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






2. The way in which a rock or mineral breaks in random patterns rather than cleaving






3. The sudden fall of one or more large pieces of a rock from a cliff.






4. A large & basin-shaped volcanic depression & more or less circular in form. Typically steep-sided & found at the summit of a shield volcano.






5. Elongated rises on the ocean floor where basalt periodically erupts & forming new oceanic crust.






6. A seismic body wave that involves particle motion from side to side & perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. S-waves are slower than P-waves and cannot travel through a liquid.






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






8. 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.






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






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






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






12. A measure of acidity.






13. No identifiable layers of minerals in a rock sample






14. The uprush of a wave onto the beach followed by the return flow of the water down the beach slope in the intervals between waves.






15. 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.






16. Jupiter is named after the Roman king of the gods. It is the fifth planet from the Sun.






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






18. The line that separates one drainage basin from another.






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






20. An area subject to dust storms & especially south central United States .






21. A unit of length used in sea navigation based on the length of 1 minute of arc on a great circle. On Earth & 1 minute of latitude.






22. That portion of the resources for a valuable mineral commodity that can be extracted from the Earth at a profit today.






23. 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.






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






25. Igneous. Antonym of intrusive. Synonym of volcanic. Pertaining to igneous rocks or features formed from lava released on the Earth's surface.






26. A cyclical pattern of movement in a fluid body such as the ocean & the atmosphere & or the Earth's mantle & driven by density variations which in turn are the result of differences in temperature from one part of the fluid to another.






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






28. A steep-sided rounded extrusion of highly viscous lava squeezed out from a volcano and forming a dome-shaped or bulbous mass above and around the volcanic vent. The structure generally develops inside a volcanic crater.






29. A person who makes maps.






30. A division of geologic time next shorter than a period. Example: the Pleistocene epoch is in the Quaternary period.






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






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






33. Highly mafic igneous volcanic rock & typically fine-grained and dark in color; rough volcanic equivalent of gabbro. Basalt is the most abundant volcanic rock in the Earth's crust.






34. The outermost part of the core. It is liquid & about 1 &700 km thick & and separated from the inner & solid core by a transition zone about 565 km thick.






35. A chuck of rock or dust in space.






36. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






37. A vent in the surface of the Earth & from which lava & ash & and gases erupt.






38. A system that uses a constellation of 24 satellites & their ground stations & and individual GPS receivers to accurately locate points on Earth.






39. A collection of maps.






40. A sedimentary rock composed of combustible matter derived from the partial decomposition of plant material.






41. Soil conditions prevailing in area whose mean annual temperature is 0o C.






42. A stone or boulder & glacially transported from place of origin and left in an area of different bedrock composition.






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






44. He area from which a stream and its tributaries receives its water.






45. 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 .






46. A ridge of high water associated with a hurricane and which floods over the shore .






47. A type of disintegration in which jointed rock is forced apart by the expansion of water as it freezes in fractures.






48. Shapes & like mountains or hills that make up the Earth's surface.






49. 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.






50. A stone or boulder & glacially transported from place of origin and left in an area of different bedrock composition.