Earth Science Trivia

1. About 75,000 years ago, Mt. Rainier reached its maximum height. In which geological period did that occur?

From Quiz Some Geological Parts Of the State of Washington

Answer: Pleistocene

The Pleistocene Period reaches back in time nearly two million years. The Pliocene Period was about 2-10 million years ago, the Miocene approximately 13-16 million, and the Eocene roughly 40-50 million. In 2014 the summit of Mt. Rainer was measured at 14,411 feet, down from the more than 16,000 feet 75,000 years ago. In 1899, Mt. Rainier became the fifth national park in the United States, and in 2014 had over two million visitors.

From Quiz The Most Boring Quiz Ever!

Answer: Water ice.

The MIP provided the first conclusive proof of water on the moon. It was a major victory for India in its space race with China, and it also arrived at the moon shortly before a similar NASA mission. Costing only 58 million dollars, it has been hailed as one of the most cost-effective lunar exploration programs in history. Both the Indian and the NASA missions could be seen as much smaller versions of Project A119, a rejected American Cold War plan to set off a nuclear detonation on the moon that would have been visible to the naked eye.

From Quiz Beware Of Global Cooling!

Answer: Karl Friedrich Schimper

Karl Friedrich Schimper discussed his findings and theories with a contemporary, Louis Agassiz, who later published the theories and related works and claimed them as his own ideas. Schimper, however, was the man who first coined the term "Ice Age."

From Quiz Earth and Sky

Answer: chromium

Chromium, is considered an impurity in Aluminum oxide (Corundum) and Beryllium aluminosilicate (Beryl). However, it gives these gemstones their attractive shades of red and green, respectively. Don't we just adore Dorothy in Chromium Beryllium Silicate City wearing her Chromium aluminium oxide slippers.

From Quiz Ancient Earth!

Answer: Pangea

Pangea was the only continent on the Earth from the late Carboniferous time period until the early - mid Jurassic time period, when it started to break up and slowly form the continents we have today.

From Quiz Plate Tectonics

Answer: Alfred Wegener

Wegener, a German, first published his theory back in 1912, and Du Toit and Holmes were two people who supported it. However, most people thought that his theory was ridiculous, and it met with scepticism. It wasn't until 20 or 30 years after his death (1930) that Wegener's theory was taken seriously. Francis Bacon was an English scientist, who was the first person to notice this, but he and others at the time (early 17th century) discounted the theory, as the idea was considered to be absurd.

From Quiz A Geological Tour of the World

Answer: Erosion

Canyons or gorges are formed when the sediment is continuously eroded by the action of rivers or glaciers. The walls of the canyons are usually made up of harder rocks which are able to resist the erosive action of the water.

From Quiz Punny Geology

Answer: Garnet!

It was dark red and dodecahedral as well. Did I mention that garnet is dense? Actually, conversion of some of the minerals in oceanic crust into garnet is responsible for subducted plates sinking all the way to the core-mantle boundary! So it really would have hurt, that is, if I weren't just making this all up for the purpose of the joke!

From Quiz All About Longitude (1)

Answer: One-Half the Circumference

A meridian is approximately 12,430 miles on Earth.

From Quiz Earth's Spheres: Random Facts

Answer: nickel and iron

Earth's radius measured at the equator is 6378 km, while at the poles it's 6356 km. The internal structure of our planet was discovered by analyzing the compression (P) and shear (S) waves that pass through the Earth after earthquakes. The core is the part of the planet which starts at 2900 km and runs all the way down to the center. The core includes the outer core (2900-5000 km), a liquid molten core of nickel and iron, a transition zone (5000-5200 km) and the inner core (5200-km), a solid core made up of the same two metals. The three parts of the core are delimited by two discontinuities, Lehmann (5000 km) and Oldham-Gutenberg (5200 km). The core's density is 8-12 g/cubic cm.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Earth

Answer: 24

Actually, it is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds.

From Quiz The Cenozoic Era

Answer: Indricotherium

The basilosaurus was an early relative of modern humpback whales. The other two are words I made up.

From Quiz Atmospheric Phenomena

Answer: Rainbows

From Quiz Challenging Earth Trivia

Answer: 149,600,000

The actual answer is that on average the Earth is 149,597,870.691 km away from the Sun, or 1 astronomical unit (AU). To put this in perspective if a alien UFO travelled at the speed of 100 miles per hour (160 kph) it would take our little green friends over 100 years to go 1 AU.

From Quiz Geology 101: The Rock Cycle

Answer: Erosion

One type of erosion is the freeze-thaw erosion. This happens when water seeps into cracks and we all know when water freezes, it expands. This makes the crack bigger so next time, even more water seeps in and freezes, and pieces can break away.

From Quiz Why on Earth?

Answer: Because the Earth's axis is tilted relative to the orbital plane.

