Test your basic knowledge |

Subject : science
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
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  • Match each statement with the correct term.
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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. Materials that easily transform into gas at the relatively low temperatures found at the Earth's surface.






2. Refers to the proportions of different chemicals making up the rock - and thus the proportion chemicals affects the proportions of different minerals constituting the rock.






3. A solid in which atoms are not arranged in an orderly pattern. Forms when a liquid freezes so fast that atoms do not have time to organize into an orderly pattern.






4. Process occurring after sediment has been compacted - can then be bounded together to make coherent sedimentary rock. Binding material consists of minerals (commonly quartz or calcite).






5. A reaction during which an element loses electrons - commonly takes place when elements combine with oxygen.






6. Active hot-spot volcanoes commonly occur at the end of a chain of dead volcanoes.






7. The most important mineral group; comprise the most rock-forming minerals - they are very abundant due to large % of silicon and oxygen in Earth's crust. Examples - oxygen - silica - aluminum.






8. A reference to the sinking of the lithosphere; allows for sediment to accumulate in regions where this occurs.






9. The layering nature of sedimentary rocks - surface features of layers formed during deposition - and the arrangement of grains within layers.






10. Distinguishing feature of magma; the composition of the melt reflects the composition of the solid from which it was derived. Not all magmas form from the same source rock - therefore not all magmas have the same compositions.






11. The burial and lithification of angular or rounded clasts form these types of rocks.






12. Magma type; contains about 52% to 66% silica. Name indicates that these magmas have a composition between that of felsic and mafic magma.






13. The angle between the direction that a compass needle points at a given location and the direction of the 'true' (geographic) north. Through this process - the magnetic poles never stray more than 15 degrees of latitude from the geographic pole.






14. Consists of rock and sediment that has been modified by physical and chemical interaction with organic material and rainwater - over time - to produce a substrate that can support the growth of plants.






15. Rocks whose crystals interlock with each other.






16. The supercontinent; existence proposed by Wegener - suggested that the supercontinent later fragmented into separate continents that then drifted apart - moving slowly to their present positions.






17. Volcanoes that exist as isolated points and appear to be independent of movement at a plate boundary - hot-spot volcanoes. Mostly are located on the interior of plates - away from boundaries.






18. Occurs within the asthenosphere - actively drags plates along and attributes partially for the mechanism shifting the plates along the Earth's surface.






19. Mineral class; consist of metal cations bonded by oxygen anions. Examples - hematite and magnetite. Some contain a relatively high proportion of metal atoms - and thus are ore minerals.






20. Develops because mid-ocean ridges lie at a higher elevation than the adjacent abyssal plains of the ocean. The surface of the sea floor overall slopes away from the ridge axis. Gravity causes the elevated lithosphere at the ridge axis to push on the






21. Type of volcanic eruption; takes place when water gains access to the hot rock around the magma chamber and suddenly transforms into steam - a pyroclastic eruption involving the reaction of water with magma.






22. Process that occurs after the sediment has been buried - pressure cause by the overburden squeezes out water and air that had been trapped between clasts - and the clasts press together tightly.






23. Low-viscosity (basaltic) lava flows out of a volcano easily - whereas high-viscosity (andesitic and rhyolitic) lava can clog and build pressure within a volcano. Basaltic eruptions are typically effusive and produce shield volcanoes - whereas rhyolit






24. Rock formations still attached to the Earth's crust.






25. Cause of melting; magma can also form at locations where chemicals called volatiles mix with hot mantle rock. Elements such as water and carbon dioxide mix with hot rock - helping to break chemical bonds - so that if you add volatiles to a solid - ho






26. Chemical weathering during Which minerals dissolve into water.






27. The absorption of water into the crystal structure of minerals - causes some minerals to expand.






28. Breaks intact rocks into unconnected grains or chunks - collectively called debris or detritus. Grain size from largest to smallest: boulders - cobbles - pebbles - sand - silt - mud/clay.






29. Volcanic landform; steep walled depression at the summit - size exceeds one kilometer in diameter.






30. The force that subducting plates apply to oceanic lithosphere at a convergent boundary - arises simply because lithosphere formed 10 million years ago is denser than asthenosphere - so it can sink into the asthenosphere. Thus once an oceanic plate st






31. A sediment-filled depression; in an area where the lithosphere has subsided.






32. A thick accumulation of sediment (10-15km) - the surface of this sediment layer is this broad - shallow region.






33. The transformation of loose sediment into solid rock.






34. A plate boundary at which one plate slips along the side of another plate. No new plate is formed and no old plate is consumed. But the grinding between the plates generates frequent and destructive earthquakes.






35. Mineral crystal formation type; form at interfaces between the physical and biological components of the Earth system by this process.






36. Equant - meaning that they have the same dimensions in all directions. Or inequant - meaning their dimensions are not the same in all directions.






37. Type of soil; forms directly from underlying bedrock.






38. The combination of processes that separate rock or regolith from its substrate and carry it away. Involves abrasion - plucking - scouring - and dissolution - and is caused by air - water or ice.






39. An insulated - tunnel-like conduit through which lava moves within a flow.






40. Mineral class; consist of pure masses of a single metal - with metallic bonds. Copper and gold can appear in this way.






41. The injection of magma within the magma chamber and conduit generates an outward pressure within the volcano. The presence of gas within the magma increases this pressure - as gas expands greatly as it rises toward the Earth's surface. Rhyolitic and






42. Aggregates of mineral crystals or grains - and masses of natural glass; a coherent - naturally occurring solid - consisting of an aggregate of minerals or a mass of glass.






43. An intrusion starting to inject between layers but then dome upwards - creating this blister-shaped intrusion.






44. A single - continuous (uninterrupted) piece of a crystalline solid bounded by flat surfaces called crystal faces that grew naturally as the mineral formed. Come in a variety of shapes - cubes - trapezoids - pyramids - octahedrons - hexagonal columns






45. Magma type; contains only about 38% to 45% silica. Extreme form of mafic magma.






46. Two different minerals which have the same composition but have different crystal structures.






47. A mineral's growth that is uninhibited - has well-formed crystal faces.






48. Forms when clots of lava fly into the air in lava fountains and then freeze to form solid chunks before hitting the ground. Some forms when the explosion of a volcano shatters preexisting rock and ejects the fragments over the countryside.






49. Form from grains that break off preexisting rock and become cemented together - or from minerals that precipitate out of a water solution.






50. Mineral group; feldspars - quartz - muscovite - clay minerals.