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 distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.






2. To change back and forth uncertainly.






3. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion from side to side & perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves and cannot travel through a liquid.






4. 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.






5. The elevation at which snow persists throughout the year.






6. The arrangement of rock units in the proper chronological order from youngest to oldest.






7. The condition of equilibrium & comparable to floating & of units of the lithosphere above the asthenosphere.






8. A valley carved by glacier erosion and whose cross-valley profile has steep sides and a nearly flat floor & suggestive of a large letter 'you'.






9. The speed at which water flows.






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






11. A glaciated valley now flooded by the sea.






12. 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.






13. A depression in the ground formed by the melting of a block of glacier ice buried or partially buried by drift.






14. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






15. A roughly circular reef with an occasional small & low & coral sand island surrounding a shallow lagoon.






16. Living in water.






17. Long narrow beaches separated in many places from the mainland by lagoons.






18. The top of a wave.






19. A steep-sided rounded extrusion of highly viscous lava squeezed out from a volcano and forming a dome-shaped or bulbous mass above and around the volcanic vent. The structure generally develops inside a volcanic crater.






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






21. A mound or ridge of sediment deposited by a glacier.






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






23. Extending across a continent.






24. 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.






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






26. A statement of relative age in layered rocks: In a series of sedimentary rocks that has not been overturned & the topmost layer is always the youngest and the bottommost layer is always the oldest.






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






28. The effect of water and carbon dioxide absorbing outgoing infrared radiation & raising a system's temperature. The term is generally used with reference to the Earth's temperature & although it can also be applied to other systems & such as greenhous






29. A volcano that is composed of alternating layers of lava and pyroclastic material & along with abundant dikes and sills. Viscous & intermediate lava may flow from a central vent. Example: Mt. Fuji in Japan.






30. The line separating land and water.






31. A broad & mound-like mass of glacier ice that usually spreads radially outward from a central zone.






32. He area from which a stream and its tributaries receives its water.






33. A large ridge or mound-like structure within a body of water that is built by calcareous organisms such as corals & red algae & and bivalves.






34. Sediment formed by chemical precipitation from water. Example: halite precipitated as the result of the evaporation of sea water.






35. A division of geologic time next shorter than a period. Example: the Pleistocene epoch is in the Quaternary period.






36. A landscape that develops from the action of ground water in areas of easily soluble rocks. It is usually characterized by caves & underground drainage and sinkholes.






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






38. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






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






40. A measure of the size of an earthquake in terms of the damage it causes.






41. That part of the continental margin that lies between the continental shelf and the continental rise. Slope relatively steep & 3o - 6o. The continental slope is underlain by crustal rocks of the continent.






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






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






44. The two days of the year on which the noon sun is directly overhead at either 23.5






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






46. The process by which building stone & usually in blocks or sheets & is extracted from the Earth. radiation -- (Electromagnetic radiation) -- energy that travels through space in the form of waves without the intervention of matter & as in the transp






47. A roughly circular reef with an occasional small & low & coral sand island surrounding a shallow lagoon.






48. A famous scientist who proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system not the Earth. (Heliocentrism)






49. Deposition of fine mineral particles (silt) on the beds of streams or lakes.






50. A system involving continuous interaction of the solid Earth & the atmosphere & the oceans and living things.