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






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






3. As applied to glacier ice & the process by which ice below the snow line is wasted by evaporation and melting.






4. The point on the Earth's surface where a magnetic needle points vertically downward (north magnetic pole) or vertically upward (south magnetic pole).






5. The solid innermost part of the core with a diameter of a little over 1 &200 km.






6. A Hawaiian term for a basaltic lava flow with a smooth & or ropy surface.






7. A system that uses a constellation of 24 satellites & their ground stations & and individual GPS receivers to accurately locate points on Earth.






8. A river that is able to maintain its flow through a desert because of water received from outside the desert.






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






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






11. The precipitation that runs directly off the surface to stream or body of standing water.






12. Any accumulation of material & by settling from water or air & chemical precipitation & evaporation from solution & etc.






13. A person who makes maps.






14. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






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






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






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






18. A Hawaiian term for a basaltic lava flow with a smooth & or ropy surface.






19. A pillar formed as a stalactite and stalagmite meet.






20. In a stream & the volume of water passing through a channel in a given time.






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






22. A hot & gaseous & self-luminous celestial body & as the Sun.






23. A commonly used scale of earthquake intensity.






24. 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.






25. The top of a wave.






26. An imaginary circle around the earth that represents the halfway mark between the North and South Poles and establishes the boundary between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.






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






28. Refers to rock or sediments made up primarily of broken fragments of pre-existing rocks or minerals.






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






30. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






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






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






33. A planetary satellite.






34. A process of erosion in which wind carries off particles of dust and sand.






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






36. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






37. 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.






38. Objects revolving around the sun that are too small and too numerous to be considered planets.






39. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






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






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






42. The great circle on the Earth's surface passing through The North and South Poles & which is considered 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian passes through Greenwich & England & and is used as a reference point for measuring longitude east and w






43. The oldest eon in Earth history & extending from the origin of the Earth to about 3.9 billion years ago.






44. 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.






45. The line formed by the intersection of the axial plane of a fold with a bedding plane & marking where the bed shows its maximum curvature.






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






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






48. A thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.






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






50. Property possessed by certain rocks of breaking with relative ease along parallel planes or nearly parallel surfaces in their crystal structures where the bonds are weakest.