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. The generally dark & more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil & so well decomposed that the original sources cannot be identified.






2. The peak flow of water that tops the banks of a stream channel.






3. The line separating land and water.






4. A measure of acidity.






5. A river that is able to maintain its flow through a desert because of water received from outside the desert.






6. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






7. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






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






9. The persistence of wind-formed waves after wind ceases.






10. The outermost layer of the Earth & varying in thickness from about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the oceans & to 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) below the continents; represents less than 1 percent of the Earth's volume.






11. A floating ice sheet extending across water from a land-based glacier.






12. The naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted at a profit.






13. Swamp that forms in the low lying flood plain behind a levee.






14. The amount of material a stream carries in suspension.






15. The process of mountain building.






16. A thick layer of soil.






17. The peak flow of water that tops the banks of a stream channel.






18. The attractive force between two objects; its magnitude depends on their masses and the distance between them.






19. The areas of & in & or constituting a city.






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






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 environment where a particular plant or animal is normally found.






23. The seaward edge of coast between low tide and effective wave action.






24. A reverse fault on which the dip angle of the fault plane is 15 degrees or less.






25. A substance that produces positively charged hydrogen ions (H+) when dissolved in water.






26. A wall built out from the shore & usually at perpendicular to it to trap sand carried by longshore currents .






27. A study designed to collect critical data to be used for comparison or as a control in a later study.






28. A statement of relative age in layered rocks: In a series of sedimentary rocks that has not been overturned & the topmost layer is always the youngest and the bottommost layer is always the oldest.






29. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






30. A method of sediment transport in which the turbulence of a fluid is able to keep particles supported in the fluid.






31. Any porous and permeable rock that yields oil or natural gas.






32. A lake of lava & usually basaltic & in a volcanic caldera.






33. The first scientist to make systematic use of the telescope in looking at the heavens.






34. A vent in the surface of the Earth & from which lava & ash & and gases erupt.






35. A volcano in the shape of a flattened cone & broad and low & built by very fluid flows of basaltic lava.






36. Igneous. Antonym of intrusive. Synonym of volcanic. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed from lava released on the Earth's surface.






37. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






38. A cavity in a lava & formed by the entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification of the lava.






39. The zones of seismic activity long which plates are in contact.






40. Igneous. Antonym of intrusive. Synonym of volcanic. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed from lava released on the Earth's surface.






41. Fossils formed when water containing minerals leaks into a mold. The minerals harden to form a copy of the original structure or organism.






42. A waterway from open ocean into a lagoon.






43. Large area of extremely flat ocean floor lying near a continent and generally over 4 km in depth.






44. A type of volcanic eruption characterized by nuees ardentes and the development of lava domes.






45. The tendency of a moving object to continue in a straight line or a stationary object to remain in place.






46. An eon of geologic time extending from about 3.9 billion years to 2.5 billion years ago.






47. 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.






48. Verifying assessments made from satellite data by doing direct & 'on-the ground' measurements.






49. A geometrical form taken by a mineral & giving external expression to orderly internal atomic arrangement.






50. A coral reef separated from the mainland by a lagoon.