Iran

29 Oct 2024 13:44:29 pm

Tags : Iran

Topic: Places in News

Why in the news?

A blast caused by methane gas leak at an Iranian coal mine has killed at least 51 people, in one of the country’s deadliest work accidents in years.

Source: The Hindu

About Iran:

It is also known as Persia.
It is a country in West Asia.
It borders:
- Turkey to the northwest
- Iraq to the west
- Azerbaijan, Armenia, Caspian Sea, and Turkmenistan to the north
- Afghanistan to the east
- Pakistan to the southeast
- Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf to the south
It has a mostly Persian-ethnic population of almost 90 million.
It ranks 17th globally in both geographic size and population.
It is the sixth-largest country entirely in Asia and the second-largest in West Asia.
It is officially an Islamic republic and has a Muslim-majority population.
Tehran is the nation\'s capital, largest city and financial center.
It consists of the Iranian Plateau.
It is one of the world\'s most mountainous countries.
- The populous west part is the most mountainous, with ranges including the Caucasus, Zagros, and Alborz.
- Mount Damavand (5,610 m), Iran\'s highest point, is the highest volcano in Asia.
The north part is covered by the lush lowland Caspian Hyrcanian forests, near the southern shores of the Caspian Sea.
The east part consists mostly of desert basins, such as the Kavir Desert (country\'s largest desert) and the Lut Desert, as well as salt lakes.

Methane:

It is the primary component of natural gas, and is responsible for approximately a third of the warming the earth is experiencing today.
It is a colorless odorless gas, flammable water insoluble gas.
It is also known as marsh gas or methyl hydride.
It is easily ignited. The vapors are lighter than air. Under prolonged exposure to fire or intense heat the containers may rupture violently and rocket.
It is a powerful and short-lived greenhouse gas, with a lifetime of about a decade and Global Warming Potential about 80 times greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO2) during the 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere.
It sometimes comes from non-human sources like wetlands. These habitats contain things like permafrost, which is frozen ground that’s also filled with carbon from animals and plants that have been dead for hundreds of thousands of years.
As temperatures rise with global warming, wetland permafrost thaws. That unleashes carbon, previously locked in the ice, in the form of CO2 and methane.
Around 60% of the methane that makes it into the atmosphere comes from human activities.