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 person who makes maps.






2. A reverse fault on which the dip angle of the fault plane is 15 degrees or less.






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






4. The process of one plate descending beneath another.






5. A sedimentary rock made up of chemical sediments. Example: rock salt.






6. Living on land.






7. The region of a shore that is covered at high tide and exposed at low tide.






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






9. 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.






10. A substance that produces negatively charged hydroxide ions ( OH- ) in water and reacts with acids to form salts.






11. Formed when an organism is flattened (compressed) and a thin film of organic material from its body is left in the rock.






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






13. A vent on the seafloor from which hydrothermal fluids are emitted. Upon mixing with seawater and cooling & the fluids precipitate a cloud of fine-grained sulfide minerals that resembles a cloud of black smoke.






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






15. Surficial mining & in which the valuable rock is exposed by removal of overlying rock or soil.






16. A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano & through Which magma has passed.






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






18. The very small particles of dirt & soot & and other pollutants that are present in the air.






19. A guide to reading a map that typically contains distance scales & arrows indicating direction & and/or explanations of symbols used.






20. The sum of the processes that result in the wearing away or the progressive lowering of the Earth's surface by weathering & erosion & mass wasting & and transportation.






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






22. Any place where bedrock is visible on the surface of the Earth.






23. Formed when an organism is flattened (compressed) and a thin film of organic material from its body is left in the rock.






24. Verifying assessments made from satellite data by doing direct & 'on-the ground' measurements.






25. 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






26. 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.






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






28. 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.






29. Any form of water & such as rain & sleet & or snow & that falls to Earth's surface.






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






31. 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.






32. 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.






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






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






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






36. Any porous and permeable rock that yields oil or natural gas.






37. Pertaining to or composed of granite & a coarse-grained igneous rock dominated by light-colored minerals & consisting of about 50 percent orthoclase & 25 percent quartz & and balance of feldspars and ferromagnesian silicates. Granite is commonly foun






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






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






40. A person who makes maps.






41. Heat extracted from the Earth for use as an power source.






42. The weak or 'soft' zone in the upper mantle just below the lithosphere & involved in plate movement and isostatic adjustments. It lies 70 to 100 km below the surface and may extend to a depth of 400 km.






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






44. The distance light travels through a vacuum in one year.






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






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






47. An eon of geologic time extending from about 3.9 billion years to 2.5 billion years ago.






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






49. Till deposited from main body of glacier during ablation.






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