Test your basic knowledge |

Earth Science

Subject : science
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A deposit of partly decayed plant remains in a very wet environment; marsh or swamp deposit of plant remains containing more than 50 percent carbon.






2. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion & alternating compression and expansion & in the direction of wave propagation. It is the fastest seismic wave. compare S-wave .






3. The environment where a particular plant or animal is normally found.






4. A mound or ridge of sediment deposited by a glacier.






5. A natural depression in the surface of the land caused by the collapse of the roof of a cavern or subterranean passage & generally occurring in limestone regions.






6. An icicle-shaped accumulation of dripstone hanging from cave roof.






7. A giant structure that contains hundreds of billions of stars.






8. Water that flows across watersheds during and immediately after severe rainstorms. In populated areas & stormwater runoff is often water that cannot be handled by existing sewer systems. Stormwater runoff is the leading source of water pollution in t






9. Banks of sand and silt along stream bank built by deposition in small increments during successive floods.






10. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






11. Living in water.






12. Reduction of pore space between individual particles as the result of overlying sediments or of tectonic movements.






13. The current geologic era & which began 66.4 million years ago and continues to the present.






14. Enormous & thick sheets of rock that are part of the Earth's upper mantle that move and adjoin each other along zones of seismic activity. Many tectonic plates extend underneath both continents and sea floor.






15. The Sun with all the celestial bodies that revolve around it.






16. A division of geologic time next shorter than a period. Example: the Pleistocene epoch is in the Quaternary period.






17. The perpendicular or very steep descent of a stream.






18. A rigid segment of the Earth's lithosphere that moves horizontally and adjoins other plates along zones of seismic activity. Plates may include portions of both continents and ocean basins.






19. Living on land.






20. In a stream & the volume of water passing through a channel in a given time.






21. An atmospheric shield providing the Earth with protection from ultra-violet rays which can cause sun burn & skin cancer and the destruction of the delicate plant life which supports the planet's food chain.






22. The height of a place above sea level.






23. A person who makes maps.






24. Any object that revolves around another object in space.






25. The line formed by the intersection of the axial plane of a fold with a bedding plane & marking where the bed shows its maximum curvature.






26. An imaginary circle around the earth that represents the halfway mark between the North and South Poles and establishes the boundary between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.






27. Living parts of the environment that can renew or replace themselves.






28. A large ridge or mound-like structure within a body of water that is built by calcareous organisms such as corals & red algae & and bivalves.






29. As applied to glacier ice & the process by which ice below the snow line is wasted by evaporation and melting.






30. A thick layer of soil.






31. The upper horizons in a soil & through which gravitational moisture travels & removing soluble decomposition products.






32. The primary division of geologic time which are & from oldest to youngest & the Hadean & Archean & Proterozoic & and Phanerozoic eons.






33. A group of islands; an expanse of water with scattered islands.






34. A steep-sided rounded extrusion of highly viscous lava squeezed out from a volcano and forming a dome-shaped or bulbous mass above and around the volcanic vent. The structure generally develops inside a volcanic crater.






35. The galaxy where Earth is located.






36. A downward distortion or dimple in the water table that forms as a well pumps water faster than it can flow through the aquifer.






37. A small ice sheet.






38. A unit of length used in sea navigation based on the length of 1 minute of arc on a great circle. On Earth & 1 minute of latitude.






39. The zone below the zone of aeration in which all pore spaces are filled with water.






40. A glaciated valley now flooded by the sea.






41. That part of the continental margin that lies between the continental shelf and the continental rise. Slope relatively steep & 3o - 6o. The continental slope is underlain by crustal rocks of the continent.






42. Iron & aluminum & magnesium & manganese & and titanium. Ores of the abundant metals only need to be 3 - 5 times as metal-rich as average rock.






43. Pluto is named after the Roman god of the Underworld. No longer considered a planet.






44. The condition of equilibrium & comparable to floating & of units of the lithosphere above the asthenosphere.






45. The geologic eon lying between the Archean and Phanerozoic eons & beginning about 2.5 billion years ago and ending about 0.57 billion years ago.






46. Surficial mining & in which the valuable rock is exposed by removal of overlying rock or soil.






47. Destruction of the ozone layer caused by the release of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) into the atmosphere which react chemically with ozone and break it down into different gases.






48. The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's crust is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small pieces floating on a semi-molten mantle.






49. A thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.






50. A rock changed from its original form and/or composition by heat & pressure &shearing stress & or chemically active fluids & or some combination of them.