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






2. A large area of flat or nearly flat land.






3. A ball of ice and dust & whose orbit is a long & narrow ellipse.






4. To change back and forth uncertainly.






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






6. Deserts in zones of descending air between 25 degrees and 30 degrees north and south latitude.






7. An earthquake that follows and has its epicenter near a larger earthquake.






8. The production of living matter by organisms that make food using sunlight or chemicals. Usually expressed as grams of carbon per square meter per year.






9. A volcano in the shape of a flattened cone & broad and low & built by very fluid flows of basaltic lava.






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






11. Pertaining to clastic material formed by volcanic explosion or aerial expulsion from a volcanic vent.






12. A natural open space underground & large enough for a person to enter. Most commonly occur by the dissolution of soluble rocks & generally limestone.






13. A sea level change due to change in load on Earth's crust.






14. The resistance of a mineral to scratching & as measured by the Mohs scale.






15. The rock beneath the soil.






16. Any object that revolves around another object in space.






17. 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.






18. A time of unusual winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean . El Nino generally causes warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures and increased rainfall and storm activity.






19. The partial or complete blocking from view of one object by another.






20. The principle that states the processes operating to change the Earth in the present also operated in the past.






21. A narrow & elongate region in which one lithospheric plate descends relative to another.






22. A narrow & steep-walled depression in the ocean floor & much deeper than the adjacent ocean and associated with a subduction zone.






23. A region of high heat flow on the Earth's surface & thought to lie above a mantle plume .






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






25. A narrow strip of land along the margin of the ocean extending inland for a variable distance from low water mark.






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






27. Soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C.






28. Turbulent stream water flow down a steep gradient & but not as steep as in a waterfall.






29. The part of the crust that directly underlies the continents and continental shelves. Averages about 35 km in thickness & but may be over 70 km thick under largest mountain ranges.






30. Occurs at the intersection of the water table with the ground surface.






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






32. Materials that are found in nature that are useful or necessary for people to live.






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. Molten rock & containing dissolved gases and suspended solid particles. At the Earth's surface & magma is known as lava.






37. The resistance of a mineral to scratching & as measured by the Mohs scale.






38. A process of land degradation initiated by human activity & particularly in the zones along the margins of deserts.






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






40. The layer of gases (air) & that surrounds a planet or moon.






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






42. Similar to a groin but built to keep sand out of a harbor entrance.






43. The weak or 'soft' zone in the upper mantle just below the lithosphere & involved in plate movement and isostatic adjustments. It lies 70 to 100 km below the surface and may extend to a depth of 400 km.






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






45. That portion of the resources for a valuable mineral commodity that can be extracted from the Earth at a profit today.






46. 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.






47. 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.






48. 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.






49. The southern portion of the late Paleozoic supercontinent known as Pangea. It means & literally 'Land of the Gonds' (a people of the Indian subcontinent).The supercontinent existed from Cambrian to Jurassic time & mainly composed of South America &






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