World Geography: Physical, Social and Economic

What the official syllabus says

UPSC Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, General Studies Paper I:

Indian and World Geography-Physical, Social, Economic Geography of India and the World.

This page covers the principles of physical geography and the geography of the world.

Topics in detail

The Earth and the universe

• The solar system; the Earth's rotation and revolution; seasons; eclipses
• Latitudes and longitudes, the International Date Line, time zones

Geomorphology

• Interior of the Earth: crust, mantle and core; Moho and Gutenberg discontinuities
• Rocks (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic) and the rock cycle
• Continental drift (Wegener), sea-floor spreading and plate tectonics; types of plate boundaries
• Earthquakes, seismic waves, volcanoes and the Pacific Ring of Fire; tsunamis
• Weathering, mass movement and erosion; landforms made by rivers, glaciers, wind, waves and groundwater (karst)

Climatology

• Composition and layers of the atmosphere; insolation and the heat budget; temperature inversion
• Pressure belts, planetary winds, the Coriolis force, jet streams
• Local winds such as the Foehn, Chinook, Sirocco, Mistral and Loo
• Air masses and fronts; tropical and temperate cyclones; forms of precipitation
• Humidity, condensation, clouds and their types; fog, dew and frost
• Climate classification (Köppen) and world climatic regions

Water on land

• The hydrological cycle; groundwater and aquifers
• Drainage patterns: dendritic, trellis, radial, rectangular and centripetal
• Lakes and their origin (tectonic, glacial, volcanic crater, oxbow); the major lakes and rivers of each continent

Oceanography

• Relief of the ocean floor: continental shelf, slope, deep-sea plains, trenches and ridges
• Temperature and salinity of ocean water
• Ocean currents of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans (Gulf Stream, Kuroshio, Humboldt or Peru, Benguela, Labrador, Agulhas) and their effects
• Tides, waves, coral reefs; El Niño, La Niña and the Southern Oscillation

Biogeography

• World biomes: tropical rainforest, savanna, hot desert, Mediterranean, temperate grasslands (prairies, pampas, steppes, veld, downs), taiga and tundra
• Soils of the world and their relation to climate and vegetation

Economic geography of the world

• Distribution of major minerals and energy resources (oil and gas regions, coal, iron ore)
• Types of agriculture: shifting, plantation, commercial grain farming, dairy, mixed and Mediterranean farming
• Major industrial regions and factors of industrial location
• Sea routes, canals (Suez, Panama) and strategic straits (Malacca, Hormuz, Bab-el-Mandeb, Bosporus, Gibraltar)

Social geography of the world

• Population distribution, density, growth and demographic transition
• Migration, urbanisation and major world cities
• Distribution of major languages and religions

Continents at a glance

• Asia: the Himalaya and Tibetan plateau, monsoon Asia, the basins of the Yangtze, Mekong and Ganga, West Asian oil regions
• Africa: the Great Rift Valley, the Nile and Congo basins, the Sahara and the Sahel
• Europe: the North European Plain, the Alps, the Rhine and Danube, Mediterranean lands
• North and South America: the Rockies and the Great Lakes, the Mississippi; the Andes, the Amazon basin and the pampas
• Australia and Oceania: the Great Dividing Range, the Great Artesian Basin, the Great Barrier Reef
• Polar regions: the Arctic and Antarctica; India's research stations Maitri and Bharati (Antarctica) and Himadri (Arctic)

Regional map work

• Mountain ranges (Andes, Rockies, Alps, Atlas, Urals), plateaus, deserts (Sahara, Atacama, Kalahari, Gobi) and major rivers and lakes of each continent
• Countries and their neighbours, seas and gulfs, especially those in the news

Overlaps

World physical geography and the distribution of resources are part of Mains General Studies I. Places in the news are covered with Current Events.