Apposition of Jupiter

On 8^th March 2018, after the sunset to almost whole night in India, people witnessed geographical phenomena called Apposition of Jupiter after 13 years. This event occurs when Earth comes between Jupiter and the Sun almost exactly on a line from one another.

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is the fifth planet from the Sun. it is a gas giant planet, along with Saturn. Jupiter has a mass of one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times massive them all the other planets in the entire Solar System. Since it is made primarily of gasses, it is known as a “gas giant”.

Jupiter’s Moons

Jupiter has a cluster of at least 67 moons, the largest number of natural satellites around any of the planets, in orbit around it. Amongst these, the four largest moons of Jupiter are Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa. Since they were discovered by Galileo Galilei, they are known as the Galilean moons.

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Ganymede, discovered in 1610, is Jupiter’s largest Moon. It is also the largest Moon in the Solar System. It is larger than the planet Mercury. If it were not orbiting as Jupiter’s Moon, it could have been considered a dwarf planet. It is named after the mythical Greek son of a king, who was carried to the sky by Zeus pretending to be an eagle.

Callisto is the second largest Moon of Jupiter and is nearly the size of Mercury. It was also discovered in 1610. It is a half-rocky, half- icy Moon. The surface of this Moon contains rocky particles carbon dioxide, hydrocarbon compounds, water ice and silicate dust.

Europa, discovered in 1610, is the smallest of Jupiter’s Galilean Moons. It is named after a woman in Greek mythology, who was daughter of a king. She was believed to be one of Zeus’ many lovers and was made the queen of Crete. It is nearly the same size as Earth’s Moon. Its orbit is nearly circular.

Facts About Jupiter

The Sightings of Jupiter was first recorded by the ancient Babylonians around 7^th or 8^th century BC. It is named after the king of Roman gods. To Greeks, it represented the god of thunder – Zeus. To the Mesopotamians it represented the god Marduk and the patron of the city of Babylon. Germanic tribes saw this planet as Donar or Thor.

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Jupiter has a thin ring system:

Whose rings are made up mainly of dust particles ejected from some of Jupiter’s smaller worlds during impacts from incoming comets and asteroids. It has unique cloud features as its upper atmosphere is divided into cloud belts and zones. They are composed primarily of ammonia crystals, sulfur, and mixtures of the two compounds.

Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system and is one of the five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth. Only the Sun, Moon and Venus are brighter than Jupiter.

Jupiter’s interior is made of rock, metal, and hydrogen compounds. The massive atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen. There are layers of compressed hydrogen gas, liquid metallic hydrogen, and a core of ice, rock, and metals below its atmosphere.

The Great Red Spot is a huge storm on Jupiter that has raged for at least 350 years. It is so massive that it can envelop three Earth inside it.

Till date eight spacecraft have visited it: Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Cassini, Ulysses, and New Horizons missions. The Juno mission is in its way and will reach to Jupiter in July 2016.

Jupiter orbits the Sun once every 11.8 Earth years. From Earth, it appears to move slowly in the sky. It takes months to more from one constellation to another.

It has the shortest day among all the planets. It rotates on its axis once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. The rapid rotation, while giving it an oblate shape, flattens the planet slightly.

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Three broad categories of wind types are:

Regular Winds: e.g. Trade winds, Easterlies and Polar Easterlies

Prevailing Winds/ Planetary Periodical Winds: (which blow seasonally) Monsoon

Variable Winds: Cyclones and other local winds

Also Read: Monsoon, Floods and Droughts

Trade Winds

Trade in German means ‘Track’. To blow ‘trade’ means ‘to blow steadily in the same direction and in a constant course’.

They blow from the sub-tropical high pressure belts towards the equatorial low pressure belt. Under the influence of the Coriolis force they blow from the north-east SW in the northern hemisphere and from the south-east NW direction in the southern hemisphere.

Westerlies

Blow from subtropical High pressure to sub-polar low pressure belt.

