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






2. The outermost part of the core. It is liquid & about 1 &700 km thick & and separated from the inner & solid core by a transition zone about 565 km thick.






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






4. A glaciated valley now flooded by the sea.






5. 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.






6. The process by which a binding & or cementing & agent is precipitated in spaces among individual particles of a deposit. Common cementing agents are calcite & quartz & and dolomite.






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






8. (Latin- Sol & Greek- Helios)the closest star to Earth. It is a giant ball of gas without any solid surface.






9. The innermost zone of Earth. It consists of two parts & an outer liquid section and an inner solid section & both chiefly of iron and nickel with about 10 percent lighter elements. It is surrounded by the mantle.






10. 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.






11. A measure of the strength of an earthquake based on the amount of movement recorded by a seismograph . compare Richter scale.






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






13. Bent rock strata.






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






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






16. 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.






17. The very slow & generally continuous downslope movement of soil and debris under the influence of gravity.






18. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






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






20. The geologic eon lying between the Archean and Phanerozoic eons & beginning about 2.5 billion years ago and ending about 0.57 billion years ago.






21. A sedimentary rock composed primarily of biogenic sediments.






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






23. Plutonic. Antonym of extrusive. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed by the emplacement of magma in pre-existing rocks.






24. 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






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






26. A rock that has crystallized from a molten state.






27. Living on land.






28. Flat land covered with tall grass and wildflowers.






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






30. The zone below the zone of aeration in which all pore spaces are filled with water.






31. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






32. 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.






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






34. A portable time keeper with a mechanism for ensuring accuracy and adjusting itself & used for determining longitude at sea.






35. 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.






36. The concept of a sequence of events involving the formation & alteration & destruction and reformation of rocks as a result of geologic processes.






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






38. 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.






39. A type of disintegration in which jointed rock is forced apart by the expansion of water as it freezes in fractures.






40. The study of earthquakes & and of the structure of the Earth by both natural and artificially generated seismic waves.






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






42. Either the northern or southern half of the Earth as divided by the equator & or the eastern or western half as divided by a meridian.






43. Enormous & thick sheets of rock that are part of the Earth's upper mantle that move and adjoin each other along zones of seismic activity. Many tectonic plates extend underneath both continents and sea floor.






44. A chuck of rock or dust in space.






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






46. The reflection of light on a given mineral's surface & classified by intensity and quality.






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






48. In the geologic time scale a unit of time less than an era and greater than an epoch. Example: The Tertiary period was the earliest period in the Cenozoic era and included & among others & the Eocene epoch.






49. Living on land.






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