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






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






3. 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






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






5. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion & alternating compression and expansion & in the direction of wave propagation. It is the fastest seismic wave. compare S-wave .






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






7. The remains of an extremely massive star pulled into a small volume by the force of gravity.






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






9. 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.






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






11. 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 &






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






14. 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.






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






16. All of space and everything in it.






17. An eruption of lava that takes place from a fracture & usually without producing a cone.






18. Glacial deposits laid down directly by glaciers or laid down in lakes & ocean & or streams as result of glacial activity.






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






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






21. A curved belt of volcanic islands lying above a subduction zone.






22. 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.






23. The surface between the zone of saturation and the zone of aeration.






24. Forms along a coast as wave erosion cuts through a headland.






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






26. 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.






27. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






28. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






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






30. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






31. An instrument that detects & magnifies & and records vibrations of the Earth & especially earthquakes.






32. A measure of acidity.






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






34. The process of mountain building.






35. 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.






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






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






38. A floating ice sheet extending across water from a land-based glacier.






39. 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.






40. The zones of seismic activity long which plates are in contact.






41. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion & alternating compression and expansion & in the direction of wave propagation. It is the fastest seismic wave. compare S-wave .






42. The distance light travels through a vacuum in one year.






43. The Sun with all the celestial bodies that revolve around it.






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






45. 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.






46. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






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






48. 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






49. A river that is able to maintain its flow through a desert because of water received from outside the desert.






50. A mound or ridge of sediment deposited by a glacier.