🌋 Natural resources and hazards of the world
What makes something a resource, how minerals are mined, where the world’s major crops grow — and the earthquakes, volcanoes, cyclones and warming climate that put people at risk.
Maps show India’s boundaries as officially depicted by the Government of India. Pins mark approximate locations.
⛏ Resources and mining
When nature becomes a resource, and how minerals are taken from the earth.
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What makes a resource
For something to be called a resource, it should be technologically accessible, its exploitation economically feasible, and culturally acceptable.
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Renewable and non-renewable
Resources can also be grouped by whether they are renewable or not; nature works in a restorative and regenerative way.
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Surface and underground mining
Surface (open-cast) mining is the easiest and cheapest for minerals near the surface; when ore lies deep, underground (shaft) mining is used. Profitability depends on physical and economic factors.
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Fossil fuels and a warming world
Fossil fuel-driven industrialisation and the cutting of forests have led to rising temperatures; some Himalayan glaciers are melting faster than precipitation can replace them.
🌾 Where the world’s crops grow
The leading producers, as NCERT lists them.
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Rice
The major food crop of the world and the staple of tropical and sub-tropical regions. China leads, followed by India, Japan, Sri Lanka and Egypt.
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Wheat
Grown extensively in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Russia, Ukraine, Australia and India; in India it is a winter crop.
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Cotton
China, the USA, India, Pakistan, Brazil and Egypt are the leading producers; it needs 210 frost-free days.
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Jute, the ‘Golden Fibre’
India and Bangladesh are the leading producers.
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Coffee
Brazil is the leading producer, followed by Colombia and India; it grows best on hill slopes.
🌋 Natural hazards
Where the earth shakes, where volcanoes rise and where storms form.
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What causes an earthquake
An earthquake is the shaking of the earth caused by the release of energy along a fault — a sharp break in the crustal rocks.
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The rim of fire
Earthquakes and volcanoes concentrate along the mid-oceanic ridges, the Alpine–Himalayan belt and the rim of the Pacific — called the rim of fire for its active volcanoes.
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Shield volcanoes of Hawaii
Barring basalt flows, shield volcanoes are the largest on earth; the Hawaiian volcanoes are the most famous examples.
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Cyclones in the Indian Ocean
Tropical cyclones form over warm tropical seas warmer than 27°C and bring violent winds, very heavy rain and storm surges; in the Indian Ocean they are called cyclones.
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Hurricanes in the Atlantic
The same storms are called hurricanes in the Atlantic.
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Typhoons in the Western Pacific
In the Western Pacific and the South China Sea they are called typhoons.
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Willy-willies in Western Australia
Off Western Australia they are called willy-willies.
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December 2004
The Indian Ocean tsunami at Banda Aceh
NCERT’s photographs of Banda Aceh in June and December 2004 show a city shrunk by the tsunami.
🌡 A changing climate
Greenhouse gases and the world’s response.
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Global warming
The rising concentration of greenhouse gases is the most important human effect on climate and is likely to cause global warming.
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1997
The Kyoto Protocol
Proclaimed in 1997 and in effect from 2005, it bound 35 industrialised countries to cut emissions by 2012 to 5 per cent below 1990 levels.
How we check: every entry is from an NCERT textbook; our build fails unless its key phrases are found in the chapter itself. Map pins show approximate locations. For India’s own hazards, see Natural hazards in the Geography menu.