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GeoJeopardy!
Geological Trivia
Over the almost 50 years Jeopardy! has been on the air, it has had numerous geology based questions. Here is a collection of some of them. The green boxes are the categories, the blue boxes were the point values.
To find out the answer please click on the question box.
The answer will then pop-up (you will need to have pop-up's enabled).
The Earth |
$200 |
An atoll is a circular one of these that has grown around a sunken volcanic island
|
The Earth |
$400 |
It's believed the Earth is over 4.5 billion yrs. old, based on 4.6 billion yr. old rocks found on this neighbor |
The Earth |
$600 |
Dolomitization is the process by which this rock, including its fossils, turns into dolomite
|
The Earth |
$800 |
Term given to the tundra's always-frozen soil layer
|
The Earth |
Daily Double |
Until this 19th century French scientist, no one had proved the Earth rotated
|
A Matter of Some Gravity |
$200 |
British scientist Henry Cavendish made the first reliable measurement of gravity late in this century |
A Matter of Some Gravity |
$400 |
NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Lab puts astronauts in a simulation of this condition that's experienced during space flight |
A Matter of Some Gravity |
$600 |
The Sun's gravity is said to perturb, or affect, this path of the Moon relative to the Earth
|
A Matter of Some Gravity |
Daily Double |
Building on the work of Galileo and Kepler, he published the first quantitative theory of gravitation in 1687
|
A Matter of Some Gravity |
$1000 |
There's "gravity" in this term for the point in an object that, if supported, puts the whole object in equilibrium
|
Rock Band |
$200 |
The law of superposition states that any bed of rock must be older than another bed here
|
Rock Band |
$400 |
A 250-million-year, old grayish-white limestone layer of sea fossils is referred to as this canyon's "bathtub ring"
|
Rock Band |
$600 |
The earth's outermost layer of rock, it comes in oceanic & continental types (sorry, no whole wheat)
|
Rock Band |
$800 |
Layers of rock are commonly referred to as these, from the Latin for "something spread out"
|
Rock Band |
$1000 |
Most exposed rock on the earth's surface is this type produced by the weathering & erosion of older rock
|
Volcanoes |
$100 |
Popocatepetl, a volcano near this capital city, is a source of sulfur
|
Volcanoes |
$200 |
Mount Taranaki in this country gets its name from a Maori word for "Barren Mountain" |
Volcanoes |
$300 |
Because of the May 18, 1980 eruption, this Washington volcano is now about 1,300 feet shorter |
Volcanoes |
Daily Double |
Mount Etna is part of this mountain system
|
Volcanoes |
$500 |
Mount Erebus in this continent's Victoria Land region was discovered by Sir James Ross in 1841 |
Where the Wild Things Were |
$200 |
In prehistoric times 10 foot tall "terror birds" ranged over much of this continent, including Patagonia |
Where the Wild Things Were |
$400 |
The shamainu or Honshu type of this canine, died out early in the 20th century
|
Where the Wild Things Were |
$600 |
Though specimens still exist in zoos, the Barbary lion, native to the north of this continent, is extinct in the wild |
Where the Wild Things Were |
$800 |
The Xerces Blue of this insect, native to sand dunes in San Francisco's Sunset District, became extinct in the 1940s |
Where the Wild Things Were |
$1000 |
The bulldog rat disappeared around 1900 from this Aussie-owned island named for a holiday
|
Geology |
$400 |
Corundum makes up much of this rock used to make an abrasive "board"
|
Geology |
$800 |
The sword of Damocles is a large one of these formations in Carlsbad Caverns
|
Geology |
$1200 |
Shatter cones, with radiating fracture lines, are only found at the sites of space object impacts & of these tests |
Geology |
$1600 |
This fancy French word refers to a deep fissure in a glacier
|
Geology |
$2000 |
A giant ocean called Panthalassa once surrounded this supercontinent, whose name means "all earth" |
Volcanoes |
$200 |
The names of 2 types of lava flow, pahoehoe & aa, come from this language
|
Volcanoes |
$400 |
This Indonesian volcano just west of Java erupted in 1883 causing sea waves almost 130 feet high
|
Volcanoes |
$600 |
A 1963 underwater eruption began the formation of the island of Surtsey off this north Atlantic country |
