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






2. A comet that passed Earth in 1997 and won't return to the inner solar system until the year 4377.






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






4. A slide involving a downward and usually sudden movement of newly detached segments of bedrock sliding or slipping over an inclined surface of weakness such as a bedding plane & fault plane & or joint surface.






5. A hole or basin cut into bedrock of a stream by the abrasive action of pebbles and sand swirled by turbulent stream flow.






6. A vent on the seafloor from which hydrothermal fluids are emitted. Upon mixing with seawater and cooling & the fluids precipitate a cloud of fine-grained sulfide minerals that resembles a cloud of black smoke.






7. The study of earthquakes & and of the structure of the Earth by both natural and artificially generated seismic waves.






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






9. Materials that are found in nature that are useful or necessary for people to live.






10. A device built to study distant objects by making them appear closer.






11. 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






12. Any solid material that has settled out of a state of suspension in liquid.






13. Containing moisture.






14. A post of dripstone growing up from a cave floor.






15. The weak or 'soft' zone in the upper mantle just below the lithosphere & involved in plate movement and isostatic adjustments. It lies 70 to 100 km below the surface and may extend to a depth of 400 km.






16. 1. A low & bowl-shaped area of land surrounded by higher lands. 2. any large depression in which sediments are deposited.






17. The outermost part of the core. It is liquid & about 1 &700 km thick & and separated from the inner & solid core by a transition zone about 565 km thick.






18. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






19. The pattern of water circulation from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.






20. The great circle on the Earth's surface passing through The North and South Poles & which is considered 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian passes through Greenwich & England & and is used as a reference point for measuring longitude east and w






21. 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.






22. An era of time during the Phanerozoic eon lasting from 245 million years ago to 66.4 million ago.






23. A fracture or zone of fractures along the boundaries of tectonic plates where movement has taken place.






24. An astronomical instrument for measuring angles & primarily altitude of celestial bodies to determine latitude.






25. The relationship between distances in the area being mapped and distances in the map itself.






26. The dust-sized & sharp-edged & glassy particles resulting from an explosive volcanic eruption.






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






28. 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.






29. The direction & north (normal) or south (reversed) & that a magnetic compass needle points.






30. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






31. A valley carved by glacier erosion and whose cross-valley profile has steep sides and a nearly flat floor & suggestive of a large letter 'you'.






32. The very small particles of dirt & soot & and other pollutants that are present in the air.






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






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






35. A sedimentary rock made up of chemical sediments. Example: rock salt.






36. The green pigment in the cells of many plants that enables them to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates in the process called photosynthesis.






37. To preserve & or to avoid wasteful use.






38. The process of removing metal from ore.






39. Open pit mining & typically for coal.






40. Pertaining to or composed of granite & a coarse-grained igneous rock dominated by light-colored minerals & consisting of about 50 percent orthoclase & 25 percent quartz & and balance of feldspars and ferromagnesian silicates. Granite is commonly foun






41. The green pigment in the cells of many plants that enables them to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates in the process called photosynthesis.






42. The initial point within the Earth that ruptures in an earthquake & directly below the epicenter. The point within the Earth which is the center of an earthquake & at which strain energy is first released and converted to elastic wave energy.






43. A roughly circular reef with an occasional small & low & coral sand island surrounding a shallow lagoon.






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






45. A comet that passed Earth in 1997 and won't return to the inner solar system until the year 4377.






46. A supercontinent that existed from the Jurassic to Early Tertiary after splitting from Pangea; composed of Laurentia & Baltica & Avalonia & (modern North America & Scandinavia & Greenland & Western and Central Europe); eventually fragmented into Eur






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






48. Bent rock strata.






49. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






50. The level of light that penetrates through water.