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 breaking away of ice from the front of the glacier when it ends in a lake or an ocean. Produces icebergs.






2. A mudflow composed chiefly of pyroclastic material on the flanks of a volcano.






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






4. A continuous well-defined mass of material of sufficient ore content to make extraction economically feasible. compare mineral deposit.






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






6. A device containing a free-swinging magnetic needle that is attracted to Earth's magnetic North Pole. Used to determine direction of travel.






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






8. 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.






9. The process by which ocean floors spread laterally from crests of main ocean ridges. As material moves laterally from the ridge & new material replaces it along the ridge crest by welling upward from the mantle.






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






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






12. The upper horizons in a soil & through which gravitational moisture travels & removing soluble decomposition products.






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






14. The distance light travels through a vacuum in one year.






15. Saturn is named after the Roman god of the harvest. It is the sixth planet from the Sun.






16. 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






17. Soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C.






18. A collection of maps.






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






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






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






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






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






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






25. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






26. Highly mafic igneous volcanic rock & typically fine-grained and dark in color; rough volcanic equivalent of gabbro. Basalt is the most abundant volcanic rock in the Earth's crust.






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






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






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






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






31. The process by which building stone & usually in blocks or sheets & is extracted from the Earth. radiation -- (Electromagnetic radiation) -- energy that travels through space in the form of waves without the intervention of matter & as in the transp






32. (Latin- Terra & Greek- Gaia) Earth is named after the ancient Germanic Goddess of the soil. It is the third planet from the Sun.






33. A ridge of high water associated with a hurricane and which floods over the shore .






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






35. The transformation of a soil from a solid to a liquid state as the result of increased pore pressure.






36. 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.






37. The process of mountain building.






38. Forms along a coast as wave erosion cuts through a headland.






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






40. 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.






41. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






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






43. The zones of seismic activity long which plates are in contact.






44. A cavity in a lava & formed by the entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification of the lava.






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






46. The breaking away of ice from the front of the glacier when it ends in a lake or an ocean. Produces icebergs.






47. 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.






48. 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.






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






50. The resistance of a mineral to scratching & as measured by the Mohs scale.