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 generally dark & more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil & so well decomposed that the original sources cannot be identified.






2. A natural open space underground & large enough for a person to enter. Most commonly occur by the dissolution of soluble rocks & generally limestone.






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






4. A mudflow composed chiefly of pyroclastic material on the flanks of a volcano.






5. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






6. A broad & deep & generally straight furrow carved in bed rock by the abrasive action of debris embedded in a moving glacier. Larger and deeper than a glacial striation.






7. A cavity in a lava & formed by the entrapment of a gas bubble during solidification of the lava.






8. Deserts formed by blocking moisture-bearing winds with mountain barriers.






9. The layer of gases (air) & that surrounds a planet or moon.






10. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






11. 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.






12. Mountains & characterized by extensive folding and thrust faulting & that form at convergent plate boundaries on continents.






13. A supercontinent that existed from the the end of the Permian to the Jurassic & 300 to 200 million years ago & assembled from large continents like Euramerica & Gondwana & and Siberia & as well as smaller landmasses like the Cathaysian and Cimmerian






14. A large area with common features that set it apart from other areas.






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






16. An astronomical instrument for measuring angles & primarily altitude of celestial bodies to determine latitude.






17. Living parts of the environment that can renew or replace themselves.






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






19. An ingredient in a food or other substance that nourishes or promotes growth.






20. Named after the Roman god of the sea. It is the eighth planet from the Sun.






21. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






22. The generally dark & more or less stable part of the organic matter in a soil & so well decomposed that the original sources cannot be identified.






23. 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.






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






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






26. The symbol used on a map to indicate directions & both cardinal and ordinal.






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






28. A hole or basin cut into bedrock of a stream by the abrasive action of pebbles and sand swirled by turbulent stream flow.






29. Either the northern or southern half of the Earth as divided by the equator & or the eastern or western half as divided by a meridian.






30. A narrow & elongate region in which one lithospheric plate descends relative to another.






31. A broad & deep & generally straight furrow carved in bed rock by the abrasive action of debris embedded in a moving glacier. Larger and deeper than a glacial striation.






32. Evidence in rock of the presence of past life & such as a dinosaur bone & an ancient clam shell & or the footprint of a long-extinct animal as well as life history artifacts.






33. As applied to glacier ice & the process by which ice below the snow line is wasted by evaporation and melting.






34. A fracture or zone of fractures along the boundaries of tectonic plates where movement has taken place.






35. 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.






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






37. 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'.






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






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






40. 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.






41. Destruction of the ozone layer caused by the release of CFC's (chlorofluorocarbons) into the atmosphere which react chemically with ozone and break it down into different gases.






42. A dense & hot (sometimes incandescent) cloud of volcanic ash and gas produced in a Pelean eruption.






43. A tool for measuring the relative clarity of water.






44. To wash or scrub away.






45. A thick layer of soil.






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






47. Extending across a continent.






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






49. A large volume of dust-sized particles lifted high into the atmosphere.






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