They blow in SW to NE direction in Northern hemisphere and NW and SE direction in Southern hemisphere.

In the northern hemisphere, land masses cause considerable disruption in the westerly wind belt. But between 40 degree and 60 degree south lies the almost unbroken ocean belt. Westerlies are strong and persistent here, giving rise to mariner’s expressions – Roaring Forties, Furious Fifties, and Shrieking Sixties.

Polar Easterlies

Move from high pressure poles to sub-polar low pressure area in east and west direction.

These are deflected by the Earth’s rotation to become east winds or polar easterlies.

Local Winds

Chinook: Hot dry wind in Rockies also called ‘snow eater’

Hoehn: Hot, dry wind in Alps

Khamsin: Hot, dry wind in Egypt

Sirocco: Hot, moist wind from Sahara to Mediterranean Sea.

Solano: Hot, moist wind from Sahara towards Iberian Peninsula

Hamattan: Hot dry wind blowing outwards from interior of West Africa also called Guinea Doctor.

Bora: Cold, dry wind blowing outward from Hungary to the north of Italy (near Adriatic Sea)

Mistral: Very cold wind, which blows down from the Alps, over France.

Zonda: Cold, dry wind blow in Argentina

Blizzard: Very cold wind in Tundra region

Brickfielder: Hot wind in Australia

Purga: Cold wind in Russian Tundra

Lavanter: Cold wind in Spain

Norwester: Hot wind in New Zealand

Santa Ana: Hot wind in South California in USA

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Rainfall regions of India

Physical features of India: physiographic units

Water, our most precious resource, is limited and, naturally, unequally distributed. The stress on water resources of India is mounting up as the demand for water is increasing at an alarming speed because of the rapid growth of population, urbanization and industrialization.

In India the average annual water availability has been appraised as 1869 Billion Cubic Metres (BCM) and ground water 433 BCM.

It is the Ministry of water Resources that formulates policies and programmes for the development, regulation and judicious utilization of water.

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Chief Water Resources of India include:

Irrigation

Irrigation as a key component of water resources in India is vital for realizing full potential of agriculture sector of the country. In Areas where rainfall varies very much, the availability of irrigation makes the cultivation of crop more reliable and sustainable.

It is so the significance of the efficient utilization of water resources of India can hardly be ignored. Drought has become an annual phenomenon in India as the delayed arrival of monsoon generally reduces the agricultural returns. Apart from this, the winter crops are more or less dependent on irrigation, hence the need for the irrigation.

Irrigation in India has a history of thousand years, and currently in the field of irrigation India stands first in terms of total irrigated area.

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Canals

Canals are one of the oldest and most important water resources of India. However, Canal irrigation is largely limited to the States that form the Great plains of India: Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Haryana and Punjab) and the states that form the fertile plains of India: Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

Some of the important canals of the irrigation system of India are:

The Bari Doab canal; Indira Gandhi canal; Bhakhra canal, Eastern and Western Yamuna canals; the Ganga canal; Agra and Sharda canal; etc. Certain areas of the Thar Desert in the Indira Gandhi Command area, has been transformed by the canal irrigation.

Merits of Canal irrigation

Canals, a cheap and perennial source of irrigation- a very important factor contributing to the water resources of India-,carry a lot of sediment through its water which enrich the fertility of the irrigated fields.

Canals make agriculture sustainable as they help in controlling floods during the rainy season.

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Demerits of Canal irrigation

Overuse and over irrigation, that is certainly misuse, lead to water logging and excessive irrigation causes rise in underground water level.

During rainy season many canals overflow.

Canal irrigation can be practiced very smoothly in the plain areas; in the semi-arid areas canal irrigation cause the problem of usar (Kallar) formation.

Due to overflow of canals water logged areas turn into the breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

Tube-wells and Wells

Tube-wells and Wells form a very important part of water resources in India as they irrigate the largest cropped area of the country. The importance of tube-well irrigation can be gauged from the fact that about 54% of total irrigated areas is under tube-wells and wells irrigation.

