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. 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






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






3. Any seismic wave that travels through the body of Earth & rather than along its surface.






4. The first scientist to make systematic use of the telescope in looking at the heavens.






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






6. 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.






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






8. Extending across a continent.






9. An era of geologic time lasting from 570 to 245 million years ago.






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






11. 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.






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






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






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






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






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






17. A general term including both oil and natural gas.






18. A device built to study distant objects by making them appear closer.






19. Property possessed by certain rocks of breaking with relative ease along parallel planes or nearly parallel surfaces in their crystal structures where the bonds are weakest.






20. A narrow & elongate region in which one lithospheric plate descends relative to another.






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






22. The reflection of light on a given mineral's surface & classified by intensity and quality.






23. The uprush of a wave onto the beach followed by the return flow of the water down the beach slope in the intervals between waves.






24. The color of a mineral in its powdered form obtained from scraping a sample on a ceramic plate






25. The direction & north (normal) or south (reversed) & that a magnetic compass needle points.






26. The speed at which water flows.






27. A waterway from open ocean into a lagoon.






28. A valley caused by extension of the Earth's crust. Its floor forms as a portion of the crust moves downward along normal faults.






29. The processes (mechanical and chemical) responsible for the wearing away & loosening & and dissolving of materials of the Earth's crust.






30. 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.






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






32. An atmospheric shield providing the Earth with protection from ultra-violet rays which can cause sun burn & skin cancer and the destruction of the delicate plant life which supports the planet's food chain.






33. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






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






35. The reflection of light on a given mineral's surface & classified by intensity and quality.






36. The process of removing metal from ore.






37. 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.






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






39. A device containing a free-swinging magnetic needle that is attracted to Earth's magnetic North Pole. Used to determine direction of travel.






40. The zones of seismic activity long which plates are in contact.






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






42. A lake in an abandoned meander.






43. 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.






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






45. The line that separates one drainage basin from another.






46. A substance that produces positively charged hydrogen ions (H+) when dissolved in water.






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






48. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






49. A hydrocarbon (coal or petroleum) that can be extracted from the Earth for use as a fuel. Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources.






50. To wash or scrub away.