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. Any natural concentration of a valuable material in the Earth's crust & whether that material can be extracted profitably or not.






2. A plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions. The San Andreas fault of California is a good example.






3. To wash or scrub away.






4. An area subject to dust storms & especially south central United States .






5. Uranus is named after the Roman god of the sky. It is the seventh planet from the Sun.






6. The height of a place above sea level.






7. A sedimentary rock composed primarily of biogenic sediments.






8. The way in which a rock or mineral breaks in random patterns rather than cleaving






9. In the geologic time scale a unit of time less than an era and greater than an epoch. Example: The Tertiary period was the earliest period in the Cenozoic era and included & among others & the Eocene epoch.






10. The Earth's crust underlying the ocean basins which is formed at mid-oceanic ridges. It is typically 5 to 10 kilometers thick composed of basalt.






11. A valley caused by extension of the Earth's crust. Its floor forms as a portion of the crust moves downward along normal faults.






12. The distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.






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






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






15. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






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






17. A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano & through Which magma has passed.






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






19. Deep steep-sided depression in the ocean floor caused by the subduction of oceanic crust beneath either other oceanic crust or continental crust.






20. The principle that states the processes operating to change the Earth in the present also operated in the past.






21. 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






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






23. A dense & hot (sometimes incandescent) cloud of volcanic ash and gas produced in a Pelean eruption.






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






25. (Latin- Sol & Greek- Helios)the closest star to Earth. It is a giant ball of gas without any solid surface.






26. Synonym of intrusive. Antonym of volcanic. Applies to igneous rocks formed beneath the surface of the Earth; typically with large crystals due to the slowness of cooling.






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






28. To change back and forth uncertainly.






29. 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.






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






31. A lake in an abandoned meander.






32. The physical & chemical & and biological processes by which rock at or near the Earth's surface is broken down into smaller pieces.






33. The explosion of a dying giant or supergiant star.






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






35. Refers to rock or sediments made up primarily of broken fragments of pre-existing rocks or minerals.






36. An aggregate of one or more minerals in varying proportions.






37. Bent rock strata.






38. The formation & advance and retreat of glaciers and the results of these activities.






39. A plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions. The San Andreas fault of California is a good example.






40. The method of locating an epicenter by determining how far it lies from three widely separated seismographs.






41. A region of high heat flow on the Earth's surface & thought to lie above a mantle plume .






42. A conical volcano formed by the accumulation of pyroclastic debris around a vent.






43. The surface between the zone of saturation and the zone of aeration.






44. That portion of the Earth below the crust and reaching to about 2 &780 km & where a transition zone of about 100 km thickness separates it from the core.






45. A commonly used scale of earthquake intensity.






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






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






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






49. The sudden fall of one or more large pieces of a rock from a cliff.






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