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. 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.






2. Of or relating to or containing basalt & a dark & dense & extrusive rock that has a silica content of 40% to 50% and makes up most of the ocean floor.






3. Produced as a wave steepens and falls forward as the wave nears the shore.






4. 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.






5. The top of a wave.






6. The two days of the year on which neither hemisphere is tilted toward or away from the sun.






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






8. Heat transport by direct transfer of energy from one particle to another & without moving the particle to a new location.






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






10. Highly mafic igneous volcanic rock & typically fine-grained and dark in color; rough volcanic equivalent of gabbro. Basalt is the most abundant volcanic rock in the Earth's crust.






11. A community of plants and/or animals and its physical environment & regarded as a unit.






12. The closest galaxy to the Milky way. It is approximately 2 million light-years away.






13. The line that separates one drainage basin from another.






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






15. A permeable region of rock or soil through which ground water can move.






16. A continuous well-defined mass of material of sufficient ore content to make extraction economically feasible. compare mineral deposit.






17. A low & nearly flat accumulation of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river or stream & commonly triangular or fan-shaped.






18. A major drainage divide separating the drainage to one ocean from another.






19. Extending across a continent.






20. A soft compact calcite & CaCO3 & with varying amounts of silica & quartz & feldspar & or other mineral impurities & generally gray-white or yellow-white and derived chiefly from fossil seashells.






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






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






23. An icicle-shaped accumulation of dripstone hanging from cave roof.






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






25. 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.






26. 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.






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






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. 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.






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






31. A volcanic mountain on the seafloor. If flat-topped & it is a guyot.






32. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






33. An abandoned meander .






34. Reduction of pore space between individual particles as the result of overlying sediments or of tectonic movements.






35. A valley caused by extension of the Earth's crust. Its floor forms as a portion of the crust moves downward along normal faults.






36. 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.






37. An era of geologic time lasting from 570 to 245 million years ago.






38. A comet that passed Earth in 1997 and won't return to the inner solar system until the year 4377.






39. Fossils formed when water containing minerals leaks into a mold. The minerals harden to form a copy of the original structure or organism.






40. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






41. Glacial drift composed of rock fragments that range from clay to boulder size and randomly arranged without bedding.






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






43. The dust-sized & sharp-edged & glassy particles resulting from an explosive volcanic eruption.






44. 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.






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






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






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






48. Ratio between weight of given volume of material and weight of equal volume of pure water.






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






50. A Hawaiian term for a lava flow that has a rough & jagged surface.