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






2. The partial or complete blocking from view of one object by another.






3. A general term including both oil and natural gas.






4. A disease-causing organism or entity & such as a bacterium or virus.






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






6. A spring whose temperature is 6.5o C or more above mean annual air temperature.






7. 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.






8. 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 .






9. A rock changed from its original form and/or composition by heat & pressure &shearing stress & or chemically active fluids & or some combination of them.






10. The very small particles of dirt & soot & and other pollutants that are present in the air.






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






12. The partial or complete blocking from view of one object by another.






13. 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.






14. The area bordering a stream over which water spreads when the stream tops its channel banks.






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






16. A narrow strip of land that has water on either side and connects two larger bodies of water.






17. 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.






18. An eruption of lava that takes place from a fracture & usually without producing a cone.






19. Deposits of wind-borne dust.






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






21. A substance that produces negatively charged hydroxide ions ( OH- ) in water and reacts with acids to form salts.






22. A community of plants and/or animals and its physical environment & regarded as a unit.






23. A substance that produces positively charged hydrogen ions (H+) when dissolved in water.






24. 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.






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






26. 1. A mass of sand & gravel & or alluvium deposited on the bed of a stream & sea & or lake & or at the mouth of a stream 2. A unit of pressure & approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.






27. A measure of the size of an earthquake in terms of the damage it causes.






28. Till deposited from main body of glacier during ablation.






29. Open pit mining & typically for coal.






30. 1. Breach in a natural levee . 2. Deep crevice or open fracture in glacier ice.






31. The speed at which water flows.






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






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






34. 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.






35. 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.






36. Lava extruded beneath water characterized by pillow shapes.






37. Saturn is named after the Roman god of the harvest. It is the sixth planet from the Sun.






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






39. 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.






40. The process of one plate descending beneath another.






41. Mercury is named after the Roman messenger of the gods. It is the closest to the Sun.






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






43. A volcano in the shape of a flattened cone & broad and low & built by very fluid flows of basaltic lava.






44. 1. A steep-walled & usually conical depression at the summit or on the flanks of a volcano & resulting from the explosive ejection of material from a vent. 2. A bowl-shaped depression with a raised & overturned rim produced by the impact of a meteori






45. The relationship between distances in the area being mapped and distances in the map itself.






46. Produced as a wave steepens and falls forward as the wave nears the shore.






47. A detailed mathematical description of the cause-and-effect relationships between events that can be used to predict or explain other such events.






48. A vent on the seafloor from which hydrothermal fluids are emitted. Upon mixing with seawater and cooling & the fluids precipitate a cloud of fine-grained sulfide minerals that resembles a cloud of black smoke.






49. 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.






50. The elevation at which snow persists throughout the year.