NewsTracker Answers for week of Oct. 02, 2017

Q: A flotilla of boats Sunday began rescuing people from Vanuatu’s island of Ambae in the South Pacific Ocean as an erupting volcano polluted many of the island’s sources of drinking water. Which of these oceans is the Pacific?

Circle the area on this map


Q: Islanders boarded ferries, canoes and commercial vessels bound for the safety of surrounding islands. Vanuatu is chain of 82 islands formed by volcanoes. What is the geographic term for an island chain?

A. Archipelago

B. Bight

C. Cape

D. Defile


A. An archipelago is a chain, cluster or collection of islands or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands.


Q: The Vanuatu government wants all 11,000 Ambae islanders evacuated by Oct. 6. It is expecting help from the world’s sixth-largest country which lies about 1,000 miles to the west. What is that nation?

A. Australia

B. China

C. India

D. Russia


A. Australia sent the amphibious Bay Class landing ship HMAS Choules on Saturday to help move the population, and it was expected to arrive by the middle of the week. Vanuatu has strong economic and cultural ties to Australia, which provides the bulk of the nation’s external assistance, including the police force.


Q: The Manaro Voui volcano, the nation’s largest, was seen hurling steam and rocks into the air above Ambae on Saturday. Vanuatu is on a very large geologically active region known as the . . .

A. Australian Rift

B. Queen Charlotte Fault

C. Ring of Fire

D. Tectonic Terror


C. The Ring of Fire is a horseshoe-shaped region around the Pacific Ocean basin which contains 75 percent of the world’s active and dormant volcanoes and records 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes. The activity is caused by the collision of the earth’s tectonic plates.


Q: The Ambae evacuation by a flotilla of small boats was compared with the evacuation of Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk during World War II. Where is Dunkirk?

A. Belgium

B. France

C. Germany

D. Italy


B. Dunkirk is in northern France on the English Channel about six miles from the Belgian border. Large numbers of British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops at Dunkirk in 1940. Hundreds of small boats from Britain crossed the Channel to help the British Navy to evacuate more than 300,000 trapped soldiers.