Volcanoes |
$800 |
In Roman mythology, this god of fire's blacksmith shops were located under Mount Etna
|
Volcanoes |
$1000 |
Paricutin Volcano in this country began in a farmer's field in 1943; within 6 days, it had a cinder cone 500 feet high |
Mountains |
$400 |
At 14,433 feet, Colorado's Mount Elbert is the highest peak in this mountain chain
|
Mountains |
$800 |
Lake Kawaguchi is famous for its inverted reflection of this peak on its still waters
|
Mountains |
$1200 |
Worn down by wind and rain, the mountains of this range that includes the Vesuvius are among the lowest in Europe |
Mountains |
$1600 |
Now dormant, this volcano in Eastern Turkey last erupted on June 2, 1840
|
Mountains |
$2000 |
This range forms an arc from Slovakia to Romania with both ends lying on the Danube river
|
Harvard Museum of Natural History |
$200 |
A relative of the plesiosaurs, this 42-foot reptile terrorized the seas of the early Cretaceous period; called Kronosaurus queenslandicus, it was discovered on a 1931 Harvard expedition to this continent
|
Harvard Museum of Natural History |
$400 |
The museum has 4,000 handcrafted glass flowers; created from 1887 to 1936, their accuracy allowed study in Boston of flowers from these regions, between 23° 27' north & south
|
Harvard Museum of Natural History |
$600 |
The Harvard Museum has part of the famous Zagami meteorite, which fell to the Earth in Nigeria in 1962; gases trapped inside match those found by Viking spacecraft, confirming the rock's distant origin on this planet |
Harvard Museum of Natural History |
$800 |
Suspended above the museum's dramatic Great Mammal Hall are the skeletons of three whale species--a finback whale, a right whale, & this, the largest of the toothed whales
|
Harvard Museum of Natural History |
$1000 |
Weighing in at more than 1,600 pounds, the giant chunk of amethyst here is one of these stones that form under pressure inside cavities, from the Latin for "earth"
|
It's Extinct |
$100 |
They include Mount Shasta in California & Kilimanjaro in Africa
|
It's Extinct |
$200 |
Known for its overbite, this prehistoric cat could be found throughout much of the world
|
It's Extinct |
$300 |
These birds became extinct on Reunion Island about 1750 & on Rodrigues Island about 1800
|
It's Extinct |
$400 |
Coccolithophorids that lived 70-100 mil. yrs. ago fossilized to form this famous seaside site in England |
It's Extinct |
$500 |
Known & named for its 3 horns, this dinosaur became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period. |
Rock |
$400 |
More than half of sedimentary rock is this type from which oil & natural gas can be obtained |
Rock |
$800 |
Trachyte & rhyolite are the most common varieties of this porous igneous volcanic rock |
Rock |
$1200 |
On average rocks consist of 46.5% this gaseous element
|
Rock |
$1600 |
In its purest form, this rock used in the cement industry contains only calcite
|
Rock |
Daily Double |
Chert, a hard, dense sedimentary rock, is called jasper if it's brightly colored, & this if it's dark |
Volcanoes |
$200 |
About its eruption in 79 A.D., an observer wrote that "broad sheets of fire and leaping flames blazed at several points"
|
Volcanoes |
$400 |
At least 57 people died as a result of this U.S. volcano's May 18, 1980 eruption
|
Volcanoes |
$600 |
This youngest surface volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii has distinctive lava formations like Pele's Hair |
Volcanoes |
$800 |
In 1908 members of Ernest Shackleton's expedition became the first to climb this continent's Mount Erebus
|
Volcanoes |
$1000 |
This lake lies in a caldera formed when Oregon's Mount Mazama volcano collapsed 7,000 years ago
|
Earth Science |
$100 |
There are 2 major ice sheets on Earth; one covers most of Antarctica & the other most of this island |
Earth Science |
$200 |
The Bay of Fundy is famous for its range of these, the widest on Earth
|
Earth Science |
$300 |
This 19th C. chemist, famous for a burner, devised a still-accepted theory on how geysers work
|
Earth Science |
$400 |
The sling psychrometer & hair hygrometer are used to determine the relative amount of this |
Earth Science |
$500 |
The Earth is surrounded by the magnetosphere, which is shaped by this particle stream
|
Earthquake! |
$200 |
