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






2. Long narrow beaches separated in many places from the mainland by lagoons.






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






4. The process by which an unconsolidated deposit of sediments is converted in to solid rock.






5. Deposition of fine mineral particles (silt) on the beds of streams or lakes.






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






7. An atmospheric shield providing the Earth with protection from ultra-violet rays which can cause sun burn & skin cancer and the destruction of the delicate plant life which supports the planet's food chain.






8. The portion of the continental margin that extends as a gently sloping surface from the shoreline seaward to a marked change in slope at the top of the continental slope . Seaward depth averages about 130 m.






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






10. 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.






11. Where two plates collide to form mountains.






12. 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.






13. Distance over which wave-forming winds blow.






14. A segment of an active fault zone that has not experienced a major earthquake during a time period when most other segments of the zone have. They are generally regarded as having a higher potential for future earthquakes.






15. The method of locating an epicenter by determining how far it lies from three widely separated seismographs.






16. The chronological sequence of units of Earth time.






17. A small ice sheet.






18. 1. Breach in a natural levee . 2. Deep crevice or open fracture in glacier ice.






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






20. The elevation at which snow persists throughout the year.






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






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






23. Till deposited from main body of glacier during ablation.






24. 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.






25. A continuous well-defined mass of material of sufficient ore content to make extraction economically feasible. compare mineral deposit.






26. 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.






27. Pertaining to or composed of granite & a coarse-grained igneous rock dominated by light-colored minerals & consisting of about 50 percent orthoclase & 25 percent quartz & and balance of feldspars and ferromagnesian silicates. Granite is commonly foun






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






29. The green pigment in the cells of many plants that enables them to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates in the process called photosynthesis.






30. The height of a place above sea level.






31. 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.






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






33. 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.






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






35. The presence of layers in some rocks caused by parallel alignment of minerals.






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






37. An aggregate of one or more minerals in varying proportions.






38. Rock formed from the accumulation of sediment & Which may consist of fragments and mineral grains of varying sizes from pre-existing rocks & remains or products of animals and plants & the products of chemical action & or mixtures of these.






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






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






41. A measure of acidity.






42. 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.






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






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






45. The tectonic region in which two plates meet.






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






47. A commonly used measure of earthquake magnitude & based on a logarithmic scale. Each integral step on the scale represents a tenfold increase in the extent of ground shaking & as recorded on a seismograph.






48. The vertical distance between the crest and adjacent trough of a wave.






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






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