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 acidity in rain due to gases from internal combustion engines and coal- and oil-burning power plants.






2. 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.






3. The reserves of a valuable mineral commodity plus all other mineral deposits that may eventually become available & even those that are presumed to exist but have not yet been discovered and those that are not economically or technologically exploita






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






5. A unit of length used in sea navigation based on the length of 1 minute of arc on a great circle. On Earth & 1 minute of latitude.






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






7. Highly mafic igneous volcanic rock & typically fine-grained and dark in color; rough volcanic equivalent of gabbro. Basalt is the most abundant volcanic rock in the Earth's crust.






8. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






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






10. A naturally occurring inorganic solid that has a well-defined chemical composition and in which atoms are arranged in an ordered fashion.






11. 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.






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 galaxy where Earth is located.






14. A planetary satellite.






15. 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.






16. The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's crust is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small pieces floating on a semi-molten mantle.






17. Containing moisture.






18. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






19. Synonym of intrusive. Antonym of volcanic. Applies to igneous rocks formed beneath the surface of the Earth; typically with large crystals due to the slowness of cooling.






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






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






22. A sharp bend & loop or turn in a stream's course. When abandoned & it is called a meander scar or an oxbow.






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






24. A sedimentary rock made up of chemical sediments. Example: rock salt.






25. The theory that states that the present-day continents are the fragmented pieces of preexisting larger landmasses called supercontinents.






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






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






28. A protective wall built offshore and usually parallel to the shore.






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






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






31. A thick layer of soil.






32. Living on land.






33. 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.






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






35. A region of high heat flow on the Earth's surface & thought to lie above a mantle plume .






36. Lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow shapes.






37. A group of stars that appear to make a pattern in the sky. The Big Dipper is a constellation.






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






39. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






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






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






42. Till deposited from main body of glacier during ablation.






43. Long narrow beaches separated in many places from the mainland by lagoons.






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






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






46. Plutonic. Antonym of extrusive. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed by the emplacement of magma in pre-existing rocks.






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






48. 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 &






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






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