Tube-wells irrigation is largely developed in the Northern Plans of India, where about 95% of the tubewells are estabilished and functioning. These areas include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

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Merit of Tubewell Irrigation

Tubewells can be installed at convenient places at low cost by the Government and farmers as well. Tubewell as an independent source of income can be installed in a short period of time.

Tubewells can be used when needs arise. Water of tubewells contains several minerals and salt such as nitrate, sulphate, etc. which increase the fertility of soil.

Limitations of Tubewell Irrigation

Mostly during the summer season, underground water table diminishes due to the excessive and non-sensible use of tube-wells.

Through tube-well irrigation only limited areas can be irrigated. When monsoon fails the underground water- table decreases and enough water becomes unavailable for irrigation of crops.

Since electricity and diesel are used in operating tube-wells and pumping sets, tube-well irrigation is considered an expensive method of irrigation.

Tanks

Tanks have been a major part of water resources of India. Tanks irrigation is largely practiced in the areas where the topography is suitable for acting dams across small rivulets and for the collection of water in artificial lakes such as areas covering the eastern part of the Deccan.

Districts having large number of tanks are: North Arcot, South Arcots, Chengalapattu in Tamil Nadu; Nellore and Warangal districts in Andhra Pradesh. The other states where it is extensive to a lesser extent are Odisha, West Bengal, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

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Potential of Irrigation as the part of water resources in India

It has been claimed that with continuous and systematic development the potential of irrigation has enhanced from 22.6 million hectares in 1951 to 87.8 million hectares in 2010.

Irrigation projects, since April 1978, have been classified classified on the basis of their command area:

Major: involving more than 10,000 hectares

Medium: involving in between 2000-10,000 hectares

Minor: Less than 2000 hectares

Minor irrigation projects, as they cater instant and reliable sources of irrigation to the farmers, are widely distributed. Ground water development, forming major part of the minor irrigation projects, is implemented mainly through the individual and cooperative efforts.

In a recent study of its own the World Bank has disclosed that approximately 20% of the 40 milion hectares of irrigated agricultural land in India suffers from a water logging and salinity problem which have decreased the yield of crops in major quantity.

The kernel strategy for enhancing production of food with sustainable and systematic development of irrigation gains includes extension of irrigation facilities along with consolidation of the existing systems.

It is through major, medium and minor irrigation projects that the irrigation potential has increased from 22.6 million hectares (mha) in 1951 to 103 mha at the end of the tenth plan.

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Hikkim – World’s Highest Post-office

This branch post office is located in small town of Hikkim, in Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh. It is located at the height of 15500 feet and was opened of nov.5,1983.

India’s first floating Post office is on Dal Lake, Srinagar

India’s first floating Post office is on Dal Lake in Srinagar, the first of its kind in the country. The special feature of this post office is that letters posted from here carry a special design which has the picturesque sceneries of Dal Lake and Srinagar city.

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Alang – World’s Largest Ship-breaking Yard

Alang is a census town in Bhavnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat, India. It is the leading centre of the worldwide ship breaking and recycling industry.

Tirupati Temple – World’s Richest Temple

Tirumala Tirupati Temple is a famous Hindu Temple of Lord Venkateswara and is accredited for being the most visited temple in India and second most visited shrine in the world after Vatican.

Kumbh Mela – Largest gathering in the World

Kumbha Mela is a sacred Hindu pilgrimage that takes place at the following four locations of India: Prayag, Haridwar, Ujjain, Nasik. The Ardh Kumbh Mela is celebrated every six years at Haridwar and Allahabad, while the Purna (complete) Kumbh always takes place at Allahabad every twelve years.

Bailey bridge – World’s highest bridge

The Bailey bridge is the highest bridge in the world. It is located in the Ladakh valley between the Dras and Suru rivers in the Himalayan Mountains. It was built by the Indian Army in August 1982. It is 30 meters (98 ft) long and is at an altitude of 5,602 meters (18,379 ft) above sea level.