The palace hotel in this U.S. city had to be rebuilt after it was gutted by fire following a 1906 earthquake |
Earthquake! |
$400 |
The center of this Nicaraguan capital was almost completely destroyed in a 1972 earthquake
|
Earthquake! |
$600 |
The standard scale is logarithmic, so an 8.0 has waves this many times larger than a 7.0
|
Earthquake! |
$800 |
The August 23, 2011 5.8 quake near D.C. really shook up the scientists in Reston, Virginia at the USGS, short for this |
Earthquake! |
$1000 |
Roman emperor Trajan was nearly killed in a 115 A.D. quake in Antioch, now Antakya in this country |
The Style of Elements |
$400 |
Humphry Davy named this element after potash, its much older name
|
The Style of Elements |
$800 |
The Chem Time Clock helps chemistry students learn the periodic table by using element's symbols in place of numbers. It's 1:35, or these two elements
|
The Style of Elements |
$1200 |
This element, atomic no. 17, is used as a bleach
|
The Style of Elements |
Daily Double |
Make no bones about it, it's the fifth most abundant element in both the earth's crust & the human body
|
The Style of Elements |
$2000 |
For hundreds of years people have believed in the rejuvenating qualities of the Dead sea's black mud. Among its many components this element, symbol Mg, said to remove toxins from the skin. Makes you feel good. |
Earth Science |
$100 |
An analysis of seawater shows that about 78% of the total solids are this one mineral
|
Earth Science |
$200 |
It's a fracture of the Earth's rocky outer shell where sections of rock slide against each other
|
Earth Science |
$300 |
Larger than dust, this particulate matter from volcanoes ranges from .01 to .16 inches in diameter
|
Earth Science |
$400 |
From the Latin for "flowing together", it's where 2 or more streams flow together to form one
|
Earth Science |
Daily Double |
This electrically charged layer of the atmosphere makes long-distance radio communication possible |
Down to Earth |
$400 |
When it's closest to the Earth, this planet with a 687-day year is about 33 million miles away
|
Down to Earth |
$800 |
Eratosthenes calculated this c. 230 B.C. using the difference between the sun's angles at 2 places during June |
Down to Earth |
$1200 |
The Lambert one of these formations in the Antarctic is over 250 miles long
|
Down to Earth |
Daily Double |
"Cast" in the role of the fourth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, its atomic number is 26
|
Down to Earth |
$2000 |
A clue for alien astronomers looking for life on Earth is the large amount of this gas, CH4, in the atmosphere |
Earth Science |
$100 |
In a mining lode, the gangue is the junk & this is the mineral with the good stuff in it
|
Earth Science |
$200 |
Venice is sinking because Italy is actually part of this continent's plate & it's sliding under Europe's plate |
Earth Science |
$300 |
It's not just oil -- Saudi Arabia has reserves of over 200 trillion cubic feet of this
|
Earth Science |
Daily Double |
Seismographers use the difference in speed between P waves & S waves to locate this point
|
Earth Science |
$500 |
Some ocean sediment is radiolarian ooze, made of these parts of tiny protozoans
|
Pick A Planet |
$400 |
Its "day" is 24 hours & 39 minutes |
Pick A Planet |
$800 |
It's the third largest in our solar system |
Pick A Planet |
Daily Double |
It's never observable when the sky is fully dark |
Pick A Planet |
$1600 |
It was the first to be discovered with the aid of the telescope |
Pick A Planet |
$2000 |
Leda is its 13th moon |
Rock Your World |
$400 |
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Geology Museum has the state rock of Wisconsin; not to be confused with the state rock of New Hampshire, it's the red type of this |
Rock Your World |
$800 |
Formed by magma, this one of the 3 major types of rock may be plutonic, or formed deep in the Earth
|
Rock Your World |
$1200 |
A schism is a division into faction; this type of rock, one letter different from "schism", has distinct layers
|
Rock Your World |
$1600 |
Dacite is volcanic rock characterized by the presence of this common form of silicon dioxide
|
Rock Your World |
Daily Double |
Scattered material that can include sand & dust is called this "rock", after the layer below the Earth's crust
|
Volcanoes |
$200 |
Eruptions in 512 were so violent that Theodoric the Goth of Italy suspended taxes for those living on its slopes |
