The Earth: What's Right; What's Wrong? Quiz

Answer: True

94% of the water on the world is saline water in oceans and seas. 4.34% is accounted for by ground water, 1.65% by glaciers and ice caps (the fresh water has been "locked" in them since the Ice Age, and hasn't had the chance to mix with the saline water of the oceans). Only 0.01% of the world's water is present in rivers and lakes, and miniscule quantities are present in the form of water vapour in the atmosphere.

Answer: False

In fact, diamond is a metamorphic mineral, formed as a result of the application of immense heat and pressure on graphite inside the earth. Both diamond and graphite are forms of carbon.

Answer: False

That continent, in fact, is called 'Pangaea'. Around 300 million years ago, it began to split up, resulting in the formation of *two* mega-continents, Laurasia (which included North America, Greenland and Eurasia) in the north and Gondwanaland (which included Antarctica, South America, Africa, India and Australia) in the south.

The name 'Gondwanaland' was coined by Eduard Suess, after an Indian tribe called the 'Gonds'.

Answer: True

Fold mountains are mountains formed as a result of the collision of two tectonic plates. The Himalayas were formed by the Indo-Australian plate moving rapidly northward and colliding with the Eurasian plate. Even today India is moving north steadily at the rate of 25 mm per year, and so the Himalayas are still rising!

Answer: False

No, even though Aristotle said so, the Earth isn't flat, though it isn't spherical either. It is, in fact, flattened slightly at the poles and bulges at the equator, like when you squish an orange from the top. And so the radius of the earth at the equator is 43 km (27 miles) greater than what it is at the poles. The Earth's shape is said to be "geoid" or an "oblate spheroid".

Answer: False

Actually, the figure is slightly more modest, water actually covers around 2/3rd (70% approx.) of the Earth's surface. (Logically, our planet should be called "Water", and not "Earth"!) The Pacific Ocean dominates almost half of the earth's surface.

Answer: False

The majority of the Earth's atmosphere is actually constituted of nitrogen (78%), while oxygen forms just 21%. Argon (0.9%) and carbon dioxide (0.033%) are respectively in third and fourth place.

Answer: True

The plants' roots penetrate into cracks in rocks, and use the minerals in them for their metabolic processes. This causes the rocks to break down (biological weathering), and is an important factor in the formation of soil. Burrowing animals such as moles and some rabbits also contribute to the break-down of rocks.

Answer: True

The asthenosphere is present 100-200 km below the Earth's surface. It is on this layer that the Earth's tectonic plates move. The asthenosphere is comparatively less dense than the underlying lower mantle.

Answer: False

Rain-water is actually always slightly acidic in nature. 0.03 to 0.04% of the Earth's atmosphere is composed of carbon dioxide. As the rain comes down, some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide gets dissolved in it, forming dilute acid, and hence making the rain-water slightly acidic.

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I hope this quiz was fun and interesting!