Which one of the following pairs (River – Direction) is not correctly matched? | Syr Darya, Angara River, Amur River, Mekong River

The correct answer is (d) Mekong river – South-West. This pair is not correctly matched because the Mekong River flows in a south-easterly direction, not south-westerly.

Analysis of Options:

(a) Syr Darya – North-West: This is a correctly matched pair. The Syr Darya originates in the Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan and eastern Uzbekistan. It flows for about 2,212 kilometers in a predominantly west and north-westerly direction through Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan to drain into the Aral Sea.

(b) Angara river – North: This is a correctly matched pair. The Angara is a major river in Siberia, Russia. It is the only river that flows out of Lake Baikal and is the headwater of the Yenisey River. It flows generally in a northerly direction from its source near Irkutsk to its confluence with the Yenisey.

(c) Amur river – North-East: This is a correctly matched pair. The Amur River, or Heilong Jiang, is the world's tenth longest river, forming the border between the Russian Far East and Northeastern China. It rises in the hills of western Manchuria at the confluence of its two major affluents, the Shilka and the Argun, and flows in a general north-easterly direction to empty into the Strait of Tartary (Sea of Okhotsk).

(d) Mekong river – South-West: This is an incorrectly matched pair. The Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It originates in the Tibetan Plateau and flows through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Its overall direction of flow is from north to south-east. It empties into the South China Sea through a vast delta in Vietnam. The direction mentioned, South-West, is factually incorrect. The river's course is distinctly south-easterly, especially in its lower reaches through the Indochinese Peninsula.