Volcanoes |
$400 |
Lassen Peak in the southernmost part of this range was believed extinct until it erupted on May 30, 1914 |
Volcanoes |
$600 |
This volcano on the southeast slope of Mauna Loa has had a hotel on its rim since 1866
|
Volcanoes |
$800 |
Figurative name of the volcanic belt that nearly encircles the Pacific Ocean
|
Volcanoes |
$1000 |
This Philippine volcano's 1991 eruption was one of the largest of the 20th century
|
Quakes |
$100 |
In early 2001 L.A. got 14" of rain; this city got 5" of rain & a 6.8 jolt that trapped people in its Space Needle |
Quakes |
$200 |
In December 2000 this country felt several small quakes around Popocatepetl
|
Quakes |
Daily Double |
The Jan. 26, 2001 quake centered in this country was felt in Bangladesh, 1,200 miles across the Bay of Bengal |
Quakes |
$400 |
A 1964 quake in this state caused tsunamis as far away as Siberia, & Hawaii & California
|
Quakes |
$500 |
On Jan. 13, 2001 a 7.6 temblor rocked this tiny Central American nation; a 6.6 quake hit exactly one month later |
Period |
$400 |
The rocks of the Carboniferous period provide the Earth with this, some of it bituminous
|
Period |
$800 |
The Cenozoic's Tertiary period is logically followed by this period
|
Period |
$1200 |
As evidenced by Dover, England, the Cretaceous period's name derives from this type of limestone
|
Period |
Daily Double |
Meaning "all Earth" in Greek, this hypothetical supercontinent tore apart during the Triassic period |
Period |
$2000 |
A period is one of 4 major units of geologic time; these are the other 3, & they all start with "E"
|
How Continental! |
$200 |
July temperatures on this continent range from about -94 to a balmy high of around -40 |
How Continental! |
$400 |
This continent covers only about 5% of the earth's land area; deserts cover about 1/3 of the continent |
How Continental! |
$600 |
This continent has the longest freshwater lake, 420 miles, in the world
|
How Continental! |
$800 |
Both the highest & lowest places on earth are on this continent
|
How Continental! |
$1000 |
A waterfall on this continent has the longest drop in the world, 3,212 feet
|
Volcanoes |
$100 |
Magma that reaches the earth's surface is called this
|
Volcanoes |
$200 |
The word volcano comes from the name of this Roman god of fire
|
Volcanoes |
$300 |
Of the world's active volcanoes, about 60% are along the perimeter of this ocean |
Volcanoes |
$400 |
57 people died when this volcano in the Cascade range erupted in 1980
|
Volcanoes |
$500 |
This island nation has more than 100 active volcanoes including Krakatoa
|
Earth Science |
$400 |
The caldera of a supervolcano that last erupted 640,000 years ago covers much of the 2.2 million acres of this national park
|
Earth Science |
$800 |
This class of rock is made by changes in heat, pressure or shearing to pre-existing rocks
|
Earth Science |
$1200 |
Used to date artifacts because it has a half-life of 5,730 years, this isotope has 6 protons and 8 neutrons in its nucleus
|
Earth Science |
$1600 |
The Mohorovicic discontinuity separates the Earth's crust from this
|
Earth Science |
$2000 |
South America & Africa fit together like puzzle pieces; this theory says they were connected 200 million years ago & have been moving away from each other up to 4 inches a year |
Prehistoric Times |
$400 |
The Megaloceros was the largest one of these mammals that ever lived; it was over 10 feet tall & had 11-foot antlers |
Prehistoric Times |
$800 |
Cultivation of this 3-letter tree fruit may have started in the Middle East over 10,000 years ago
|
Prehistoric Times |
$1200 |
Anthropologists say this was the first of the genus Homo to leave Africa, sometime after 1.8 million years ago |
Prehistoric Times |
$1600 |
The Mousterian industry was the tool culture associated with these humans who predated the cro-magnons |
Prehistoric Times |
Daily Double |
These 3-lobed sea creatures breathed through gills on their legs
|
Geology |
$400 |
At the mouth of the Mississippi River, this major class of rock is said to be more than 40,000 feet thick
|
Geology |
$800 |
Intense glaciation has formed these long, steep-sided coastal inlets; the ones in Norway & Chile are especially deep |
Geology |
$1200 |
This landmark in Rio's Guanabara Bay is an example of an inselberg, or "island mountain"
