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 geologic eon lying between the Archean and Phanerozoic eons & beginning about 2.5 billion years ago and ending about 0.57 billion years ago.






2. A large volume of dust-sized particles lifted high into the atmosphere.






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






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






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






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






7. 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






8. Where two plates are moving in opposite directions as in a mid-ocean ridge.






9. Heat extracted from the Earth for use as an power source.






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






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






12. A system involving continuous interaction of the solid Earth & the atmosphere & the oceans and living things.






13. An artificial hill formed by the debris of successive human settlements.






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






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






16. He area from which a stream and its tributaries receives its water.






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






18. 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 .






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






20. The process of one plate descending beneath another.






21. The green pigment in the cells of many plants that enables them to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates in the process called photosynthesis.






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






23. A large volume of dust-sized particles lifted high into the atmosphere.






24. An instrument that detects & magnifies & and records vibrations of the Earth & especially earthquakes.






25. All unconsolidated materials above bedrock. Natural earthy materials on the Earth's surface & in places modified or even made by human activity & containing living matter & and supporting or capable of supporting plants out of doors.






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






27. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






28. 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.






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






30. A dense & hot (sometimes incandescent) cloud of volcanic ash and gas produced in a Pelean eruption.






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






32. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






33. Distance over which wave-forming winds blow.






34. 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.






35. An instrument used to measure the speed of wind.






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






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






38. A mass of ice & formed by the recrystallization of snow & that flows forward & or has flowed at some time in the past.






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






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






41. The surface between the zone of saturation and the zone of aeration.






42. A lake in an abandoned meander.






43. 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.






44. A time of unusual winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean . El Nino generally causes warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures and increased rainfall and storm activity.






45. An earthquake that follows and has its epicenter near a larger earthquake.






46. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






47. 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






48. 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.






49. A sedimentary rock composed primarily of biogenic sediments.






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