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






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






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






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






5. An area in which a large number of windmills have been erected to generate electrical power.






6. The Sun with all the celestial bodies that revolve around it.






7. 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.






8. A delta formed at both sides of a tidal inlet.






9. The distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.






10. The sudden fall of one or more large pieces of a rock from a cliff.






11. Jupiter is named after the Roman king of the gods. It is the fifth planet from the Sun.






12. A river that is able to maintain its flow through a desert because of water received from outside the desert.






13. Mountains & characterized by extensive folding and thrust faulting & that form at convergent plate boundaries on continents.






14. An informal term to include all geologic time from the beginning of the Earth to the beginning of the Cambrian period 570 million years ago.






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






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






17. The line separating land and water.






18. A region of high heat flow on the Earth's surface & thought to lie above a mantle plume .






19. 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.






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






21. A mass of ice & formed by the recrystallization of snow & that flows forward & or has flowed at some time in the past.






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






23. 1. A mass of sand & gravel & or alluvium deposited on the bed of a stream & sea & or lake & or at the mouth of a stream 2. A unit of pressure & approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.






24. 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.






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






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






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






28. Bent rock strata.






29. The Earth's crust underlying the ocean basins which is formed at mid-oceanic ridges. It is typically 5 to 10 kilometers thick composed of basalt.






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






31. Living on land.






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






33. An ingredient in a food or other substance that nourishes or promotes growth.






34. An area subject to dust storms & especially south central United States .






35. A natural open space underground & large enough for a person to enter. Most commonly occur by the dissolution of soluble rocks & generally limestone.






36. A coral reef separated from the mainland by a lagoon.






37. The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's crust is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small pieces floating on a semi-molten mantle.






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






39. The naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted at a profit.






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






41. Temporary accumulations of sediments that collect between low and high water marks.






42. A division of geologic time next smaller than the eon and larger than a period. Example: The Paleozoic era is in the Phanerozoic eon and includes & among others & the Devonian period.






43. The internal resistance to flow in a liquid.






44. A ridge of high water associated with a hurricane and which floods over the shore .






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






46. In a stream & the volume of water passing through a channel in a given time.






47. A method of sediment transport in which the turbulence of a fluid is able to keep particles supported in the fluid.






48. The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's crust is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small pieces floating on a semi-molten mantle.






49. The line separating land and water.






50. 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.