UPHESC Assistant Professor Geography 2025 PYQs

Concept: Mollweide is an equal-area elliptical projection; the ellipse’s semi-minor axis (half central meridian) is $\sqrt{2}R$ and semi-major axis (half equator) is $2\sqrt{2}R$.

1. Area of ellipse = $\pi \times 2\sqrt{2}R\times \sqrt{2}R=4\pi R^2$ = area of globe.
2. Equator = $2\times 2\sqrt{2}R=4\sqrt{2}R\approx 5.66R$; central meridian = $2\sqrt{2}R$.
3. $2\pi R$ is the true equator on the globe, not on Mollweide.

Short trick: Mollweide: meridian $2\sqrt{2}R$, equator twice that $4\sqrt{2}R$.

Concept: The Gulf Stream meanders strongly after leaving Cape Hatteras; the loops pinch off as eddies called rings.

1. Warm-core rings (clockwise) break off to the north into cold slope water.
2. Cold-core rings (anticlockwise) break off to the south into the warm Sargasso Sea.

Short trick: Meander → pinch off → Gulf Stream rings.

Concept: For the spatial-science (quantitative) school, a region is not a real object but a classificatory device – a convenient, efficient generalisation of how the character of an area varies.

1. This instrumental view of the region is the one associated with Peter Haggett and the locational-analysis approach, and it is the view expressed in the quoted line.
2. Hettner and Hartshorne saw regions as unique areas studied idiographically (chorology / areal differentiation), not as a shorthand device.

Short trick: Region as a ‘shorthand tool’ = modern spatial-analysis view (Haggett).

Concept: NAPCC (2008) has eight missions.

1. Solar; Enhanced Energy Efficiency; Sustainable Habitat; Water; Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem; Green India; Sustainable Agriculture; Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
2. There is no ‘Wildlife Protection’ mission.

Short trick: 8 missions: S-E-H-W-H-G-A-K (Solar, Efficiency, Habitat, Water, Himalaya, Green, Agriculture, Knowledge).

Concept: Variance = (standard deviation)${}^2$.

1. ${2.83}^2=8.0089\approx 8.00$.
2. 5.66 is $2\times 2.83$ (doubling, not squaring); 1.68 ≈ $\sqrt{2.83}$.

Short trick: SD = $\sqrt{\text{variance}}$; $2.83\approx 2\sqrt{2}$ so variance = 8.

Concept: NCERT (India: Physical Environment) notes that the Mizo hills of the Purvanchal are also known as the ‘Molasses basin’.

1. Molasse = soft, unconsolidated sandstone–shale deposits shed from a rising mountain belt.
2. The Mizo hills (Tertiary folds of the Purvanchal) are built of such loose sediments, hence the name.

Short trick: Mizoram = Molasses basin (M–M).

Concept: Shifting (slash-and-burn) cultivation has different local names.

1. Ladang – Malaysia/Indonesia.
2. Milpa – Mexico & Central America.
3. Tamrai – Thailand.
4. Taungya – Myanmar (also a forestry agro-system).

Short trick: Malaysia – Ladang; Mexico – Milpa; India NE – Jhum.

Concept: Weather charts need a conformal (orthomorphic) projection so that wind directions and the shapes of pressure systems are correct; for low latitudes Mercator is used.

1. India lies mostly in the tropics/sub-tropics, so IMD’s daily weather maps are drawn on Mercator’s projection.
2. Polyconic is used for Survey of India topographical sheets; Bonne and sinusoidal are equal-area, not conformal.

Short trick: Weather/navigation chart = conformal = Mercator.

Concept: Louis Agassiz (1837, ‘Études sur les glaciers’, 1840) proposed that a great Ice Age (Eiszeit) once covered much of Europe.

1. Evidence: erratic boulders, striations, moraines far from present glaciers.
2. Hutton – uniformitarianism; Playfair – popularised Hutton (law of accordant junctions); Lyell – Principles of Geology.

Short trick: Agassiz = father of glacial (Ice Age) theory.

