis. […]

Cyclone Karim: Cyclone Asani, active now in the Bay of Bengal, has a twin — cyclone Karim — in the southern hemisphere. Karim has been classified as a category II hurricane, with a wind speed of 112 kilometres per hour (kmph). “Asani remains a Severe Cyclonic Storm over the Bay of Bengal, with wind speeds […]

Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) : Black Hole at Centre of Milky Way Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) facility revealed the first image of the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way. The image of Sagittarius A* (SgrA*) gave further support to the idea that the compact object at the centre of our […]

Haflong Hindi: Some linguists feel pushing the standardised Hindi as a compulsory subject in school could affect Haflong Hindi speaking communities in the state. Haflong Hindi is the bridge language of Dima Hasao district of Assam. It stemmed from Hindi and includes vocabulary from several other languages, such as Assamese, Bengali, Dimasa and Zeme Naga. […]