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. An accumulation of wind driven sand into a distinctive shape.






2. A general term including both oil and natural gas.






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






4. A landscape that develops from the action of ground water in areas of easily soluble rocks. It is usually characterized by caves & underground drainage and sinkholes.






5. 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.






6. Bent rock strata.






7. 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.






8. The rigid outer shell of the Earth. It includes the crust and uppermost mantle and is on the order of 100 km in thickness.






9. A chuck of rock or dust in space.






10. Elongated rises on the ocean floor where basalt periodically erupts & forming new oceanic crust.






11. A planetary satellite.






12. The distance light travels through a vacuum in one year.






13. An instrument that merely indicates the occurrence of an earthquake.






14. 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.






15. All of space and everything in it.






16. An abandoned meander .






17. The two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun.






18. A lake in an abandoned meander.






19. Sediment formed by chemical precipitation from water. Example: halite precipitated as the result of the evaporation of sea water.






20. An accumulation of wind driven sand into a distinctive shape.






21. A soft compact calcite & CaCO3 & with varying amounts of silica & quartz & feldspar & or other mineral impurities & generally gray-white or yellow-white and derived chiefly from fossil seashells.






22. Saturn is named after the Roman god of the harvest. It is the sixth planet from the Sun.






23. Molten rock & containing dissolved gases and suspended solid particles. At the Earth's surface & magma is known as lava.






24. Gases (primarily water and carbon dioxide & but also a variety of sulfur and nitrogen compounds and gaseous hydrocarbons) that trap the Sun's heat in the atmosphere.






25. A group of stars that appear to make a pattern in the sky. The Big Dipper is a constellation.






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






27. A system involving continuous interaction of the solid Earth & the atmosphere & the oceans and living things.






28. 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.






29. A supercontinent that existed from the the end of the Permian to the Jurassic & 300 to 200 million years ago & assembled from large continents like Euramerica & Gondwana & and Siberia & as well as smaller landmasses like the Cathaysian and Cimmerian






30. The symbol used on a map to indicate directions & both cardinal and ordinal.






31. The prediction that climate will warm as a result of the addition to the atmosphere of humanly produced greenhouse gases.






32. A type of disintegration in which jointed rock is forced apart by the expansion of water as it freezes in fractures.






33. Mars is named after the Roman god of war. It is the fourth planet from the Sun.






34. A pillar formed as a stalactite and stalagmite meet.






35. The internal resistance to flow in a liquid.






36. A flat & dry plain covered with short grass.






37. An ingredient in a food or other substance that nourishes or promotes growth.






38. An instrument used to measure the speed of wind.






39. A term applied to large areas of basaltic lava presumably extruded from fissures.






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






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






42. A substance that produces negatively charged hydroxide ions ( OH- ) in water and reacts with acids to form salts.






43. A steep or vertical cliff & either above or below sea level.






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






45. The uprush of a wave onto the beach followed by the return flow of the water down the beach slope in the intervals between waves.






46. A minor tremor that precedes an earthquake. An increase in seismicity may signal that a major release of strain energy is about to occur.






47. Lies half way between the north and south magnetic poles.






48. Occurs at the intersection of the water table with the ground surface.






49. Gases (primarily water and carbon dioxide & but also a variety of sulfur and nitrogen compounds and gaseous hydrocarbons) that trap the Sun's heat in the atmosphere.






50. The process by which an unconsolidated deposit of sediments is converted in to solid rock.