Chapter 11 - South Asia
What is the capital of Afghanistan?
Kabul
What is the mega city in Pakistan?
Karachi
When is Southeast Asia hot? And how hot does it get?
March to June - between 86 - 104 degrees F
What is considered the natural boundaries of South Asia?
Mountains and seas
What mountain ranges are to the north of South Asia?
North: Karakoram rim & the Himalayas Northwest: Sulaiman & the Hindu Kush
What country does the Indud River run through?
Pakistan
What two rivers form a vast delta almost 300m wide?
The Brahmaputra and the Ganges
What three river systems begin in the Himalayas?
The Indus, the Ganges, and the Brahmaputra
What is the capital of Bhutan?
Thimphu
Where would you find hunger and malnutrition?
Widespread/everywhere
Is the coastal fringe a fertile place?
Yes
How big is the Deccan Lava Plateau?
about 1/3 of the size of the country of India
How was the Deccan Lava Plateau formed?
between 65 - 55 million years ago, eruptions of lava buried the northwestern part of Inda benath 10,000 ft of volcanic rock.
What does orographic effect refer to?
causing moist air from the sea to lift and condense, producing heavy rainfall
Where does the word monsoon come from?
from the Arabic word mausism - meaning season
What is about 400miles from the southwest of india
the Maldives
What are the plains made up of
young sedimentary rock and alluvium from the peninsular highlands and the mountain rim
What is the population of South Asia?
1.35 billion (with a B) people
What countries are part of South Asia?
Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, & Sri Lanka.
Why were Aryans named this?
After the language that they spoke
What are the Maldives
An independent state made up of about 1190 tiny islands
What city is usually prone to widespread flooding and why?
Bangladesh; because streams off the Brahmaputra and Ganges usually spill over onto the low lands (the delta)
Why is the plains region so fertile?
Because of the steady flow of melting snow from the Himalayas
Why does the Peninsular Highlands not have a rich agricultural economy?
Because water for farming is seasonal and the annual unpredictable monsoons (too little and then too much?)
When and where did the Aryans arrive?
Between 1500 - 500BC to the plains of the Ganga Valley
What major cities (5) developed from trading posts along the coastal fringe?
Chennai, Colombo, Karachi, Kolkata, and Mumbai
Where is the world's average annual rainfall record of 450 inches?
Cherrapunji (south of the Assam Valley). By comparison, NY gets about 62 inches per year.
What is the capital of Sri Lanka?
Columbo
In South east Asia, what is the climate like in the winter?
Cool and mainly dry
What is the capital of India?
Delhi
What are the 3 mega-cities in India?
Delhi, Kolkata (previously Calcutta), and Mumbai
What did the Aryans do
Developed arable farming, adopted a settled life, organized into functional groups, opened trade links, and built cities
Why do the mountain ranges suffer from earthquakes and aftershocks along the rim?
It is a young mountain range that is still rising
Are the Himalayan mountains growing taller or shrinking?
They are growing taller at about 9.8 inches per century.
Where does the Indus River flow through and to?
Through Pakistan and to the Arabian Sea
Where does the Brahmaputra flow through and to?
Through the Assam Valley and to the Bay of Bengal
Despite the poverty and illiteracy, there is evidence of sophisticated civilzations whose social practices and material consumption are more in line with those of the middle class in the US?
computer programmers, managers, engineers, shop owners, & media consultants
What is the livelihood in the mountain rim?
flocks of sheep, goats, and yak; tea plantations and orchards on the lower hills
What valuable deposits are found in the Peninsular Highlands?
iron ore, manganese, gold, copper, asbestos, mica, and coal
What culture did the Aryans create?
the Verdic culture - whose mythic understanding of the world came to be a cornerstone of Hinduism
The combination of a growing population and the desire to increase industry has put pressure on what natural resource?
water
What percentage of the population is literate? (can read & write)
Barely half
Who, where and when were the first humans found to have been in this area?
Between 3000 and 2000 BC, the Harappan culture began to irrigate and cultivate large areas of the Indus Valley.
What country does the Ganges river run through?
India
Is South Asia more urban or rural?
Rural
Historically, the Arabian Sea was used as a trade route between where?
South Asia and the Middle East & Mediterranean
When is the wet monsoon season?
June into September (remember inner tubing during the summer)
Because of the decline in availability of water, how do many cities get it?
Water is hauled in by tankers
What does South Asia do with most of their waste?
burned, dumped into lakes and seas, or deposited into leaky landfills (affects soil/water)
What is the capital of Bangladesh?
Dhaka
What is the mega city in Bangladesh?
Dhaka
A delayed or dry monsoon season can cause what?
Drought
Where does the Ganges flow through and to?
Flows through the southeast before merging with the Brahmaputra
South Asia used to be part of Africa but broke away about 100 million years ago and collided with the southern edge of Asia about 70 million years ago. The impact between the two plates lifted the Tibetan Plateau more than 5 km in the air. What do we call that area now?
Himalayan Mountains
What are the two main mountain ranges in the mountain rim?
Himalayas and Karakoram
What is the capital of Pakistan?
Islamabad
Why has the Peninsular Highlands region remained somewhat isolated?
The rugged topography
What percentage of people in Bhutan and Nepal live in urban settlements (cities)?
10%
What percentage of sewage is properly treated in South Asia?
10%
How much of India remains forested today?
20%
What percentage of people in South Asia DO NOT live in the cities?
65-75%
What is the range of annual rain that most of southeast asia gets?
80 to 160 inches
How much water is polluted and what has polluted it?
80% with industrial and domestic waste
What is the capital of Nepal?
Kathmandu
400 to 500 million people are described as "ecosystem people." What does this mean?
Live in sustainable ways that have protected and preserved the environment
What 3 dynasties of India rose to prominence in this region
Mauryan, Gupta, and Mughal
What is a major contributor to air pollution?
Motor vehicle emissions
What is the population of India?
Over 1 billion (just to put that in perspective, there are 3.15 million people in the US and India is less than 1/2 the size of the US)
The Aryans started the deforestation of Southeast Asia. Who finished it and how?
The British Empire brought systematic clearing of land for plantations and the exploitation of valuable tropical hardwoods for export to Eurpoe and North America. By 1900, only 40% of South Asia remained forested.
What prevents the airstreams from the surrounding seas in reaching the countries north of India?
The Himalayan mountains
What seas surround South Asia?
The Indian Ocean surrounds it. The Arabian Sea is to the west and the Bay of Bengal is to the east.
What three areas rarely have a dry season?
The Maldives, Southern Sri Lanka, and the Nicobar Islands (affected by intertropical convergence)
What parts of the plains region is not good for settlement?
The Thar Desert and the Meghna Depression
What did monsoon originally refer to?
The distinctive seasonal winds in the Indian Ocean in which Arab traders relied on to power their sailing ships to and from on their annual voyages to and from the East Indies.
The most rapid period of change was when?
The last 50 years