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. Living in water.






2. The innermost zone of Earth. It consists of two parts & an outer liquid section and an inner solid section & both chiefly of iron and nickel with about 10 percent lighter elements. It is surrounded by the mantle.






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






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






5. Long narrow beaches separated in many places from the mainland by lagoons.






6. 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.






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






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






9. The portion of the continental margin that extends as a gently sloping surface from the shoreline seaward to a marked change in slope at the top of the continental slope . Seaward depth averages about 130 m.






10. 1. A mass of sand & gravel & or alluvium deposited on the bed of a stream & sea & or lake & or at the mouth of a stream 2. A unit of pressure & approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.






11. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






12. Weathering processes that are the result of chemical reactions. Example: the transformation of orthoclase to kaolinite.






13. A famous scientist who proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system not the Earth. (Heliocentrism)






14. Deposition of fine mineral particles (silt) on the beds of streams or lakes.






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






16. Distance over which wave-forming winds blow.






17. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






18. 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.






19. An artificial hill formed by the debris of successive human settlements.






20. A segment of an active fault zone that has not experienced a major earthquake during a time period when most other segments of the zone have. They are generally regarded as having a higher potential for future earthquakes.






21. Evidence in rock of the presence of past life & such as a dinosaur bone & an ancient clam shell & or the footprint of a long-extinct animal as well as life history artifacts.






22. All of space and everything in it.






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






24. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






25. A volcano that is composed of alternating layers of lava and pyroclastic material & along with abundant dikes and sills. Viscous & intermediate lava may flow from a central vent. Example: Mt. Fuji in Japan.






26. The process by which a binding & or cementing & agent is precipitated in spaces among individual particles of a deposit. Common cementing agents are calcite & quartz & and dolomite.






27. The most recent eon of geologic time beginning 570 million years ago and continuing to the present.






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






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






30. 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.






31. A narrow & elongate region in which one lithospheric plate descends relative to another.






32. Any accumulation of material & by settling from water or air & chemical precipitation & evaporation from solution & etc.






33. A commonly used scale of earthquake intensity.






34. Living on land.






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






36. 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.






37. The part of the crust that directly underlies the continents and continental shelves. Averages about 35 km in thickness & but may be over 70 km thick under largest mountain ranges.






38. 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.






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






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






41. Extending across a continent.






42. 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.






43. A hot & gaseous & self-luminous celestial body & as the Sun.






44. 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 .






45. Named after the Roman god of the sea. It is the eighth planet from the Sun.






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






47. Till deposited from main body of glacier during ablation.






48. Open pit mining & typically for coal.






49. A narrow & steep-walled depression in the ocean floor & much deeper than the adjacent ocean and associated with a subduction zone.






50. The point on the Earth's surface where a magnetic needle points vertically downward (north magnetic pole) or vertically upward (south magnetic pole).