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






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






3. A natural depression in the surface of the land caused by the collapse of the roof of a cavern or subterranean passage & generally occurring in limestone regions.






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






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






6. 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.






7. A hot & gaseous & self-luminous celestial body & as the Sun.






8. The portion of the continental margin that extends as a gently sloping surface from the shoreline seaward to a marked change in slope at the top of the continental slope . Seaward depth averages about 130 m.






9. The processes of weathering by which physical actions such as frost wedging break down a rock into fragments & involving no chemical change.






10. Water that flows across watersheds during and immediately after severe rainstorms. In populated areas & stormwater runoff is often water that cannot be handled by existing sewer systems. Stormwater runoff is the leading source of water pollution in t






11. A process by which salts accumulate in soil.






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






13. The line separating land and water.






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






15. The speed at which water flows.






16. A mass of ice & formed by the recrystallization of snow & that flows forward & or has flowed at some time in the past.






17. The great circle on the Earth's surface passing through The North and South Poles & which is considered 0 degrees longitude. The prime meridian passes through Greenwich & England & and is used as a reference point for measuring longitude east and w






18. In the geologic time scale a unit of time less than an era and greater than an epoch. Example: The Tertiary period was the earliest period in the Cenozoic era and included & among others & the Eocene epoch.






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






20. Extending across a continent.






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






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






23. Ratio between weight of given volume of material and weight of equal volume of pure water.






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






25. Weathering processes that are the result of chemical reactions. Example: the transformation of orthoclase to kaolinite.






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






27. 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.






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






29. Enormous & thick sheets of rock that are part of the Earth's upper mantle that move and adjoin each other along zones of seismic activity. Many tectonic plates extend underneath both continents and sea floor.






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






31. 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.






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






33. A collection of maps.






34. Scratches & or small channels & gouged by glacier action. Occur on boulders & pebbles & and bedrock. Striations along bedrock indicate direction of ice movement.






35. A minor tremor that precedes an earthquake. An increase in seismicity may signal that a major release of strain energy is about to occur.






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






37. 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.






38. 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.






39. A thickened elevated region of Earth's crust that is mainly (but not entirely) above sea level.






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






41. The resistance of a mineral to scratching & as measured by the Mohs scale.






42. An instrument used to measure the speed of wind.






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






44. Living on land.






45. The pattern of water circulation from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.






46. 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.






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






48. The innermost zone of Earth. It consists of two parts & an outer liquid section and an inner solid section & both chiefly of iron and nickel with about 10 percent lighter elements. It is surrounded by the mantle.






49. (Latin- Terra & Greek- Gaia) Earth is named after the ancient Germanic Goddess of the soil. It is the third planet from the Sun.






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