U.S. Geography Olympiad
2014-2015 Regional Set
ROUND 1
1. In 1938, this kind of event happened when the KMT destroyed the Kaifeng dikes. Attempts to
control these events were mythically begun in the third century BC by the hero Yu. These events
often happen when loess (LESS), characteristic silt which names the source of these events,
causes clogs. For the point, identify these events which are the source of the name "China's
sorrow" and happen when the second-longest river in China overflows its banks.
ANSWER: floods of the Yellow River [or floods of the Huang He River; prompt on floods]
2. These people worshipped idols known as the cemís (say-MEES), ritually consumed
hallucinogens in the cohoba ceremony, and were led by chiefs known as caciques (cah-KEEcase). Ninety percent of this ethnic group was killed by a smallpox epidemic in 1518; their
approximately three million members had already been largely enslaved. For the point, name this
indigenous group of Hispaniola and Cuba which was decimated by Christopher Columbus.
ANSWER: Taíno (prompt on Native Americans or equivalent)
3. The city named for this lake, which is the capital of Zulia state, is access by the General Rafael
Urdeneta Bridge. A massive amount of ozone is generated by five-kilometer storm clouds above
this lake which generate lightning named for its major inflow, the Catatumbo River. Two million
dollars a month is spent on removing lemna plants from this lake to control its eighteen-percent
surface coverage by duckweed. For the point, name this Atlantic outlet in Venezuela.
ANSWER: Lake Maracaibo
4. On the outskirts of this city, a powerful resident operates the extensive Al Janadria Farm for
breeding horses. This city is home to the world's largest exclusively-women's college, Princess
Nora bint Abdulrahman University. This city's historic center is the Masmask Fort, and its
commercial locus is the Kingdom Center. The family that lives in this city styles itself "Guardian
of the Two Holy Places" of Mecca and Medina. For the point, name this capital of Saudi Arabia.
ANSWER: Riyadh
5. The Long Sword Dance is traditionally performed in this region, whose rural culture is gently
satirized in the TV series Last of the Summer Wine. A dish named for this region uses beef
drippings mixed with batter to create an indented circular pudding. Major cities in this region
include Sheffield and Leeds. For the point, name this county and region of north England, which
includes a city whose duke became the English namesake of the former New Amsterdam.
ANSWER: Yorkshire
6. In 2000, this city opened Carlos Ott's controversial Antel Tower. This city hosts the
headquarters of the ALADI and Mercosur trade organizations. The Gateway of the Citadel and
18th of July Avenue bookend this city's public center, the Plaza Independencia. Multiple statues
of independence hero José Gervasio Artigas stand in this city, which is found on the northeast of
the Rio de la Plata. For the point, name this city across the water from Buenos Aires, in Uruguay.
ANSWER: Montevideo
7. This site was explored by archaeologists Eiji Nitta and Madeleine Colani, who found frogs,
tigers, and monkeys depicted on some of its namesake objects. This site is found on the north of
the Annamese Cordillera, near the city of Phonsavan in Xieng Khouang (sheng kwong) province.
Several of its namesake objects have missing lids. For the point, name this site in which
mysterious large containers were left by a prehistoric civilization, in present-day Laos.
ANSWER: Plain of Jars
8. This country established a national park that now is shared among three countries, the W, in
which its last areas of tiger brush and the largest population of West African lions are found. In
this country's northeast, the Aïr Mountains mark the start of the Ténéré region of the Sahara.
This country's namesake river cuts through its Dosso area before entering Benin. For the point,
name this French-speaking country with a similar name as a former British colony to its south.
ANSWER: Niger [or Republic of Niger; or Republique du Niger; do not accept "Nigeria"]
9. A mountainous example of this biome is found on the slopes above the Spiti River. The cities
of Jaisalmer and Bikaner are located within this biome. The Atlantique Incident involved a plane
being shot down in this biome just a month after the Kargil War, and took place in a salt pan
located within this biome, the Rann of Kutch. The largest example of this biome in India is found
in the state of Rajasthan. For the point, name this biome that the Thar constitutes.
ANSWER: Indian deserts
10. Within this country, an autonomous kingdom continues a hereditary monarchy at Baixa de
Cassanje (bye-HA day cuh-SON-jay). Another area of this country is home to the FLEC-FAC
independence movement, which attacked the Togo soccer team's bus in 2010; that part of this
country is separated by part of the D.R. Congo from this country's main portion. For the point,
name this country with an exclave, Cabinda, that speaks Portuguese in southwest Africa.
