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Geology Trivia
Dig into 150 geology trivia questions on rocks, minerals, volcanoes, earthquakes, fossils, and plate tectonics. From the pumice that floats on water to the 12,262-meter Kola Superdeep Borehole, uncover the surprising science written in stone.
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Questions (150 of 150)
๐ดhard
By about how much did the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo cool global average temperatures over the following year?
๐กmedium
What is the term for the basin formed when a volcano collapses into its emptied magma chamber, like the one holding Oregon's Crater Lake?
๐ดhard
The Welcome Stranger, the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found (1869), was unearthed in which Australian state?
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Which Roman writer's eyewitness letters about Vesuvius gave their name to explosive 'Plinian' eruptions?
๐กmedium
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake shifted Japan's main island of Honshu east by roughly how much?
๐กmedium
What is the gem-quality form of olivine, found on Hawaii's green sand beaches and even in meteorites?
๐ขeasy
Which layer of Earth is the thin, rocky outer shell we live on, as thin as 5 km under the oceans?
๐ดhard
Inge Lehmann's landmark 1936 paper revealing Earth's inner core had one of the shortest titles in science. What was it?
๐ขeasy
What did the Richter scale, introduced in 1935, measure?
๐ขeasy
Which black fossil fuel rock formed from plants buried in ancient swamps about 300 million years ago?
๐ขeasy
What do we call the preserved remains or traces of ancient life found in rock, such as a dinosaur footprint?
๐กmedium
Which 1815 volcanic eruption caused 1816's 'Year Without a Summer' in Europe and North America?
๐ขeasy
Which metamorphic rock, formed from limestone, did Michelangelo carve his statue of David from?
๐ดhard
Which mineral occupies position 9 on the Mohs hardness scale?
๐ขeasy
What is the point on Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake begins called?
๐ขeasy
What is the name for the breaking down of rocks in place by rain, ice, wind, and plant roots?
๐ขeasy
What are the giant ocean waves triggered by undersea earthquakes called?
๐ขeasy
What mineral, made of silicon dioxide, is the main ingredient of most beach sand?
๐กmedium
The Jurassic Period is named after the Jura Mountains, which straddle the border of which two countries?
๐กmedium
In 2024, geologists voted against formally adding which proposed epoch, defined by human impact, to the time scale?
๐ขeasy
Which volcano buried the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 AD?
๐ขeasy
What hollow, roundish rock is cracked open to reveal a cavity lined with sparkling crystals like amethyst?
๐กmedium
In 1936, Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann discovered that Earth has what?
๐ขeasy
What type of plate boundary occurs where two tectonic plates are pulling apart?
๐ขeasy
What do we call molten rock once it pours out onto Earth's surface?
๐ดhard
In 1835, Roderick Murchison named which geologic period after the Silures, an ancient tribe of Wales?
๐ดhard
Roughly how wide is the buried Chicxulub impact crater?
๐ดhard
The Cave of the Crystals, home to gypsum crystals up to about 12 m long, lies inside the Naica Mine in which Mexican state?
๐กmedium
Which kind of seismic wave cannot travel through liquid, revealing that Earth's outer core is molten?
๐ขeasy
What is the mineral name for rock salt, the same stuff you sprinkle on your food?
๐กmedium
Charles Lyell's 'Principles of Geology' (1830-33), which Darwin read aboard the Beagle, popularized which idea?
๐ดhard
Measured from its base on the ocean floor, which mountain stands over 10,000 m tall, higher than Everest?
๐ขeasy
What is the innermost part of Earth, a solid ball of iron and nickel about the size of the Moon?
๐ดhard
Benitoite, a rare gem that glows bright blue under UV light, is the official state gem of which US state?
๐ขeasy
Which element is the most abundant in Earth's crust by weight, making up about 46% of it?
๐กmedium
Which group of minerals is the most abundant in Earth's crust, making up roughly half of it?
๐ขeasy
Which Hawaiian volcano is the largest active volcano on Earth by volume?
๐กmedium
Which mineral gave its name to the phenomenon of 'fluorescence'?
