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






2. A spring whose temperature is 6.5o C or more above mean annual air temperature.






3. A sedimentary rock composed of combustible matter derived from the partial decomposition of plant material.






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






5. An eruption of lava that takes place from a fracture & usually without producing a cone.






6. A blanket of wind-driven sand with an upper surface about a meter above ground level.






7. A measure of acidity.






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






9. The speed at which water flows.






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






11. 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.






12. A hot & gaseous & self-luminous celestial body & as the Sun.






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






14. 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.






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






16. 1. Breach in a natural levee . 2. Deep crevice or open fracture in glacier ice.






17. Pertaining to clastic material formed by volcanic explosion or aerial expulsion from a volcanic vent.






18. A zone in the Earth between 400 and 670 km below the surface separating the upper mantle from the lower mantle.






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






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






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






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






23. A conical volcano formed by the accumulation of pyroclastic debris around a vent.






24. That portion of the Earth below the crust and reaching to about 2 &780 km & where a transition zone of about 100 km thickness separates it from the core.






25. A mudflow composed chiefly of pyroclastic material on the flanks of a volcano.






26. 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.






27. The point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the focus of an earthquake.






28. The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.






29. Gases (primarily water and carbon dioxide & but also a variety of sulfur and nitrogen compounds and gaseous hydrocarbons) that trap the Sun's heat in the atmosphere.






30. 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.






31. 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.






32. The persistence of wind-formed waves after wind ceases.






33. Applies to igneous rocks that cool on the surface of the Earth & including beneath water; typically with small crystals due to the rapidity of cooling. Synonym of extrusive. Antonym of plutonic.






34. A period of dryness & that when prolonged & causes damage to crops; a shortage of water.






35. A detailed mathematical description of the cause-and-effect relationships between events that can be used to predict or explain other such events.






36. The primary division of geologic time which are & from oldest to youngest & the Hadean & Archean & Proterozoic & and Phanerozoic eons.






37. The vertical distance between the crest and adjacent trough of a wave.






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






39. The vertical distance between the crest and adjacent trough of a wave.






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






41. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






42. A wall built out from the shore & usually at perpendicular to it to trap sand carried by longshore currents .






43. Soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C.






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






45. A floating ice sheet extending across water from a land-based glacier.






46. A worldwide change in sea level & such as caused by melting glaciers.






47. Scratches & or small channels & gouged by glacier action. Occur on boulders & pebbles & and bedrock. Striations along bedrock indicate direction of ice movement.






48. 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.






49. To preserve & or to avoid wasteful use.






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