Bhangarh-Asia’s Most Haunted Place

At the edge of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, between Jaipur and Alwar in Rajasthan, is Bhangarh, popularly known as the “ghost city of India. It is considered to be the Most Haunted Place in whole Asia.

Taj-Ul-Masjid : Asia’s Largest Mosque

Taj-ul-Masajid literally means “the crown of mosques”, also spelt as Taj-ul-Masaajid and Taj-ul-Masjid,  is a mosque situated in Bhopal, India. This is the largest mosque in Asia.

The mosque was not completed due to lack of funds, and after a long lay-off, construction was resumed in 1971 by great efforts of Allama Mohammad Imran Khan Nadwi Azhari of Bhopal. The construction was completed by 1985 and the eastern gate was renovated.

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Dhai Seedhi Ki Masjid : Asia’s Smallest Mosque

Asia’s smallest mosque – Dhai Seedhi Ki Masjid (Mosque of two and half step). Dhai Seedi Ki Masjid is in one of the watchtowers. It is the oldest mosque in Bhopal city, initially built as a makeshift mosque during the construction of the Fatehgarh fort started by Dost Mohammad Khan. It was built so that the guards deployed at Fatehgarh Fort could perform Namaaz.

Buland Darwaza – World’s Highest Gateway

Buland Darwaza is the highest gateway in the world and an astounding example of the Mughal architecture. Buland Darwaza or the loft gateway was built by the great Mughal emperor, Akbar in 1601 A.D. at Fatehpur Sikri. Akbar built the Buland Darwaza to commemorate his victory over Gujarat, according to the Persian inscriptions on the archway.

Kashmiri Saffron – World’s Costliest Spice

The expensive spice can have a bright orange-yellow color with a distinct scent, and is sold in either powder form, but deep red filaments are preferable to avoid adulteration. Saffron is produced in countries such as Greece, Spain, Turkey, Iran, India and Morocco, and then sold in different grades by color, taste, and fragrance.

High Passes (La in Ladakhi)

The world’s highest motorable roads across the Khardung La, Tanglang La, and Chang La passes.  Himank’s work ensures access to sensitive military areas including the world’s highest battle-ground at the Siachen Glacier and Pangong Tso Lake (at 14500 ft) whose waters span the de facto India-China border.

World’s Largest Family

Residing in a 100-room four-storey mansion outside of Baktawang in Mizoram, Ziona Chana is married to 39 women with whom he has 94 children, 14-daughters-in-law, and 33 grand children.It takes 30 chickens, one “giant” pig, 55 lbs of rice and 88 lbs of potatoes for every meal cooked for the entire family. The family grows its own crops and keeps its own livestock.

Majuli – World’s Largest Fresh Water Island

Majuli is the largest fresh Water mid-river deltaic island in the world. It is situated in the upper reaches of the river Brahmaputra in Assam. Its wide blue sky, Holy River floating across the banks.

Mawsynram-Wettest Place in the World 

Mawsynram is a village in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya state in north-eastern India, 56 kilometers from Shillong. It is reportedly the wettest place on Earth, with an annual rainfall of 11,872 mm (about 39 feet), but since it has no meteorological department in the area, Cherrapunji is still officially considered the place recording world’s highest rainfall.

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World’s Largest Chapati

The largest chapati weighed 63.99 kg (141 lb 1 oz) and was made by the Shree Jalarm Mandir Jirnodhar Samitee organisation at the Jalaram Temple, Jamnagar, on 15 January 2005.

Antilia – World’s Most Expensive Home

The Antilia is a more than $1 billion family home in South Mumbai, built for India’s richest man (and Forbes’ fourth richest man) Mukesh Ambani – the billionaire Chairman of Reliance Industries, his wife, three children and his mother. Antilia is named after the mythical island in the Atlantic, Antillia.It has been described as the “Taj Mahal of 21st century India”.