Concept: A niche is the ‘profession’ of a species – its habitat needs plus its functional role in the ecosystem (what it eats, who eats it, its interactions).

1. Habitat = only the ‘address’ (place where it lives).
2. Ecotone = transition zone between two ecosystems.
3. Home range = area an animal normally moves over.

Short trick: Habitat = address; Niche = address + profession.

Concept: Halos (22° rings) are produced by refraction of light through hexagonal ice crystals in thin high clouds.

1. Cirrostratus (and cirrus) are thin ice-crystal veils – typical halo clouds.
2. Altostratus and altocumulus are mainly water droplets – they give coronas, not halos.

Short trick: Halo = ice crystals = cirrostratus; corona = droplets = alto clouds.

Concept: Empirical schemes use observed temperature/rainfall values; genetic schemes use causes (air masses, circulation).

1. Trewartha modified Köppen’s empirical boundaries and grouped the types according to air masses and pressure belts – combining both approaches.
2. Thornthwaite and Miller are essentially empirical (P/E index, temperature); Oliver and Hidore discussed genetic schemes.

Short trick: Trewartha = Köppen boundaries + air-mass logic.

Concept: Claudius Ptolemy (2nd century AD) wrote the Almagest (Mathematike Syntaxis), the Geographike (Hyphegesis/Syntaxis) and a treatise ‘Analemma’ on sundials.

1. ‘Geographica’ (17 books) is the work of Strabo (1st century BC–AD).
2. So Geographica is not Ptolemy’s.

Short trick: Strabo – Geographica; Ptolemy – Geographike + Almagest.

Concept: Ellsworth Huntington’s ‘The Pulse of Asia’ (1907) linked climatic pulsations in Central Asia with migrations and history.

1. Other works: Civilization and Climate (1915), Mainsprings of Civilization (1945).
2. Bowman – The New World; Sauer – Morphology of Landscape.

Short trick: Huntington = climate pulses → history.

Concept: Globigerina (calcareous) ooze covers more than half of the Indian Ocean floor.

1. The Indian Ocean is relatively shallow and warm, above the carbonate compensation depth over large areas, so calcareous tests survive.
2. Red clay dominates the deep Pacific; diatom ooze is mainly in the Southern Ocean.

Short trick: Indian & Atlantic – Globigerina; Pacific – red clay.

Concept: Bleaching happens when stressed corals expel their symbiotic zooxanthellae algae and turn white.

1. The main trigger is abnormally high sea-surface temperature (marine heatwaves, El Niño) driven by global warming.
2. Pollution, sediment and acidification are secondary stresses.

Short trick: Hot water → algae expelled → white coral.

Concept: Smog is of two types: classical (London) smog from SO₂ + smoke + fog, and photochemical (Los Angeles) smog from NOx + hydrocarbons + sunlight giving ozone and PAN.

1. SO₂, NOx and ozone are all smog-forming/constituent gases.
2. CO is a toxic pollutant but does not form smog.

Short trick: Smog gases: SO₂ (London), NOx & O₃ (photochemical); CO – not.

Concept: The urban–rural temperature difference is greatest a few hours after sunset, on calm clear nights.

1. Concrete, asphalt and buildings store heat by day and release it slowly at night, while rural areas cool quickly.
2. Canyon geometry reduces sky view and night-time radiative loss.

Short trick: UHI peaks at night, not at noon.

Concept: The Smart Cities Mission was launched by the Prime Minister on 25 June 2015 (along with AMRUT and PMAY-Urban).

1. 100 cities were selected through a ‘City Challenge’ competition.
2. 21 June is International Yoga Day – a common distractor.

Short trick: 25 June 2015 – three urban missions launched together.

Concept: Histosols are organic soils (peat, muck, bog) with more than 20–30% organic matter in thick layers.

1. Formed in waterlogged, cold or anaerobic conditions where decomposition is slow.
2. Ultisols – leached red clay soils; Andisols – volcanic ash; Inceptisols – young weakly developed soils.

Short trick: Histo = tissue → organic soil (peat).