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. A landscape that develops from the action of ground water in areas of easily soluble rocks. It is usually characterized by caves & underground drainage and sinkholes.






2. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






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






4. One of several rock-forming minerals that contain at least 95% silica (quartz). and usually one or more other common elements.






5. The primary division of geologic time which are & from oldest to youngest & the Hadean & Archean & Proterozoic & and Phanerozoic eons.






6. One of several rock-forming minerals that contain at least 95% silica (quartz). and usually one or more other common elements.






7. A general term for a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface & cemented by silica & iron oxide & calcium carbonate & or organic matter.






8. The distance between two successive wave crests or troughs.






9. A device containing a free-swinging magnetic needle that is attracted to Earth's magnetic North Pole. Used to determine direction of travel.






10. An era of time during the Phanerozoic eon lasting from 245 million years ago to 66.4 million ago.






11. The way in which a rock or mineral breaks in random patterns rather than cleaving






12. 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.






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






14. Verifying assessments made from satellite data by doing direct & 'on-the ground' measurements.






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






16. 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.






17. (Latin- Terra & Greek- Gaia) Earth is named after the ancient Germanic Goddess of the soil. It is the third planet from the Sun.






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






19. A cyclical pattern of movement in a fluid body such as the ocean & the atmosphere & or the Earth's mantle & driven by density variations which in turn are the result of differences in temperature from one part of the fluid to another.






20. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






21. Elongated rises on the ocean floor where basalt periodically erupts & forming new oceanic crust.






22. The perpendicular or very steep descent of a stream.






23. The initial point within the Earth that ruptures in an earthquake & directly below the epicenter. The point within the Earth which is the center of an earthquake & at which strain energy is first released and converted to elastic wave energy.






24. The persistence of wind-formed waves after wind ceases.






25. Deep steep-sided depression in the ocean floor caused by the subduction of oceanic crust beneath either other oceanic crust or continental crust.






26. A large area with common features that set it apart from other areas.






27. A measure of the size of an earthquake in terms of the damage it causes.






28. The point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the focus of an earthquake.






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






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






31. The persistence of wind-formed waves after wind ceases.






32. Any seismic wave that travels through the body of Earth & rather than along its surface.






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






34. The physical & chemical & and biological processes by which rock at or near the Earth's surface is broken down into smaller pieces.






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. All of space and everything in it.






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






38. A device built to study distant objects by making them appear closer.






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






40. A disease-causing organism or entity & such as a bacterium or virus.






41. Extending across a continent.






42. A type of volcanic eruption characterized by nuees ardentes and the development of lava domes.






43. Water beneath the Earth's surface.






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






45. A unit of length used in sea navigation based on the length of 1 minute of arc on a great circle. On Earth & 1 minute of latitude.






46. A period of dryness & that when prolonged & causes damage to crops; a shortage of water.






47. 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.






48. 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.






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






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