Most globes you see do not have the Earth spinning on an axis pointed straight at the ground. Usually it's angled at about 23 degrees. This is to better reflect reality, where the Earth has an axial tilt (most planets do, to varying degrees). In the winter, the axis points away from the sun, and in the summer, the axis points towards the sun. This will change how much sun any given part of the Earth will experience during the day. It's also why the sun goes overhead in summer, while in winter it sometimes seems to barely get over the horizon. Near the equator, there is not much noticeable change. Farther away, the Earth experiences seasons and different amounts of daylight. It can become so extreme near the poles that in summer, daylight can last a whole month, and in winter there is a month-long night. The opposite ends of the Earth experience the opposite effects. If it is winter in the northern hemisphere, then it is summer in the southern hemisphere. If the north is experiencing spring and getting ready for warm weather, then those in the south are going through fall, and are bundling up. If the Earth did not have its tilt, then the weather and climate would not change throughout the year. It would always be hot at the equator and get gradually, predictably colder the closer you got to the poles.

From Quiz Some Geological Parts Of the State of Washington

Answer: A dark fine grained igneous volcanic rock

Basalt is a dark volcanic rock that is mostly labradorite and pyroxene. Bauxite is a volcanic rock primarily made of aluminum oxide. Granite is an igneous rock that consists mostly of feldspar and quartz. And schist is a metamorphic rock containing mica.

From Quiz The Most Boring Quiz Ever!

Answer: They provide geothermal heat to over 80% of the buildings in Iceland.

Iceland derives almost all of its energy from geothermal and hydroelectric power, making it one of the least fossil-fuel dependent nations in the world. Iceland's position in a highly geologically-active region makes it uniquely well-suited for geothermal power. In addition, geothermal energy works best in cold countries like Iceland, where hot water can be piped directly to houses, rather than being inefficiently converted to electricity and then back to heat. Although no other country remotely approaches Iceland in terms of percent of energy derived from geothermal, both China and the United States produce far more geothermal energy in absolute terms.

From Quiz Earth and Sky

Answer: Cygnus

This nebula, which many people think roughly resembles an outline of North America, is found close to the bright star Deneb in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan (a.k.a. Northern Cross). Its New General Catalog number is 7000 (NGC 7000). It is relatively large (about four times the size of the full moon) but so dim that binoculars and very dark skies are even needed to observe it as a fuzzy patch. Time exposure photographs with a UHC filter help to bring out its unique shape. It's distance is not known with any certainty, but some astronomers estimate it is close to 1800 light years away.

From Quiz Ancient Earth!

Answer: The large northern continent created by the breakup of Pangea.

"Laurasia" as defined by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary: Main Entry: Lau·ra·sia Pronunciation: lȯ-ˈrā-zhə, -shə Function: geographical name hypothetical land area believed to have once connected the landmasses of the northern hemisphere except for the Indian subcontinent

From Quiz Plate Tectonics

Answer: Pangaea

Both Laurasia and Gondwanaland are the names for the continents that formed after the separation of Pangaea. Laurasia is the name for the North American, European and Asian parts, and Gondwanaland is the name for the Indian, African, South American and Antartican part. Nazca is the name of a plate that exists to the west of South America.

From Quiz All About Longitude (1)

Answer: Unmeasurable; Degrees of longitude converge at the poles

The 360 degrees of longutude converge to a single point at the poles.

From Quiz Caves

Answer: Karst

Karst is from the Slovenian "rocky place". Karst areas have soluble bedrock, cracks and water. The slightly acidic rain and surface water is able to dissolve and erode small amounts of rock and carry them away. When water gets into cracks, it dissolves the rock and forms caves and caverns. The Yorkshire Dales, Burren (Co. Claire, Ireland) and Gottesackerplateau (Germany) are all examples of Karst landscapes.

From Quiz Earth's Spheres: Random Facts

Answer: 2900 km

The mantle begins at the lower limit of the crust. It is also divided into two layers, separated by a transition zone. The lower mantle extends from the Repetti discontinuity (980 km) to the mantle-core boundary, marked by the Gutenberg discontinuity (2900 km). It is mostly solid. The transition zone is located between the Jeffreys (410 km) and Repetti discontinuities. Above comes the upper mantle, made out of liquid molten material, with an average density of 5 g/ cubic cm.

From Quiz Twenty Questions About Earth

Answer: Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy, who wrote the Almagest. He was born about 85 A.D. in Egypt and died about 165 in Alexandria, Egypt. The Almagest gives in detail the mathematical theory of the motions of the Sun, Moon, and planets. His geocentric theory stood unchallenged for about 1400 years.

From Quiz The Cenozoic Era

Answer: Andrewsarchus

Placental mammals are those that carry their young in the womb.

This is category 64
Last Updated Apr 13 2024 5:44 AM

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.