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. An eon of geologic time extending from about 3.9 billion years to 2.5 billion years ago.






2. The geologic eon lying between the Archean and Phanerozoic eons & beginning about 2.5 billion years ago and ending about 0.57 billion years ago.






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






4. Any natural concentration of a valuable material in the Earth's crust & whether that material can be extracted profitably or not.






5. An isolated & steep-sided & rocky mass or island just offshore from a rocky headland & usually on a shore platform.






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






7. 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.






8. 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.






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






10. A molecule composed of three atoms of oxygen and mostly found in the stratosphere. Though beneficial in the upper atmosphere & at ground level & ozone is called photochemical smog & and is a respiratory irritant and considered a pollutant.






11. A division of geologic time next smaller than the eon and larger than a period. Example: The Paleozoic era is in the Phanerozoic eon and includes & among others & the Devonian period.






12. An individual grain or constituent of a rock.






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






14. The areas of & in & or constituting a city.






15. A period of dryness & that when prolonged & causes damage to crops; a shortage of water.






16. The persistence of wind-formed waves after wind ceases.






17. 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.






18. To preserve & or to avoid wasteful use.






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






20. Geologic time expressed in years before the present.






21. A rigid segment of the Earth's lithosphere that moves horizontally and adjoins other plates along zones of seismic activity. Plates may include portions of both continents and ocean basins.






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






23. The method of locating an epicenter by determining how far it lies from three widely separated seismographs.






24. 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.






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






26. A famous scientist who proposed that the Sun was the center of the solar system not the Earth. (Heliocentrism)






27. The environment where a particular plant or animal is normally found.






28. The green pigment in the cells of many plants that enables them to use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into carbohydrates in the process called photosynthesis.






29. Any solid material that has settled out of a state of suspension in liquid.






30. A large amount of gas and dust in space & spread out in an immense volume.






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






32. The processes (mechanical and chemical) responsible for the wearing away & loosening & and dissolving of materials of the Earth's crust.






33. A segment of an active fault zone that has not experienced a major earthquake during a time period when most other segments of the zone have. They are generally regarded as having a higher potential for future earthquakes.






34. 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.






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






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






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. The galaxy where Earth is located.






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






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






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






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






43. A coral reef attached directly to the mainland.






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






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






46. An accumulation of wind driven sand into a distinctive shape.






47. Bent rock strata.






48. 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.






49. A sharp bend & loop or turn in a stream's course. When abandoned & it is called a meander scar or an oxbow.






50. 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.