๐กmedium
Which Princeton geologist and WWII Navy captain proposed seafloor spreading in 1962?
๐ดhard
The Acasta Gneiss, among the oldest intact rocks on Earth at about 4 billion years, is found in which Canadian territory?
๐ดhard
At roughly what depth does the Gutenberg discontinuity separate Earth's mantle from its outer core?
๐ขeasy
Which volcanic rock is so full of gas bubbles that it can float on water?
๐ขeasy
What is the name of the giant sandstone monolith in central Australia, also known as Ayers Rock?
๐กmedium
The most powerful earthquake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5 in 1960, struck which country?
๐ขeasy
In what year did Mount St. Helens in Washington State violently erupt, blowing off its entire north face?
๐กmedium
What reddish, clay-like rock is the world's main ore of aluminum?
๐กmedium
The boundary between Earth's crust and mantle, the 'Moho', is named after a seismologist from which modern country?
๐กmedium
Which English surveyor produced the first nationwide geological map, of England and Wales, in 1815?
๐ขeasy
Which sedimentary rock, made of cemented sand grains, forms the red arches of Utah's Arches National Park?
๐กmedium
What is the longest mountain range on Earth, stretching about 65,000 km, mostly underwater?
๐ขeasy
Which famous fault runs roughly 750 miles through California, where the Pacific and North American plates grind past each other?
๐กmedium
Diamonds are carried to the surface in volcanic pipes of which rock, named after a South African mining town?
๐ดhard
Earth's inner core is estimated to be roughly as hot as which of these?
๐กmedium
The roughly 40,000 interlocking hexagonal columns of Northern Ireland's Giant's Causeway are made of which rock?
๐กmedium
Which heavy, cube-shaped silvery mineral is the chief ore of lead?
๐ขeasy
What was the name of the supercontinent that began breaking apart about 200 million years ago?
๐ดhard
Which Yellowstone geyser is the world's tallest currently active geyser, with eruptions over 90 m (300 ft)?
๐ดhard
Utah's Bingham Canyon Mine, more than half a mile deep and visible from space, is famous for producing which metal?
๐ขeasy
Which German scientist proposed the theory of continental drift in 1912 but was widely ridiculed during his lifetime?
๐ดhard
Which extinct marine arthropods thrived for about 270 million years before vanishing in the end-Permian extinction?
๐กmedium
What is the world's longest known cave system, with more than 420 miles of surveyed passages in Kentucky?
๐กmedium
Thin golden threads of volcanic glass spun by wind from lava fountains are named after which Hawaiian deity's 'hair'?
๐ขeasy
What is the title of a scientist who studies earthquakes?
๐กmedium
Which period, named after the Latin name for Wales, saw the 'explosion' of complex animal life around 540 million years ago?
๐ขeasy
Which fine-grained metamorphic rock splits into thin sheets and was once used to make school chalkboards?
๐ดhard
The Burgess Shale, discovered by Charles Walcott in 1909, is in which Canadian province?
๐กmedium
Which mass extinction about 252 million years ago, 'the Great Dying', wiped out roughly 90% of marine species?
๐ขeasy
Which type of rock forms when molten magma or lava cools and hardens?
๐ขeasy
Which canyon, carved by the Colorado River, exposes rocks nearly 2 billion years old at its bottom?
๐กmedium
New Mexico's White Sands, the world's largest dune field of its kind, is made of which mineral?
๐ดhard
A tiny inclusion in a Brazilian diamond revealed in 2014 that the mantle may hold vast water inside which mineral?
๐กmedium
What are the tall, thin spires of rock that fill Utah's Bryce Canyon called?
๐ขeasy
Which red gemstone is a variety of the mineral corundum?
๐ดhard
Which seismologist co-developed the moment magnitude scale with Thomas Hanks in 1979?
๐ดhard
Tanzanite, found only in a small area near Mount Kilimanjaro, is a blue variety of which mineral?
๐ขeasy
The Chicxulub crater, left by the asteroid that helped wipe out the dinosaurs, is buried beneath which country?
