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 very slow & generally continuous downslope movement of soil and debris under the influence of gravity.






2. 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.






3. 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.






4. The presence of layers in some rocks caused by parallel alignment of minerals.






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






6. A time of unusual winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean . El Nino generally causes warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures and increased rainfall and storm activity.






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






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






9. 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.






10. The areas of & in & or constituting a city.






11. An informal term to include all geologic time from the beginning of the Earth to the beginning of the Cambrian period 570 million years ago.






12. Living on land.






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






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






15. A large area of flat or nearly flat land.






16. Deserts in zones of descending air between 25 degrees and 30 degrees north and south latitude.






17. A volcanic mountain on the seafloor. If flat-topped & it is a guyot.






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






19. A study designed to collect critical data to be used for comparison or as a control in a later study.






20. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






21. A portable time keeper with a mechanism for ensuring accuracy and adjusting itself & used for determining longitude at sea.






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






23. A low & nearly flat accumulation of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river or stream & commonly triangular or fan-shaped.






24. A thick layer of soil.






25. The zone below the zone of aeration in which all pore spaces are filled with water.






26. Containing moisture.






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






28. Glacial deposits laid down directly by glaciers or laid down in lakes & ocean & or streams as result of glacial activity.






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






30. A guide to reading a map that typically contains distance scales & arrows indicating direction & and/or explanations of symbols used.






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






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






33. The production of living matter by organisms that make food using sunlight or chemicals. Usually expressed as grams of carbon per square meter per year.






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






35. The remains of an extremely massive star pulled into a small volume by the force of gravity.






36. A system that uses a constellation of 24 satellites & their ground stations & and individual GPS receivers to accurately locate points on Earth.






37. A unit of length used in sea navigation based on the length of 1 minute of arc on a great circle. On Earth & 1 minute of latitude.






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






39. A lake in an abandoned meander.






40. Mercury is named after the Roman messenger of the gods. It is the closest to the Sun.






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






42. A spring whose temperature is 6.5o C or more above mean annual air temperature.






43. 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.






44. The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.






45. The area immediately below the ground surface within which pore spaces are partially filled with water and partially filled with air.






46. The closest star to Earth besides the sun. It is approximately 4 light years away.






47. A large amount of gas and dust in space & spread out in an immense volume.






48. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






49. A rock that has crystallized from a molten state.






50. The closest galaxy to the Milky way. It is approximately 2 million light-years away.