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. Water that flows across watersheds during and immediately after severe rainstorms. In populated areas & stormwater runoff is often water that cannot be handled by existing sewer systems. Stormwater runoff is the leading source of water pollution in t






2. The great circle on the Earth's surface passing through The North and South Poles & which is considered 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian passes through Greenwich & England & and is used as a reference point for measuring longitude east and w






3. Produced as a wave steepens and falls forward as the wave nears the shore.






4. The naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted at a profit.






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






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






7. A spring whose temperature is 6.5o C or more above mean annual air temperature.






8. A system involving continuous interaction of the solid Earth & the atmosphere & the oceans and living things.






9. A system that uses a constellation of 24 satellites & their ground stations & and individual GPS receivers to accurately locate points on Earth.






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






11. A hydrocarbon (coal or petroleum) that can be extracted from the Earth for use as a fuel. Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy sources.






12. The reserves of a valuable mineral commodity plus all other mineral deposits that may eventually become available & even those that are presumed to exist but have not yet been discovered and those that are not economically or technologically exploita






13. The point on the Earth's surface directly above the focus of an earthquake.






14. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






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






16. The seaward edge of coast between low tide and effective wave action.






17. 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.






18. The great circle on the Earth's surface passing through The North and South Poles & which is considered 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian passes through Greenwich & England & and is used as a reference point for measuring longitude east and w






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






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






21. Living in water.






22. Woodland that usually gets at least 100 inches of rain each year.






23. A sedimentary rock made up of chemical sediments. Example: rock salt.






24. 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.






25. (Latin- Sol & Greek- Helios)the closest star to Earth. It is a giant ball of gas without any solid surface.






26. Highly mafic igneous volcanic rock & typically fine-grained and dark in color; rough volcanic equivalent of gabbro. Basalt is the most abundant volcanic rock in the Earth's crust.






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






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






29. 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.






30. 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.






31. 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.






32. An artificial hill formed by the debris of successive human settlements.






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






34. A substance that produces negatively charged hydroxide ions ( OH- ) in water and reacts with acids to form salts.






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






36. 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.






37. The tectonic region in which two plates meet.






38. The accumulation of material in layers or beds.






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






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






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






42. The tendency of a moving object to continue in a straight line or a stationary object to remain in place.






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






44. The direction & north (normal) or south (reversed) & that a magnetic compass needle points.






45. 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.






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






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






48. 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.






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






50. Applies to igneous rocks that cool on the surface of the Earth & including beneath water; typically with small crystals due to the rapidity of cooling. Synonym of extrusive. Antonym of plutonic.