ANSWER: Angola [Republic of Angola; or Republica de Angola]
11. This company operates the Glen Rose golf course and Caribbean Bay water park at its
Everland Resort near Yongin. A campus that this company began building in 2013 in Vietnam's
Thai Nguyen province will be the world's largest factory. This company operates worldwide Top
20 shipbuilding, construction, life insurance, and advertising firms. For the point, name this
company which comprises twenty percent of South Korea's economy and makes Galaxy phones.
ANSWER: Samsung
12. The wrecks of the Aguila and Odyssey were once popular diving locations in this country,
located off of its island of Roatán. This country, which controls the Swan and Bay islands, is
where William Walker was executed after landing a filibustering expedition at Trujillo (trooHEE-yo). This country's southwestern city of San Lorenzo overlooks the Gulf of Fonseca. For
the point, name this Central American country found east of Guatemala and north of Nicaragua.
ANSWER: Honduras [Republic of Honduras; or Republica de Honduras]
13. In 2004, this country placed a thousand firms on its initial list of "Strategic Sectors" of the
economy, whose form cannot change without presidential approval. This country is home to the
ALROSA diamond cartel. Other large firms in this country include the search engine operator
Yandex and Lada cars. An important sector of this country's economy includes the Tatneft and
Gazprom oil and gas firms. For the point, name this large country which mines Siberia.
ANSWER: Russia [Russian Federation; or Rossiya; or Rossiyskaya Federatsiya]
14. Participants in this activity wear the "suit of lights" and are preceded by men riding
blindfolded horses. If this event goes awry, "cornadas" (core-NAH-duss) may occur. "Little
flags" are planted during this event, which is divided into three parts named for lances, flags, and
death. At the start of this event, the "picador" (pee-cahd-OR) stabs one of the participants. For
the point, identify this traditional Spanish event in which a matador kills a bovine.
ANSWER: bullfighting [or la corrida de toros]
15. The only remnant of the island on which this structure was built is now Ras al-Tiin. Large
portions of this structure still stood as late as 1480, when it was torn down to build the Qaitbay
Citadel. This structure may have been designed by Sostratus, who inscribed his own name in
secret under a breakaway plaster dedication to its patron, Ptolemy I. For the point, name this
Wonder of the Ancient World which illuminated an Egyptian harbor.
ANSWER: Lighthouse of Alexandria [or Pharos]
16. In the 1850s, this country tried to drain one of its lakes to catch a "turtle-pig." The cryptid
Morag lives in a lake in this country, which is also home to the Sasquatch-esque Big Grey Man.
A twelve-foot-long mystery creature came ashore on the Benbecula beach in this country in 1990
and was named for an archipelago that is part of this country. For the point, name this home of
the Hebrides Blog where the "Surgeon's Photograph" depicted the Loch Ness monster.
ANSWER: Scotland [prompt on United Kingdom; prompt on Great Britain; do not prompt on
"England"]
17. This city is the home of Pirate Joe's, a retail store that does nothing but resell Trader Joe's
products without authorization. This city was founded by Gassy John and received a new tallest
skyscraper upon the 2008 completion of Living Shangri-La. This city is about seventy-five miles
south of Whistler, where some events were moved when it hosted the Winter Olympics in 2010.
For the point, name this city which is not found on its namesake island in British Columbia.
ANSWER: Vancouver
18. This city is on the south of the Stanton Street Bridge and Bridge of the Americas. Since
1993, this city has seen 370 cases of "feminicide." In the mid-2000s, this city was building new
commercial real estate faster than any other in North America, but its economy has suffered
since 2009, when it became the murder capital of the world for three years. For the point, name
this locus of Mexican drug wars, found across the Rio Grande from El Paso.
ANSWER: Ciudad Juárez
19. The ERS-1 laser confirmed the existence of this structure in 1993 in a project led by J.P.
Ridley, who proved the 1959 hypothesis of Andrew Kapitsa. This lake contains Sovetskaya
Island and 90 Degrees East Island. A 2013 study concluded that over 3500 species of bacteria
may still be living in this lake. For the point, name this lake found under a Russian research
station whose name means "east," the largest subglacial lake in Antarctica.
ANSWER: Lake Vostok
20. The national park named for this region also operates the Minuteman Missile Historic Site.
This region is the namesake of a Pennington County wilderness area that is the largest pristine
prairie in the U.S. French Creek descends from Red Shirt Table in this region. This region
contains the large Hustead family store in the town of Wall. Pine Ridge, the Crazy Horse
Monument, and Mount Rushmore are all found in, for the point, what rough South Dakota area?
ANSWER: South Dakota Badlands [prompt on Black Hills]
21. Wada and J.R. Simplot are among the biggest producers of this good. The most popular
variety of this product was developed by Luther Burbank, and this good is celebrated at a
museum in Blackfoot. Currently, this product's cultivars include Rangers, Norkotahs, Milva, and
Russian Banana, grouped into varieties such as reds, golds, and fingerlings. For the point, name
this product which includes the Russet cultivar and is grown across Idaho.
