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 first scientist to make systematic use of the telescope in looking at the heavens.






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






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






4. 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.






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






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






7. A rigid segment of the Earth's lithosphere that moves horizontally and adjoins other plates along zones of seismic activity. Plates may include portions of both continents and ocean basins.






8. 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.






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






10. Any porous and permeable rock that yields oil or natural gas.






11. 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.






12. Bent rock strata.






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






14. 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 &






15. A group of stars that appear to make a pattern in the sky. The Big Dipper is a constellation.






16. A measure of acidity.






17. The formation & advance and retreat of glaciers and the results of these activities.






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






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






20. 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.






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






22. The condition of equilibrium & comparable to floating & of units of the lithosphere above the asthenosphere.






23. 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.






24. A group of islands; an expanse of water with scattered islands.






25. The process by which ocean floors spread laterally from crests of main ocean ridges. As material moves laterally from the ridge & new material replaces it along the ridge crest by welling upward from the mantle.






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






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






28. The height of a place above sea level.






29. A rock changed from its original form and/or composition by heat & pressure &shearing stress & or chemically active fluids & or some combination of them.






30. A thick layer of soil.






31. 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.






32. The sudden fall of one or more large pieces of a rock from a cliff.






33. A ridge of high water associated with a hurricane and which floods over the shore .






34. A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano & through Which magma has passed.






35. Mars is named after the Roman god of war. It is the fourth planet from the Sun.






36. Living parts of the environment that can renew or replace themselves.






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






38. A downward distortion or dimple in the water table that forms as a well pumps water faster than it can flow through the aquifer.






39. Heat transport by direct transfer of energy from one particle to another & without moving the particle to a new location.






40. A layer of sedimentary rock; plural is strata.






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






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






43. An area of land that delivers runoff water & sediment & and dissolved substances to surface water bodies & such as rivers or lakes. All watersheds consist of boundaries & a basin and collection areas.






44. A worldwide change in sea level & such as caused by melting glaciers.






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






46. The process of removing metal from ore.






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






48. (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.






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






50. Any place where bedrock is visible on the surface of the Earth.