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 breaking away of ice from the front of the glacier when it ends in a lake or an ocean. Produces icebergs.






2. The way in which a rock or mineral breaks in random patterns rather than cleaving






3. 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.






4. 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.






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






6. The current geologic era & which began 66.4 million years ago and continues to the present.






7. The amount of material a stream carries in suspension.






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






9. Any of various minerals prized for beauty & durability & and rarity. A few noncrystalline materials of organic origin (e.g. & pearl & red coral & and amber) also are classified as gemstones.






10. A collection of maps.






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






12. The initial point within the Earth that ruptures in an earthquake & directly below the epicenter. The point within the Earth which is the center of an earthquake & at which strain energy is first released and converted to elastic wave energy.






13. Iron & aluminum & magnesium & manganese & and titanium. Ores of the abundant metals only need to be 3 - 5 times as metal-rich as average rock.






14. Imaginary lines on a map or globe that measure distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian. Longitude lines extend vertically & from pole to pole on a globe.






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






16. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






17. Extending across a continent.






18. The process of one plate descending beneath another.






19. Evidence in rock of the presence of past life & such as a dinosaur bone & an ancient clam shell & or the footprint of a long-extinct animal as well as life history artifacts.






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






21. Similar to a groin but built to keep sand out of a harbor entrance.






22. The principle that states the processes operating to change the Earth in the present also operated in the past.






23. The outermost layer of the Earth & varying in thickness from about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the oceans & to 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) below the continents; represents less than 1 percent of the Earth's volume.






24. The areas of & in & or constituting a city.






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






26. A tool for measuring the relative clarity of water.






27. An abandoned meander .






28. The peak flow of water that tops the banks of a stream channel.






29. 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.






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






31. The rock beneath the soil.






32. A broad & deep & generally straight furrow carved in bed rock by the abrasive action of debris embedded in a moving glacier. Larger and deeper than a glacial striation.






33. The rise and fall of sea level caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on the Earth.






34. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






35. A study designed to collect critical data to be used for comparison or as a control in a later study.






36. 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.






37. That portion of the resources for a valuable mineral commodity that can be extracted from the Earth at a profit today.






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






39. A tool for measuring the relative clarity of water.






40. A rigid segment of the Earth's lithosphere that moves horizontally and adjoins other plates along zones of seismic activity. Plates may include portions of both continents and ocean basins.






41. The process by which an unconsolidated deposit of sediments is converted in to solid rock.






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






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






44. Any object that revolves around another object in space.






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






46. An accumulation of wind driven sand into a distinctive shape.






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






48. The process of mountain building.






49. Banks of sand and silt along stream bank built by deposition in small increments during successive floods.






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