ANSWER: Idaho potatoes
22. A monument to a frequent vacationer in this region is located at its Triberg Waterfalls. A
prestigious nineteenth-century casino was built in a city of this region on the Oos River. This
region contains several historic timepieces in the town of Furtwangen's Clock Museum.
Chocolate cake with whipped cream and cherry layers is named for this region. For the point,
name this area of tree-covered mountains in Baden-Württemberg state of southwest Germany.
ANSWER: Black Forest [or Schwarzwald]
23. Prior to the completion of a dam on this river, excavations at Mereybet and Emar took place;
this river indeed flooded those sites after the Taqba Dam began operating. This river is formed
by the confluence of the Kara Su and Murat Su, and it powers the Haditha Dam and forms Lake
Assad. Above the Shatt al-Arab, it joins with a river that is mostly north of it in Iraq, across the
Fertile Crescent. For the point, name this river which defines Mesopotamia along with the Tigris.
ANSWER: Euphrates River
24. This lake is named for a finance minister who also provided the original name of the fort that
became Detroit. Part of this lake may be crossed by the Fort Pike Bridge, ever since the Twin
Span Bridge to Slidell was destroyed in 2005. Its Causeway runs from Mandeville to Metairie.
This lake receives flood waters through the Bonnet Carré Spillway and is connected via the
Industrial Canal to the Mississippi River. For the point, name this lake near New Orleans.
ANSWER: Lake Ponchartrain
25. The Embu believe that God lives on this mountain, and the Ameru live on two sides of it.
The Maasai, who believe their progenitors arose from this mountain, use its slopes to graze
cattle. This mountain is the place where Ngai is enthroned on Earth according to the Gikuyu, one
of whose members wrote an anthropology titled for "facing" this structure. For the point, identify
this namesake mountain of an East African country.
ANSWER: Mount Kenya
26. In 2006, this private estate hosted a summit between Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi and
George W. Bush. This estate's Meditation Garden was opened to the public in 1978, two years
after the indoor waterfall in its Jungle Room was removed to create the studio where Moody Blue
was recorded. The airplanes Lisa Marie and Hound Dog II are on permanent display at this
estate. For the point, name this Memphis mansion complex where Elvis Presley lived.
ANSWER: Graceland
27. Paul Manship created a gilded-bronze statue at this location surrounded by a motto that
includes the phrase "teacher in every art." This home to the Prometheus sculpture is also where
Charles Ebbets snapped a picture of construction workers eating lunch on a steel beam. This
complex is home to the GE Building, where many NBC shows are filmed, as well as to a popular
skating rink and Christmas tree. For the point, name this Midtown Manhattan building complex.
ANSWER: Rockefeller Center
28. This system opened its southern Greenbush Line in 2007. This was the first public transit
system to provide free Wi-Fi on all trains, and it operates a boat service that connects downtown
to areas such as Hull and Hingham. Its Park Street to Boylston segment was the first subway line
in the U.S. For the point, name this public transit system whose subway stations include Quincy
Adams, an airport stop serving Logan International, and Harvard.
ANSWER: the Boston T [or MBTA; or Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority;
prompt on Boston subway, etc.]
29. This region contains the Oakville and Rutherford sub-areas and extends to the Vaca
Mountains. This region's Conn Creek Dam formed Lake Hennessey in 1948. This region became
world-renowned in 1976 after two of its products defeated French bottles in the "Judgment of
Paris." This region is home to Charles Krug, Screaming Eagle, and Robert Mondavi's source
farms, among others. For the point, name this wine-growing region of northern California.
ANSWER: Napa Valley [or Napa County]
30. This modern-day country contains the entirety of a former state where the Eccentric
Missionary was pardoned, the Emirate of Bukhara. This country's northwest is home a group
whose name means "black hats" and which seeks independence, the Karakalpaks. This country
controls the western end of the Fergana Valley and the south portion of what was once the Aral
Sea. For the point, name this Central Asian country that includes Samarkand and Tashkent.
ANSWER: Uzbekistan [Republic of Uzbekistan; or O'zbekiston Respublikasi]
31. A city in this country was the location of both the Sometra smelter and a plant producing
carbon black, leading to its designation as the "most polluted city in Europe" during the 1990s.
This country, which includes the environmentally treacherous city of Copșa Mică (COP-shuhMEE-kuh) also suffers severe air pollution around the People's Parliament, the world's secondlargest building, in its capital. For the point, name this country with bad air quality in Bucharest.
ANSWER: Romania