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. Imaginary lines on a map or globe that measure distance in degrees north or south of the equator. Latitude lines extend horizontally & from east to west on a globe.






2. The way in which a rock or mineral breaks in random patterns rather than cleaving






3. The internal resistance to flow in a liquid.






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






5. A molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen and mostly found in the stratosphere. Though beneficial in the upper atmosphere & at ground level & ozone is called photochemical smog & and is a respiratory irritant and considered a pollutant.






6. A process of land degradation initiated by human activity & particularly in the zones along the margins of deserts.






7. 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






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






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






10. A slide involving a downward and usually sudden movement of newly detached segments of bedrock sliding or slipping over an inclined surface of weakness such as a bedding plane & fault plane & or joint surface.






11. The weak or 'soft' zone in the upper mantle just below the lithosphere & involved in plate movement and isostatic adjustments. It lies 70 to 100 km below the surface and may extend to a depth of 400 km.






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






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






14. A layer of sedimentary rock; plural is strata.






15. A rock that has crystallized from a molten state.






16. A lake of lava & usually basaltic & in a volcanic caldera.






17. A permeable region of rock or soil through which ground water can move.






18. The weak or 'soft' zone in the upper mantle just below the lithosphere & involved in plate movement and isostatic adjustments. It lies 70 to 100 km below the surface and may extend to a depth of 400 km.






19. The portion of the continental margin that lies between the abyssal plain and the continental slope. The continental rise is underlain by crustal rocks of the ocean basin.






20. 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.






21. 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






22. The zone below the zone of aeration in which all pore spaces are filled with water.






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






24. 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.






25. A commonly used measure of earthquake magnitude & based on a logarithmic scale. Each integral step on the scale represents a tenfold increase in the extent of ground shaking & as recorded on a seismograph.






26. Shapes & like mountains or hills that make up the Earth's surface.






27. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






28. 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.






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






30. The distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.






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






32. The science that deals with the study of the planet Earth--the materials of which it is made & the processes that act to change these materials from one form to another & and the history recorded by these materials; the forces acting to deform the ou






33. The arrangement of rock units in the proper chronological order from youngest to oldest.






34. A waterway from open ocean into a lagoon.






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






36. An isolated & steep-sided & rocky mass or island just offshore from a rocky headland & usually on a shore platform.






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






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






39. A period of dryness & that when prolonged & causes damage to crops; a shortage of water.






40. A measure of the size of an earthquake in terms of the damage it causes.






41. A detailed mathematical description of the cause-and-effect relationships between events that can be used to predict or explain other such events.






42. The mass of an object divided by its volume.






43. A collection of maps.






44. Pertaining to clastic material formed by volcanic explosion or aerial expulsion from a volcanic vent.






45. The straightening and/or deepening of a river channel.






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






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 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.






49. 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.






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