Millenium Park Bus Depot – World’s Largest Bus Depot

The largest bus station in the world is Millennium Park Bus Depot in Delhi, India. The depot is comprehensive in all respects, with parking space for around 1,000 buses, five workshop-cum-bus scanning centres, seven dormitories for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) officers, night stay for 500 persons, eight washing pits, four underground tanks for washing buses and two CNG filling stations, among other facilities.

World’s Largest Solar Kitchen

The world’s largest solar kitchen has been set up at Taleti, near Mount Abu, situated at a height of 1219 m above sea level in Rajasthan.

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KITCHEN FEED 100000 PEOPLE PER DAY

Human Geography Defined

“Human geography is the synthetic study of the relationship between human societies and earth’s surface”. -Ratzel Synthesis has been emphasised in the above definition.

“Human geography is the study of “the changing relationship between the unresting man and the unstable earth.” – Ellen C. Semple Dynamism in the relationship is the keyword in Semple’s definition.

“Conception resulting from a more synthetic knowledge of the physical laws governing our earth and of the relations between the living beings which inhabit it.” – Paul Vidal de la Blache

Human geography offers a new conception of the interrelationships between earth and human beings. 

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Naturalization of Humans and Humanisation of Nature

Human beings interact with their physical environment with the help of technology. It is not important what human beings produce and create but it is extremely important ‘with the help of what tools and techniques do they produce and create’.

Technology indicates the level of cultural development of society. Human beings were able to develop technology after they developed a better understanding of natural laws. For example, the understanding of concepts of friction and heat helped us discover fire. Similarly, understanding the secrets of DNA and genetics enabled us to conquer many diseases. We use the laws of aerodynamics to develop faster planes.

Environmental Determinism

Knowledge about Nature is extremely important to develop technology and technology loosens the shackles of the environment on human beings. In the early stages of their interaction with their natural environment, humans were greatly influenced by it. They adapted to the dictates of Nature. This is so because the level of technology was very low and the stage of human social development was also primitive. This type of interaction between primitive human society and strong forces of nature was termed as environmental determinism.

At that stage of very low technological development, we can imagine the presence of a naturalized human, who listened to Nature, was afraid of its fury and worshipped it.

The physical environment for such societies becomes the “Mother Nature”. The people begin to understand their environment and the forces of nature with the passage of time. With social and cultural development, humans develop better and more efficient technology.

Possibilism

They move from a state of necessity to a state of freedom. They create possibilities with the resources obtained from the environment. The human activities create the cultural landscape. The imprints of human activities are created everywhere; health resorts on highlands, huge urban sprawls, fields, orchards and pastures in plains and rolling hills, ports on the coasts, oceanic routes on the oceanic surface and satellites in the space. The earlier scholars termed this as possibilism. Nature provides opportunities and human being made use of these and slowly nature gets humanized and starts bearing the imprints of human endeavour.

It is a technology that has allowed the people of Trondheim and others to overcome the constraints imposed by nature. Do you know about some other such instances? Such examples are not difficult to find.

Must Read: Geographical Indication (GI) Status

Neo Determinism

A geographer, Griffith Taylor introduced another concept which reflects a middle path (Madhyam Marg) between the two ideas of environmental determinism and possibilism. He termed it as Neo Determinism or stop and go determinism.

Those of you who live in cities and those who have visited a city might have seen that traffic is regulated by lights on the crossroads. Red light means ‘stop’, amber light provides a gap between red and green lights ‘to get set’ and the green light means ‘go’. The concept shows that neither is there a situation of absolute necessity (environmental determinism) nor is there a condition of absolute freedom (possibilism).

It means that human beings can conquer nature by obeying it. They have to respond to the red signals and can proceed in their pursuits of development when nature permits the modifications. It means that possibilities can be created within the limits which do not damage the environment and there is no free run without accidents.

The free run which the developed economies attempted to take has already resulted in the greenhouse effect, ozone layer depletion, global warming, receding glaciers and degrading lands. The neo-determinism conceptually attempts to bring a balance nullifying the ‘either’ ‘or’ dichotomy.

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