Question

The heat zone with the coldest climate is the ____________.

A. Torrid Zone

B. Northern Temperate Zone

C. The Frigid Zones

D. Either of the Temperate Zones

Answer 1

Hint: In the three climatic zones, the temperature of a location is determined by its proximity to the equator. Because it is the farthest from the equator, the Frigid Zone is the coldest zone and because of the nearness to the equator, the Torrid Zone is the hottest zone.

Complete Answer:

Geographical zones include the five primary latitude regions of the surface of the Earth, separated by the major latitude circles. The distinctions between them apply to climate. The Frigid Zone is the region between the North Pole and the Arctic Circle, or between the South Pole and the Antarctic Circle. Areas lying between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole in the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole in the Southern Hemisphere, are very cold. It is because here the sun does not rise much above the horizon. Therefore, its rays are always slanting and provide less heat. These are, therefore, called Frigid Zones (very cold).

The coldest areas of the World are the frigid zones, normally coated in ice and snow. It receives slanting rays of the sun as this region lies farthest from the equator. The summer season in this region lasts for about 2 to 3 months and there is almost 24-hour sunlight during summer.

A long season of extreme winter is marked by this climate and even the summer season is cold. The rainfall is very low, usually below 30 cm. And the vegetation is basically lacking due to low temperatures. Some very small plants can only grow in areas away from the polar ice caps during the short summer season. Blizzards, high-speed winds bringing ice crystals with them, are recorded in these areas. These regions are referred to as the cold deserts which cover parts of North America and Eurasia and the Antarctic continent on the Arctic margins.

Hence, the correct answer is option ‘C’.

Note:
The day is one year long in the middle of the zone, with six months of daylight and six months of darkness. For part of the year, the two frigid zones, or polar areas, witness the ‘midnight sun’ and the ‘polar night’.