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






2. 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.






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






4. The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.






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






6. The theory that states that the present-day continents are the fragmented pieces of preexisting larger landmasses called supercontinents.






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






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






9. A large volume of dust-sized particles lifted high into the atmosphere.






10. A wall built out from the shore & usually at perpendicular to it to trap sand carried by longshore currents .






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






12. A plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions. The San Andreas fault of California is a good example.






13. 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.






14. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion & alternating compression and expansion & in the direction of wave propagation. It is the fastest seismic wave. compare S-wave .






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






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






17. (Greek-Aphrodite)named after the Roman goddess of love. It is the planet closest in size to Earth and the second planted from the Sun.






18. A large amount of gas and dust in space & spread out in an immense volume.






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






20. A collection of maps.






21. 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






22. 1. A low & bowl-shaped area of land surrounded by higher lands. 2. any large depression in which sediments are deposited.






23. An area where fresh water comes into contact with seawater & usually in a partly enclosed coastal body of water; a mix of fresh and salt water where the current of a stream meets the tides.






24. The surface between the zone of saturation and the zone of aeration.






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






26. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






27. A thick layer of soil.






28. That portion of the Earth below the crust and reaching to about 2 &780 km & where a transition zone of about 100 km thickness separates it from the core.






29. A slide involving a downward and usually sudden movement of newly detached segments of bedrock sliding or slipping over an inclined surface of weakness such as a bedding plane & fault plane & or joint surface.






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






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






32. The prediction that climate will warm as a result of the addition to the atmosphere of humanly produced greenhouse gases.






33. Destruction of the ozone layer caused by the release of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) into the atmosphere which react chemically with ozone and break it down into different gases.






34. 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.






35. A geometrical form taken by a mineral & giving external expression to orderly internal atomic arrangement.






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






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






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






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






40. 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






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






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






43. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






44. Sediments produced directly by the life processes of plants or animals.






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






46. 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.






47. Heat transport by moving particles & and the thermal energy that they carry & to a new location.






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 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.






50. Any solid material that has settled out of a state of suspension in liquid.