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






2. The region of a shore that is covered at high tide and exposed at low tide.






3. The solid innermost part of the core with a diameter of a little over 1 &200 km.






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






5. Uranus is named after the Roman god of the sky. It is the seventh planet from the Sun.






6. The color of a mineral in its powdered form obtained from scraping a sample on a ceramic plate






7. A type of thermal spring which ejects water intermittently with considerable force.






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






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






10. A large ridge or mound-like structure within a body of water that is built by calcareous organisms such as corals & red algae & and bivalves.






11. 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.






12. A rock that has crystallized from a molten state.






13. 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 .






14. Synonym of intrusive. Antonym of volcanic. Applies to igneous rocks formed beneath the surface of the Earth; typically with large crystals due to the slowness of cooling.






15. All of space and everything in it.






16. Pertaining to clastic material formed by volcanic explosion or aerial expulsion from a volcanic vent.






17. To change back and forth uncertainly.






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






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






20. Large area of extremely flat ocean floor lying near a continent and generally over 4 km in depth.






21. 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.






22. A small ice sheet.






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






24. Flat land covered with tall grass and wildflowers.






25. A small & dust-bearing whirlwind.






26. The Earth's crust underlying the ocean basins which is formed at mid-oceanic ridges. It is typically 5 to 10 kilometers thick composed of basalt.






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






28. A general term for a relatively hard layer of soil at or just below the ground surface & cemented by silica & iron oxide & calcium carbonate & or organic matter.






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






30. A plate boundary in which plates on opposite sides of the boundary move past each other in opposite directions. The San Andreas fault of California is a good example.






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






32. 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'.






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






34. The amount of dissolved salt in water.






35. Where two plates are moving in opposite directions as in a mid-ocean ridge.






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






37. A lake in an abandoned meander.






38. Heat extracted from the Earth for use as an power source.






39. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






40. A giant structure that contains hundreds of billions of stars.






41. A person who makes maps.






42. All of space and everything in it.






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






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






45. The process of mountain building.






46. The low spot between two successive waves.






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






48. The mass of an object divided by its volume.






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






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