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






2. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






3. A curved belt of volcanic islands lying above a subduction zone.






4. A measure of acidity.






5. The environment where a particular plant or animal is normally found.






6. One of several rock-forming minerals that contain at least 95% silica (quartz). and usually one or more other common elements.






7. A term applied to large areas of basaltic lava presumably extruded from fissures.






8. Large area of extremely flat ocean floor lying near a continent and generally over 4 km in depth.






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






10. A steep or vertical cliff & either above or below sea level.






11. Occurs at the intersection of the water table with the ground surface.






12. The most recent eon of geologic time beginning 570 million years ago and continuing to the present.






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






14. A minor tremor that precedes an earthquake. An increase in seismicity may signal that a major release of strain energy is about to occur.






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






16. 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.






17. Lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow shapes.






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






19. A thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.






20. Igneous. Antonym of intrusive. Synonym of volcanic. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed from lava released on the Earth's surface.






21. A Hawaiian term for a lava flow that has a rough & jagged surface.






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






23. Living on land.






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






25. 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.






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






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






28. 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.






29. The process by which ocean floors spread laterally from crests of main ocean ridges. As material moves laterally from the ridge & new material replaces it along the ridge crest by welling upward from the mantle.






30. A fracture or zone of fractures along the boundaries of tectonic plates where movement has taken place.






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






32. A thick layer of soil.






33. A post of dripstone growing up from a cave floor.






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






35. A general term for a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface & cemented by silica & iron oxide & calcium carbonate & or organic matter.






36. Deserts in zones of descending air between 25 degrees and 30 degrees north and south latitude.






37. A broad & mound-like mass of glacier ice that usually spreads radially outward from a central zone.






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






39. A stone or boulder & glacially transported from place of origin and left in an area of different bedrock composition.






40. The formation & advance and retreat of glaciers and the results of these activities.






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






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






43. Extending across a continent.






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






45. Uranus is named after the Roman god of the sky. It is the seventh planet from the Sun.






46. The oldest eon in Earth history & extending from the origin of the Earth to about 3.9 billion years ago.






47. A stone or boulder & glacially transported from place of origin and left in an area of different bedrock composition.






48. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






49. The upper horizons in a soil & through which gravitational moisture travels & removing soluble decomposition products.






50. The area bordering a stream over which water spreads when the stream tops its channel banks.