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. Containing moisture.






2. A planetary satellite.






3. A protective wall built offshore and usually parallel to the shore.






4. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






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






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






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






8. The processes (mechanical and chemical) responsible for the wearing away & loosening & and dissolving of materials of the Earth's crust.






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






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






11. A layer of sedimentary rock; plural is strata.






12. The elevation at which snow persists throughout the year.






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






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






15. A measure of the strength of an earthquake based on the amount of movement recorded by a seismograph . compare Richter scale.






16. The precipitation that runs directly off the surface to stream or body of standing water.






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






18. 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.






19. A general term for a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface & cemented by silica & iron oxide & calcium carbonate & or organic matter.






20. A sedimentary rock composed of combustible matter derived from the partial decomposition of plant material.






21. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion from side to side & perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves and cannot travel through a liquid.






22. Jupiter is named after the Roman king of the gods. It is the fifth planet from the Sun.






23. An eruption of lava that takes place from a fracture & usually without producing a cone.






24. Produced as a wave steepens and falls forward as the wave nears the shore.






25. The partial or complete blocking from view of one object by another.






26. An area in which a large number of windmills have been erected to generate electrical power.






27. A tool for measuring the relative clarity of water.






28. A division of geologic time next smaller than the eon and larger than a period. Example: The Paleozoic era is in the Phanerozoic eon and includes & among others & the Devonian period.






29. The region of a shore that is covered at high tide and exposed at low tide.






30. A depression in the ground formed by the melting of a block of glacier ice buried or partially buried by drift.






31. A Hawaiian term for a lava flow that has a rough & jagged surface.






32. 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






33. 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.






34. Similar to a groin but built to keep sand out of a harbor entrance.






35. 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.






36. The area bordering a stream over which water spreads when the stream tops its channel banks.






37. 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






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






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






40. A blanket of wind-driven sand with an upper surface about a meter above ground level.






41. 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.






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






43. A mass of ice & formed by the recrystallization of snow & that flows forward & or has flowed at some time in the past.






44. Any molten material that is extrusive or volcanic & or the rock that forms from a molten extrusive. Molten rock that flows at the Earth's surface.






45. Heat transport by direct transfer of energy from one particle to another & without moving the particle to a new location.






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






47. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






48. The portion of the continental margin that lies between the abyssal plain and the continental slope. The continental rise is underlain by crustal rocks of the ocean basin.






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






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