(b) Statement 1 is not correct. Recently, Morocco earthquake killed more than 2,000 and caused damages to historic Marrakech. ■ The 6.8-magnitude earthquake shook Morocco’s High Atlas mountain range at the relatively shallow depth of 18.5 kilometers . The epicenter was located about 72 kilometers southwest of Marrakech, a city of some 840,000 people and a popular tourist destination. ■ The old city of Marrakech, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. ■ The quake was recorded at a depth of 18.5 km, typically more destructive than deeper quakes of the same magnitude. It was Morocco’s deadliest earthquake since 1960 when a quake was estimated to have killed at least 12,000 people. ■ Earthquakes of this size in the region are uncommon, but not unexpected. Since 1900, there have been no earthquakes M6 (magnitude 6) and larger within 500 km of this earthquake, and only 9 M5 (magnitude 5) and larger earthquakes. ■ Earthquakes in the magnitude 6 range are more common in the northern part of Morocco near the Mediterranean Sea, where a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck in February 2004 and a magnitude 6.3 in January 2016. ■ The earthquake was the result of oblique reverse faulting on a roughly east-west or northwest-southeast oriented fault, possibly the North Atlas fault, a range front reverse fault that roughly matches the faulting mechanism of the earthquake.

(b) Statement 2 is not correct. JE virus is spread by Culex mosquitoes. Why in news? According to a new study by ICMR, efficacy of JE vaccine (SA 14-14-2) is around 86.7%. ■ JE virus is a flavivirus related to dengue, yellow fever and West Nile viruses, and is spread by Culex mosquitoes. ■ Virus exists in a transmission cycle between mosquitoes, pigs and/or water birds (enzootic cycle). ■ Humans are incidental or dead-end hosts. ■ JE is the main cause of acute encephalitis syndrome in South Asia, including India. ■ There is no cure for the disease

(d) Recently UNHCR appealed for $1 billion to support Sudan which is facing civil war. ■ Sudan is situated in north-eastern Africa. ■ It is bordered with Egypt, Libya, Chad, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. ■ South Sudan was bifurcated from it in 2011. ■ Sudan shares its maritime border with Saudi Arabia in Red Sea. ■ Nile River (White Nile and Blue Nile merge in Khartoum).

(d) The U.S. is the largest producer of bioethanol, while the EU is the largest producer of biodiesel. Why in news? Prime Minister of India launched the Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) on 9 September 2023. ■ The Alliance intends to expedite the global uptake of biofuels through facilitating technology advancements, intensifying utilization of sustainable biofuels, shaping robust standard setting and certification through the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders. ■ The alliance will also act as a central repository of knowledge and an expert hub. ■ GBA aims to serve as a catalytic platform, fostering global collaboration for the advancement and widespread adoption of biofuels. ■ Biofuels are renewable energy sources derived from biomass, such as crop stubble, plant waste, and municipal solid waste. ■ India has set a target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.

(c) Why in news? Recently astronomers have discovered a massive “bubble of galaxies” in the nearby universe, approximately 820 million light years away from our Milky Way galaxy. This cosmic structure spans a billion light years in diameter, making it about 10,000 times wider than our galaxy. Inside the bubble, there is the Bootes supercluster of galaxies, surrounded by a vast void referred to as “the Great Nothing.” ■ The discovery confirms a phenomenon first theorized by cosmologist Jim Peebles in 1970, where sound waves created bubbles in the early universe, and these structures have been preserved over time. ■ This bubble, named Ho’oleilana, represents the first known single baryon acoustic oscillation (BAO) and was discovered by chance during a search through new galaxy catalogues. ■ Baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) are a pattern of wrinkles in the density distribution of the clusters of galaxies spread across the Universe. ■ They are a subtle but important effect because they provide an independent way to measure the expansion rate of the Universe and how that rate has changed throughout cosmic history. ■ The baryon acoustic oscillation are imprinted on matter in the early Universe. ■ Detecting the signature of the oscillations is so useful to cosmologists because the size of them is determined by the properties of the early Universe and its components: the normal (baryonic) matter, the dark matter and the dark energy. ■ The BAO signature was detected for the first time in 2005.