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






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






3. Living in water.






4. The southern portion of the late Paleozoic supercontinent known as Pangea. It means & literally 'Land of the Gonds' (a people of the Indian subcontinent).The supercontinent existed from Cambrian to Jurassic time & mainly composed of South America &






5. Formed when an organism is flattened (compressed) and a thin film of organic material from its body is left in the rock.






6. As applied to glacier ice & the process by which ice below the snow line is wasted by evaporation and melting.






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






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






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






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






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






12. A flood that rises and falls very rapidly.






13. The pattern of water circulation from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.






14. Bent rock strata.






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






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






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






18. A giant structure that contains hundreds of billions of stars.






19. Gases (primarily water and carbon dioxide & but also a variety of sulfur and nitrogen compounds and gaseous hydrocarbons) that trap the Sun's heat in the atmosphere.






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






21. A Hawaiian term for a basaltic lava flow with a smooth & or ropy surface.






22. 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






23. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






24. The current geologic era & which began 66.4 million years ago and continues to the present.






25. The two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun.






26. That portion of the Earth below the crust and reaching to about 2 &780 km & where a transition zone of about 100 km thickness separates it from the core.






27. The tendency of a moving object to continue in a straight line or a stationary object to remain in place.






28. A supercontinent that existed from the Jurassic to Early Tertiary after splitting from Pangea; composed of Laurentia & Baltica & Avalonia & (modern North America & Scandinavia & Greenland & Western and Central Europe); eventually fragmented into Eur






29. The portion of the continental margin that extends as a gently sloping surface from the shoreline seaward to a marked change in slope at the top of the continental slope . Seaward depth averages about 130 m.






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






31. A plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions. The San Andreas fault of California is a good example.






32. The processes of weathering by which physical actions such as frost wedging break down a rock into fragments & involving no chemical change.






33. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






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






35. Bent rock strata.






36. A pillar formed as a stalactite and stalagmite meet.






37. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion & alternating compression and expansion & in the direction of wave propagation. It is the fastest seismic wave. compare S-wave .






38. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion from side to side & perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves and cannot travel through a liquid.






39. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






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






41. A small ice sheet.






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






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






44. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






45. Sediment formed by chemical precipitation from water. Example: halite precipitated as the result of the evaporation of sea water.






46. 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.






47. An ingredient in a food or other substance that nourishes or promotes growth.






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






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






50. An era of time during the Phanerozoic eon lasting from 245 million years ago to 66.4 million ago.