๐ดhard
How many carats did the rough Cullinan Diamond weigh when it was found in South Africa in 1905?
๐ดhard
Which Neoproterozoic period, roughly 720 to 635 million years ago, is associated with 'Snowball Earth' glaciations?
๐กmedium
Pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning found the first complete plesiosaur skeleton near which English seaside town?
๐กmedium
What is the process that turns loose sediment into solid rock through compaction and cementation?
๐ขeasy
What is a rock called if it contains enough valuable metal to be mined at a profit?
๐ดhard
Painite, once listed by Guinness as the world's rarest gem mineral, was discovered in which country in the 1950s?
๐ดhard
What was the magnitude of the 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska, the most powerful in US history?
๐ดhard
What nickname is given to the markers placed at official Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points?
๐ขeasy
Which Yellowstone geyser, named in 1870, is famous for erupting on a predictable schedule?
๐ขeasy
What scale, created in 1812, ranks minerals from 1 to 10 by how easily they scratch?
๐กmedium
What type of steep, cone-shaped volcano, built from alternating layers of lava and ash, is Japan's Mount Fuji?
๐กmedium
What is the geologic term for the long valley forming where Earth's crust is being pulled apart, like the one splitting East Africa?
๐ดhard
The Ediacaran Period, added in 2004 as the first new geologic period in over a century, is named after hills in which country?
๐ขeasy
What are the icicle-shaped mineral formations that hang down from cave ceilings called?
๐ดhard
Layered mounds built by cyanobacteria, among Earth's oldest fossils at about 3.5 billion years, are called what?
๐ดhard
What kind of unconformity did James Hutton famously observe at Siccar Point, Scotland, in 1788?
๐กmedium
The Challenger Deep, the deepest known point in the ocean at nearly 11,000 m, lies in which trench?
๐ดhard
Parts of Sweden and Finland's Gulf of Bothnia coast are still rising nearly 1 cm per year because of what process?
๐ดhard
What depth did the Kola Superdeep Borehole reach in 1989 before drilling stopped?
๐ขeasy
Which shiny brassy mineral, iron sulfide, is better known as 'fool's gold'?
๐ดhard
Because of Earth's equatorial bulge, which Ecuadorian volcano's summit is the farthest point on Earth's surface from its center?
๐ดhard
Which mineral, also the main component of tooth enamel, sits at 5 on the Mohs scale?
๐กmedium
Emerald is the green gem variety of which mineral?
๐ขeasy
What is the nickname for the horseshoe-shaped zone around the Pacific Ocean that hosts about 75% of Earth's volcanoes?
๐ขeasy
What fine-grained sedimentary rock, formed from compacted mud and clay, is often fracked for oil and natural gas?
๐ขeasy
What is the thick layer of hot rock between Earth's crust and core that makes up about 84% of Earth's volume?
๐ดhard
What was the magnitude of the earthquake that triggered the collapse of Mount St. Helens' north flank on May 18, 1980?
๐ดhard
Zircon crystals about 4.4 billion years old, the oldest known pieces of Earth, were found in the Jack Hills of which Australian state?
๐ดhard
Which crewed submersible discovered the first deep-sea hydrothermal vents near the Galรกpagos Islands in 1977?
๐กmedium
What is the name of the wind-blown silt that blankets China's plateau and gives the Yellow River its color?
๐ดhard
Mponeng in South Africa, the world's deepest mine at nearly 4 km, is dug to extract which resource?
๐กmedium
Yosemite's 3,000-foot El Capitan, a mecca for rock climbers, is a monolith of which rock?
๐ขeasy
What black volcanic glass was used by the Aztecs to make blades sharper than modern steel scalpels?
๐ดhard
What high-pressure form of silica, found at Arizona's Meteor Crater in 1960, proved the crater was made by an impact?
๐ดhard
The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes were so strong they briefly made which river appear to flow backward?
๐กmedium
Which naturally magnetic iron oxide mineral, as 'lodestone', was used to make the first compasses?
