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 area immediately below the ground surface within which pore spaces are partially filled with water and partially filled with air.






2. The outermost layer of the Earth & varying in thickness from about 10 kilometers (6 miles) below the oceans & to 65 kilometers (about 40 miles) below the continents; represents less than 1 percent of the Earth's volume.






3. The line separating land and water.






4. Glacial drift composed of rock fragments that range from clay to boulder size and randomly arranged without bedding.






5. A valley carved by glacier erosion and whose cross-valley profile has steep sides and a nearly flat floor & suggestive of a large letter 'you'.






6. All unconsolidated materials above bedrock. Natural earthy materials on the Earth's surface & in places modified or even made by human activity & containing living matter & and supporting or capable of supporting plants out of doors.






7. Weathering processes that are the result of chemical reactions. Example: the transformation of orthoclase to kaolinite.






8. A sedimentary rock composed primarily of biogenic sediments.






9. Temporary accumulations of sediments that collect between low and high water marks.






10. The acidity in rain due to gases from internal combustion engines and coal- and oil-burning power plants.






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






12. A minor tremor that precedes an earthquake. An increase in seismicity may signal that a major release of strain energy is about to occur.






13. Imaginary lines on a map or globe that measure distance in degrees east or west of the prime meridian. Longitude lines extend vertically & from pole to pole on a globe.






14. Any natural concentration of a valuable material in the Earth's crust & whether that material can be extracted profitably or not.






15. 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.






16. An accumulation of wind driven sand into a distinctive shape.






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






18. Containing moisture.






19. A zone in the Earth between 400 and 670 km below the surface separating the upper mantle from the lower mantle.






20. The straightening and/or deepening of a river channel.






21. A community of plants and/or animals and its physical environment & regarded as a unit.






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






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






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






25. A glaciated valley now flooded by the sea.






26. The two days of the year on which the noon sun is directly overhead at either 23.5






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






28. The sum of the processes that result in the wearing away or the progressive lowering of the Earth's surface by weathering & erosion & mass wasting & and transportation.






29. The process by which building stone & usually in blocks or sheets & is extracted from the Earth. radiation -- (Electromagnetic radiation) -- energy that travels through space in the form of waves without the intervention of matter & as in the transp






30. A steep-sided rounded extrusion of highly viscous lava squeezed out from a volcano and forming a dome-shaped or bulbous mass above and around the volcanic vent. The structure generally develops inside a volcanic crater.






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






32. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






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






34. 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.






35. The closest star to Earth besides the sun. It is approximately 4 light years away.






36. Temporary accumulations of sediments that collect between low and high water marks.






37. A coral reef separated from the mainland by a lagoon.






38. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






39. Water beneath the Earth's surface.






40. The acidity in rain due to gases from internal combustion engines and coal- and oil-burning power plants.






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






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






43. The breaking away of ice from the front of the glacier when it ends in a lake or an ocean. Produces icebergs.






44. A soft compact calcite & CaCO3 & with varying amounts of silica & quartz & feldspar & or other mineral impurities & generally gray-white or yellow-white and derived chiefly from fossil seashells.






45. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion from side to side & perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves and cannot travel through a liquid.






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






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






48. A flat & dry plain covered with short grass.






49. A post of dripstone growing up from a cave floor.






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