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






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






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






4. A valley caused by extension of the Earth's crust. Its floor forms as a portion of the crust moves downward along normal faults.






5. 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.






6. Glacial drift composed of rock fragments that range from clay to boulder size and randomly arranged without bedding.






7. That portion of the Earth below the crust and reaching to about 2 &780 km & where a transition zone of about 100 km thickness separates it from the core.






8. The primary division of geologic time which are & from oldest to youngest & the Hadean & Archean & Proterozoic & and Phanerozoic eons.






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






10. A wall built out from the shore & usually at perpendicular to it to trap sand carried by longshore currents .






11. A deposit of partly decayed plant remains in a very wet environment; marsh or swamp deposit of plant remains containing more than 50 percent carbon.






12. 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.






13. The peak flow of water that tops the banks of a stream channel.






14. A permeable region of rock or soil through which ground water can move.






15. Where one plate slides beneath another plate as the two are pushed together & a subduction zone.






16. A sedimentary rock composed primarily of biogenic sediments.






17. Verifying assessments made from satellite data by doing direct & 'on-the ground' measurements.






18. A slide involving a downward and usually sudden movement of newly detached segments of bedrock sliding or slipping over an inclined surface of weakness such as a bedding plane & fault plane & or joint surface.






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






20. A lake in an abandoned meander.






21. A small ice sheet.






22. The closest galaxy to the Milky way. It is approximately 2 million light-years away.






23. Similar to a groin but built to keep sand out of a harbor entrance.






24. A reverse fault on which the dip angle of the fault plane is 15 degrees or less.






25. A roughly circular reef with an occasional small & low & coral sand island surrounding a shallow lagoon.






26. The theory of Plate Tectonics states that the Earth's crust is fragmented into a dozen or more large and small pieces floating on a semi-molten mantle.






27. A guide to reading a map that typically contains distance scales & arrows indicating direction & and/or explanations of symbols used.






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






29. The upper horizons in a soil & through which gravitational moisture travels & removing soluble decomposition products.






30. Lacking in rainfall & very dry.






31. A building that contains one or more telescopes.






32. A method of sediment transport in which the turbulence of a fluid is able to keep particles supported in the fluid.






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






34. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






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






36. Water beneath the Earth's surface.






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






38. The portion of the continental margin that lies between the abyssal plain and the continental slope. The continental rise is underlain by crustal rocks of the ocean basin.






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






40. A lake of lava & usually basaltic & in a volcanic caldera.






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






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






43. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






44. An area in which a large number of windmills have been erected to generate electrical power.






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






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






47. A naturally occurring inorganic solid that has a well-defined chemical composition and in which atoms are arranged in an ordered fashion.






48. A process of land degradation initiated by human activity & particularly in the zones along the margins of deserts.






49. 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.






50. Turbulent stream water flow down a steep gradient & but not as steep as in a waterfall.