๐กmedium
Which 1883 Indonesian eruption was heard nearly 3,000 miles away, possibly the loudest sound in recorded history?
๐ดhard
Iceland's 1783-84 Laki fissure eruption and the famine that followed killed roughly what share of the island's population?
๐ดhard
About how long ago did Earth's magnetic field last fully reverse, in the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal?
๐กmedium
What name, borrowed from a region of Slovenia, describes landscapes of dissolved limestone full of sinkholes and caves?
๐ขeasy
The Himalayas and Mount Everest were pushed up when India slammed into which tectonic plate?
๐ขeasy
The Hawaiian Islands formed as the Pacific Plate slid over what kind of stationary plume of hot mantle?
๐ขeasy
Which Icelandic volcano's 2010 eruption grounded about 100,000 flights across Europe?
๐ดhard
Rusty-striped rocks called banded iron formations record which event that began around 2.4 billion years ago?
๐กmedium
Crater of Diamonds State Park, where visitors keep any diamonds they find, is in which US state?
๐ขeasy
What slow-moving masses of ice carved the basins of North America's Great Lakes?
๐ดhard
The mineral dolomite and Italy's Dolomites mountains are named after which 18th-century French geologist?
๐ขeasy
What is the branch of geology that studies rock layers and the order in which they were deposited?
๐กmedium
The Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises above sea level in which country, where you can walk between two tectonic plates?
๐กmedium
Which Scottish farmer and naturalist, author of 'Theory of the Earth' (1788), is called the father of modern geology?
๐ดhard
Which supercontinent assembled about 1.1 billion years ago, long before Pangaea?
๐กmedium
What is the partly molten, slowly flowing layer of the upper mantle that tectonic plates glide over?
๐ดhard
Which Caribbean city was destroyed by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelรฉe, leaving a jailed prisoner among its few survivors?
๐ดhard
Roughly how old is the oldest oceanic crust in the open Pacific Ocean?
๐กmedium
What is the name for an isolated, steep-sided, flat-topped hill that is smaller than a mesa?
๐กmedium
Which soft mineral used in pencil 'lead' is pure carbon, just like diamond?
๐ขeasy
What kind of broad, gently sloping volcano is built by runny lava flows, like those in Hawaii?
๐กmedium
Which geologic era is known as the 'Age of Reptiles', when dinosaurs dominated?
๐กmedium
What is the highest possible value on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)?
๐ดhard
Named only in 2014, which lower-mantle mineral is thought to be the single most abundant mineral on Earth?
๐กmedium
Which blood-red mineral was mined for thousands of years as the main ore of mercury?
๐ขeasy
What is the softest mineral on the Mohs scale, so soft you can scratch it with a fingernail?
๐กmedium
The rock at the very summit of Mount Everest is Ordovician limestone that originally formed where?
๐กmedium
The Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest hole ever drilled, is on a peninsula in which country?
๐ขeasy
What is the hardest naturally occurring mineral, scoring a perfect 10 on the Mohs scale?
๐ดhard
What seafloor evidence did Frederick Vine and Drummond Matthews use in 1963 to support seafloor spreading?
๐ขeasy
Which mineral, made of calcium carbonate, is the main component of limestone and fizzes when touched by acid?
๐ขeasy
Roughly how old is planet Earth?
๐กmedium
Which golden 'gem' is actually fossilized tree resin that sometimes traps ancient insects?
๐ขeasy
What soft white sedimentary rock, built from the skeletons of trillions of microscopic algae, forms the White Cliffs of Dover?
๐ดhard
Which eon, spanning Earth's formation to about 4 billion years ago, is named after the Greek underworld?
๐ดhard
Which extremely rare gem was first identified in 1945 from an already-cut stone in a Dublin jeweler's shop?
๐ดhard
Tamu Massif, confirmed in 2013 as one of the largest single volcanoes on Earth, lies beneath which ocean?
๐กmedium
An unusual spike of which element in a thin clay layer led Luis and Walter Alvarez to propose an asteroid killed the dinosaurs?
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