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. A division of geologic time next shorter than a period. Example: the Pleistocene epoch is in the Quaternary period.






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






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






4. Living parts of the environment that can renew or replace themselves.






5. Occurs at the intersection of the water table with the ground surface.






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






8. Iron & aluminum & magnesium & manganese & and titanium. Ores of the abundant metals only need to be 3 - 5 times as metal-rich as average rock.






9. A lake in an abandoned meander.






10. A geometrical form taken by a mineral & giving external expression to orderly internal atomic arrangement.






11. A disease-causing organism or entity & such as a bacterium or virus.






12. 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.






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






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






15. A flat & dry plain covered with short grass.






16. A soft compact calcite & CaCO3 & with varying amounts of silica & quartz & feldspar & or other mineral impurities & generally gray-white or yellow-white and derived chiefly from fossil seashells.






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






18. Containing moisture.






19. 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.






20. Property possessed by certain rocks of breaking with relative ease along parallel planes or nearly parallel surfaces in their crystal structures where the bonds are weakest.






21. Fossils formed when water containing minerals leaks into a mold. The minerals harden to form a copy of the original structure or organism.






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






23. The line separating land and water.






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






25. 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.






26. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






27. Destruction of the ozone layer caused by the release of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) into the atmosphere which react chemically with ozone and break it down into different gases.






28. The condition of equilibrium & comparable to floating & of units of the lithosphere above the asthenosphere.






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






30. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






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






32. Scratches & or small channels & gouged by glacier action. Occur on boulders & pebbles & and bedrock. Striations along bedrock indicate direction of ice movement.






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






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






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






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






37. The layer of gases (air) & that surrounds a planet or moon.






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






39. A lake in an abandoned meander.






40. 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.






41. A floating ice sheet extending across water from a land-based glacier.






42. Woodland that usually gets at least 100 inches of rain each year.






43. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






44. A narrow strip of land along the margin of the ocean extending inland for a variable distance from low water mark.






45. A large & basin-shaped volcanic depression & more or less circular in form. Typically steep-sided & found at the summit of a shield volcano.






46. A segment of an active fault zone that has not experienced a major earthquake during a time period when most other segments of the zone have. They are generally regarded as having a higher potential for future earthquakes.






47. An area where fresh water comes into contact with seawater & usually in a partly enclosed coastal body of water; a mix of fresh and salt water where the current of a stream meets the tides.






48. The layer of gases (air) & that surrounds a planet or moon.






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






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