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






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






3. Open pit mining & typically for coal.






4. A hydrocarbon (coal or petroleum) that can be extracted from the Earth for use as a fuel. Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources.






5. Containing moisture.






6. A roughly circular reef with an occasional small & low & coral sand island surrounding a shallow lagoon.






7. A hot & gaseous & self-luminous celestial body & as the Sun.






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






9. Lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow shapes.






10. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






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






12. The point on the Earth's surface where a magnetic needle points vertically downward (north magnetic pole) or vertically upward (south magnetic pole).






13. The direction & north (normal) or south (reversed) & that a magnetic compass needle points.






14. A narrow strip of land that has water on either side and connects two larger bodies of water.






15. A worldwide change in sea level & such as caused by melting glaciers.






16. Where two plates collide to form mountains.






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






18. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






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 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.






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






22. The average weather conditions of an area over many years & as measured by temperature & wind speed & and precipitation.






23. 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.






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






25. The peak flow of water that tops the banks of a stream channel.






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






27. The effect of water and carbon dioxide absorbing outgoing infrared radiation & raising a system's temperature. The term is generally used with reference to the Earth's temperature & although it can also be applied to other systems & such as greenhous






28. The outermost part of the core. It is liquid & about 1 &700 km thick & and separated from the inner & solid core by a transition zone about 565 km thick.






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






30. Glacial drift composed of rock fragments that range from clay to boulder size and randomly arranged without bedding.






31. The point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the focus of an earthquake.






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






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






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






35. Imaginary lines on a map or globe that measure distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian. Longitude lines extend vertically & from pole to pole on a globe.






36. Water that flows across watersheds during and immediately after severe rainstorms. In populated areas & stormwater runoff is often water that cannot be handled by existing sewer systems. Stormwater runoff is the leading source of water pollution in t






37. The low spot between two successive waves.






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






39. Mountains & characterized by extensive folding and thrust faulting & that form at convergent plate boundaries on continents.






40. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






41. An imaginary circle around the earth that represents the halfway mark between the North and South Poles and establishes the boundary between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.






42. Turbulent stream water flow down a steep gradient & but not as steep as in a waterfall.






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






44. Bent rock strata.






45. 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.






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






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






48. A small ice sheet.






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






50. One of several rock-forming minerals that contain at least 95% silica (quartz). and usually one or more other common elements.