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. Any natural concentration of a valuable material in the Earth's crust & whether that material can be extracted profitably or not.






2. Containing moisture.






3. Living parts of the environment that can renew or replace themselves.






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. Mercury is named after the Roman messenger of the gods. It is the closest to the Sun.






6. Deserts formed by blocking moisture-bearing winds with mountain barriers.






7. The study of earthquakes & and of the structure of the Earth by both natural and artificially generated seismic waves.






8. Lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow shapes.






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






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






11. Either the northern or southern half of the Earth as divided by the equator & or the eastern or western half as divided by a meridian.






12. 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 .






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






14. A large amount of gas and dust in space & spread out in an immense volume.






15. The innermost zone of Earth. It consists of two parts & an outer liquid section and an inner solid section & both chiefly of iron and nickel with about 10 percent lighter elements. It is surrounded by the mantle.






16. The line separating land and water.






17. The physical & chemical & and biological processes by which rock at or near the Earth's surface is broken down into smaller pieces.






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






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






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






21. A type of disintegration in which jointed rock is forced apart by the expansion of water as it freezes in fractures.






22. A cyclical pattern of movement in a fluid body such as the ocean & the atmosphere & or the Earth's mantle & driven by density variations which in turn are the result of differences in temperature from one part of the fluid to another.






23. The area immediately below the ground surface within which pore spaces are partially filled with water and partially filled with air.






24. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






25. Flat land covered with tall grass and wildflowers.






26. A geometrical form taken by a mineral & giving external expression to orderly internal atomic arrangement.






27. The attractive force between two objects; its magnitude depends on their masses and the distance between them.






28. A major drainage divide separating the drainage to one ocean from another.






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






30. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






31. Any accumulation of material & by settling from water or air & chemical precipitation & evaporation from solution & etc.






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






33. A rock changed from its original form and/or composition by heat & pressure &shearing stress & or chemically active fluids & or some combination of them.






34. A hole or basin cut into bedrock of a stream by the abrasive action of pebbles and sand swirled by turbulent stream flow.






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






36. A downward distortion or dimple in the water table that forms as a well pumps water faster than it can flow through the aquifer.






37. The generally dark & more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil & so well decomposed that the original sources cannot be identified.






38. Lies half way between the north and south magnetic poles.






39. A large area with common features that set it apart from other areas.






40. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






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






42. The resistance of a mineral to scratching & as measured by the Mohs scale.






43. A cyclical pattern of movement in a fluid body such as the ocean & the atmosphere & or the Earth's mantle & driven by density variations which in turn are the result of differences in temperature from one part of the fluid to another.






44. The process of one plate descending beneath another.






45. Rock formed from the accumulation of sediment & Which may consist of fragments and mineral grains of varying sizes from pre-existing rocks & remains or products of animals and plants & the products of chemical action & or mixtures of these.






46. 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.






47. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






48. A low & nearly flat accumulation of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river or stream & commonly triangular or fan-shaped.






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






50. The level of light that penetrates through water.