Mountain High, Valley Low Quiz | Physical Geography

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which Australian lake has the unique distinction of being the largest lake in the country as well as the country's lowest point?

Answer: Lake Eyre

Lake Eyre was initially believed to be permanently dry. However, there have been around 20 floods recorded in the last 40 years.
The deepest point in the lake is found in the eastern part of the Belt Bay.
Lake Eyre was named after the English explorer Edward Eyre, who was the first European to see the lake. Many other parts of Australia are also named after Eyre, including the Eyre Peninsula, the Eyre Highway and the Eyre Creek.

2. Lake Baikal is the deepest lake on Earth. As it is situated in southern Siberia, it often freezes, forming ice 100cm thick. However, compared to surrounding areas, the winter in the Lake Baikal area is relatively mild. What is the average temperature in winter (January and February) in the Lake Baikal area?

Answer: -19 degrees C

Lake Baikal is located in southern Siberia in Russia. It contains more water than the five U.S Great Lakes combined.
Also, it would take 400 years for all the rivers and streams now flowing into the Siberian lake-sea to fill the basin of Lake Baikal.

3. Though not necessarily the largest country in the world, which country has the longest coastline?

Answer: Canada

Canada's coastline is 243,792km long.
The Canadian coastline is of great economic importance, as one third of Canada's GNP is made up of activities at the coast. As a result, Canadians contribute around $1 billion a year to help protect the coast from erosion and pollution.

4. Which cave on Earth is considered to be the deepest?

Answer: Veryovkina Cave

Veryovkina is in the Georgian state of Abkhazia. It is approximately 2191m deep.

5. The "Seven Summits" are the highest peaks on each of the seven continents. Which of the following is not one of the "Seven Summits"?

Answer: Matterhorn

Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain in Europe.
Vinson Massif is the highest mountain in Antarctica.
Mount McKinley or Denali (the "Great One") is the highest mountain in North America.
The Matterhorn, although standing at 4,478m, it fails to top Mount Elbrus as Europe's highest mountain, which stands at 5,642m.

6. Which of the following is the second longest river in Africa?

Answer: Congo

The Congo River is the longest river in Western Africa. At 4,700km it flows through seven countries. They are Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda.

7. Challenger Deep is the deepest point on the Earth's surface. It is found on the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. However, what is the deepest point of the Atlantic Ocean?

Answer: Milwaukee Deep

Calypso Deep is the deepest point in the Mediterranean Sea.
Litke Deep is the deepest point in the Arctic Ocean.
Java Trench is the deepest point in the Indian Ocean.
The Milwaukee Deep is in the Puerto Rico Trench and is 8605m deep. It is named after the ship which discovered it (the USS Milwaukee) on February 14th 1939.

8. The capital city which is at the highest altitude is La Paz in Bolivia. However, it is another city in Bolivia which takes the title as world's highest city. What is the name of this city?

Answer: Potosi

Quito is the second highest capital city in the world and is the capital of Ecuador.
Potosi has an altitude of 4,090m. It lies beneath the Cerro Rico (Rich Hill), a mountain made of a silver-rich ore which has all but been dug out. This mountain was discovered in 1544 by Indian Diego Huallpa.

9. Which of these is not one of the top ten largest (in terms of area) hot deserts on Earth?

Answer: Atacama Desert

Behind the Sahara Desert, the next largest is the Arabian, the Gobi and then the Patagonian.
The areas of deserts are very approximate as the boundries often cannot be decided upon. Therefore some sources may quote different deserts as different areas, however the Atacama desert is so much smaller than the others listed that it is unlikely to appear in any top ten deserts of greatest area.
The Great Victoria Desert located in Australia comes in next however when people talk about 'the Australian Desert' they are usually referring to the collective group of The Great Victoria, Great Sandy and Simpson Deserts.
Although failing to make the top five desert in terms of area, the Atacama desert does have the record as being the driest desert in the world.
The Atacama desert is located in Chile.

10. Mauna Kea is the tallest (though not the highest) mountain on Earth. Translated into English, what does Mauna Kea mean?

Answer: White Mountain

Mauna Kea is located on the island of Hawaii. Despite being 10,203m from base to tip, it rises only 4,207m above sea level. This is relatively small in comparison to Mount Everest, which is more than twice as high.

Source: Author doublemm

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Exit10 before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Mountain High, Valley Low Trivia Quiz

This quiz tests your knowledge of the extremes of the Earth's landscape.

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