NCERT Solutions for Class 8th Social Science Chapter 8 World Geography: Some Glimpses
Updated on 2026-09-19
About this chapter
The Earth is an oblate spheroid , so no flat map can be perfectly true. Every map projection is a compromise: the Mercator keeps shape and direction but swells sizes near the poles, the Robinson balances size against shape. To understand the world fairly, look at more than one projection. The oceans cover about 71 per cent of the Earth’s surface and hold 97 per cent of its water. They feed life, give us almost half our oxygen through plankton, and steady the climate by soaking up heat, releasing it slowly and adding moisture to the air. Currents, trenches and reefs make the ocean floor as varied as the land. Seas, gulfs, bays, straits and canals are named according to their shape and their link to the ocean, and each has shaped trade — the Persian Gulf, the Bay of Bengal, the Strait of Mal
- Chapter opener
- The Complexity of Mapping the Earth
- The Blue of the Blue Planet, the Oceans
- Asia
- Roof of the world
- The Urals
- Europe
- Africa
- South America
- The Australian Continent (Fig. 1.34)
Quick revision
| Term | What it means | Where the chapter uses it | Fact to remember |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oblate spheroid | A nearly spherical shape that bulges at the equator and is slightly flattened at the poles due to its rotation | The Complexity of Mapping the Earth, p. 2 | This curved shape is exactly why a flat map must distort something |
| Map projection | The process of showing the Earth on a flat surface | pp. 2–3, Fig. 1.2 | Mercator preserves shape and direction; Robinson balances size and shape |
| Plankton | Microscopic organisms that have chlorophyll and use sunlight and carbon-dioxide to make food | THINK ABOUT IT, p. 4 | Oceans give us almost half the oxygen we breathe, and plankton make this possible |
| Ocean currents | Giant ‘rivers’ flowing through the ocean — warm ones from the equator to the poles, cold ones from the poles to the equator | Ocean currents, pp. 5–6 | The Gulf Stream makes the United Kingdom warmer than other places at the same latitude |
| Trench | A very deep, V-shaped area of the seafloor | Ocean trenches, p. 6 | The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench reaches over 11,000 metres below sea level |
| Reef | A ridge at or near the surface of the ocean, formed naturally or artificially | The Great Barrier Reef, pp. 7–8 | The Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,000 km and covers about 350,000 square kilometres |
| Tectonic | Geological forces related to the movement of the Earth’s crust | Tibetan Plateau, p. 12 | The Indo-Australian–Eurasian collision raised both the Himalaya and the plateau behind it |
| Steppe | A large area of flat unforested grassland with a temperate climate, hot summers, cold winters and moderate, often seasonal rainfall | The Eurasian Steppes, p. 14 | Spread over 8,000 km west to east; a global carbon sink |
| Water towers | Mountains that hold water at a height and release freshwater through melting snow and glaciers | The Urals, p. 15 | The Tibetan Plateau is called the ‘Third Pole’ for its freshwater reserves |
| Tundra / permafrost | A treeless, cold plain whose soil stays frozen most of the time; that frozen soil is permafrost | The Urals, p. 16 | Melting permafrost releases carbon dioxide and methane, speeding up climate change |
| Savannah | A tropical grassland with wide open spaces, scattered trees and seasonal rainfall | Africa, p. 20 | It lies mainly between tropical rainforests and deserts |
| Fast fashion | Replication of trendy clothing fast and at low cost, discarded very quickly when trends change | Atacama Desert, p. 25 | The UN has called the Atacama clothing dump ‘an environmental and social emergency’ |
Exercises
- Chapter opener — The Big Questions Page 1
- The Complexity of Mapping the Earth — LET’S EXPLORE Page 2
- The Blue of the Blue Planet, the Oceans — THINK ABOUT IT Page 4
- Asia — LET’S EXPLORE Page 11
- Roof of the world — In-text Questions Page 12
- The Urals — LET’S EXPLORE Page 15
- Europe — LET’S EXPLORE Page 18
- Africa — LET’S EXPLORE Page 22
- South America — LET’S EXPLORE Page 24
- The Australian Continent (Fig. 1.34) — In-text Questions Page 29
- End of chapter — Questions and activities Page 31–32