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






2. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






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






4. 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.






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






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






7. Ratio between weight of given volume of material and weight of equal volume of pure water.






8. Extending across a continent.






9. 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.






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






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






12. A broad & mound-like mass of glacier ice that usually spreads radially outward from a central zone.






13. Mars is named after the Roman god of war. It is the fourth planet from the Sun.






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






15. A volcano in the shape of a flattened cone & broad and low & built by very fluid flows of basaltic lava.






16. A thick layer of soil.






17. The galaxy where Earth is located.






18. Plutonic. Antonym of extrusive. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed by the emplacement of magma in pre-existing rocks.






19. A cyclical pattern of movement in a fluid body such as the ocean & the atmosphere & or the Earth's mantle & driven by density variations which in turn are the result of differences in temperature from one part of the fluid to another.






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






21. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






22. The environment where a particular plant or animal is normally found.






23. 1. Breach in a natural levee . 2. Deep crevice or open fracture in glacier ice.






24. A sharp bend & loop or turn in a stream's course. When abandoned & it is called a meander scar or an oxbow.






25. A waste material that contaminates air & water & or soil.






26. Elongated rises on the ocean floor where basalt periodically erupts & forming new oceanic crust.






27. 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.






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






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






30. The speed at which water flows.






31. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






32. 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.






33. 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.






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






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






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






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






38. Either the northern or southern half of the Earth as divided by the equator & or the eastern or western half as divided by a meridian.






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






40. 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.






41. A group of islands; an expanse of water with scattered islands.






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






43. A thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.






44. 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.






45. Temporary accumulations of sediments that collect between low and high water marks.






46. Deserts formed by blocking moisture-bearing winds with mountain barriers.






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






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






49. A curved belt of volcanic islands lying above a subduction zone.






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