|
Geology |
Daily Double |
This crater is formed when a volcano explodes & the cone collapses; Oregon's Crater Lake is an example
|
Geology |
$2000 |
Meaning "rock globe", it's the layer of rock encompassing the crust & outermost part of the upper mantle |
Earthquakes |
$400 |
This well-known fault is considered the main boundary between the North American & Pacific plates
|
Earthquakes |
$800 |
The biggest quake ever recorded, a magnitude 9.5, occurred in 1960 off this South American nation's west coast
|
Earthquakes |
$1200 |
S, or secondary, seismic waves travel fairly slowly, but these waves deep in the earth exceed 25,000 mph
|
Earthquakes |
Daily Double |
The USA's most powerful quake occurred in 1964 in Alaska on this Christian holiday also associated with a quake |
Earthquakes |
$2000 |
A 2005 quake beneath Lake Tanganyika on this 3,500-mile-long "Great" African fault was felt 600 mi. away in Nairobi |
Volcanoes |
$200 |
In 2010 stranded airline passengers learned that Eyjafjallajokull is a volcano in this country |
Volcanoes |
$400 |
A Japanese proverb says, "he who climes" this peak "once is a wise man, he who climbs it twice is a fool" |
Volcanoes |
Daily Double |
According to National Geographic, it's the most dangerous volcano in the lower 48 states
|
Volcanoes |
$800 |
In Sicilian it's called Muncibeddu, meaning "mountain"
|
Volcanoes |
$1000 |
A specific eruption style is named for this Caribbean volcano that erupted in 1902, killing thousands |
Prehistoric Times |
$400 |
Scientists believe that Eohippus, about the size of a small dog, was the earliest ancestor of this animal
|
Prehistoric Times |
$800 |
Scientists have placed 5 species of prehumans into the genus Australopithecus, which means "southern" this |
Prehistoric Times |
Daily Double |
This prehistoric people that followed Neanderthal man produced the first examples of human artwork
|
Prehistoric Times |
$1600 |
The 2 dinosaurian orders are saurischia, which means "lizard hips", & ornithischia, which means this
|
Prehistoric Times |
$2000 |
This coal-forming period of geologic time is split into Mississippian & Pennsylvanian periods
|
Rocks & Stuff |
$200 |
A rock called pridotite produces this hardest gem
|
Rocks & Stuff |
$400 |
This form of molten rock deep within the earth can reach a temperature of over 2100 degrees
|
Rocks & Stuff |
$600 |
This agreeable-sounding metamorphic rock has alternating bands of dark- & light-colored minerals |
Rocks & Stuff |
$800 |
Most rocks are composed primarily of oxygen & this element
|
Rocks & Stuff |
$1000 |
Soapstone, used as an electrical insulator, is a greenish-gray variety of this soft mineral
|
What Planet Are You From? |
$200 |
It has seasonal weather patterns & iron-rich minerals in the soil, giving it a distinct red color
|
What Planet Are You From? |
$400 |
Greater in mass than all the other planets combined, it's surrounded by dozens of moons
|
What Planet Are You From? |
$600 |
Its mean distance from the Sun is only about 36 million miles
|
What Planet Are You From? |
$800 |
It's the smallest & densest of the outer gas giants & has an appropriate name, as it has a watery interior |
What Planet Are You From? |
$1000 |
Bands of debris & ice surround it, as do its satellites, including Titan
|
Geology |
$400 |
A placer is a deposit of sand containing metals such as this, which brought an influx to Placer County, California |
Geology |
$800 |
A cauldron subsidence is when a mass of solid rock sinks into a pool of this subterranean molten rock |
Geology |
$1200 |
In geology, BYO isn't on a faculty party invitation; it stands for this, in Canada's Acasta Gneiss, about 4 BYO |
Geology |
$1600 |
In the mountain type of this, rock projects above the frozen stuff
|
Geology |
$2000 |
William Smith's 1815 map "of New England and Wales" showed these rock layers in different colors |
Dinosaur |
$100 |
Amherst's Pratt Museum has the largest collection of these markings left by dinosaur strolls
|
Dinosaur |
$200 |
Along with the famous plates that ran down its back, it also had 4 tall, deadly spines on its tail |
Dinosaur |
$300 |
Ash from an asteroid impact on this peninsula in Mexico may have covered the globe & killed off the dinosaurs |
Dinosaur |
$400 |
In 1922 the first of these to be discovered came from a mommy protoceratops
|
Dinosaur |
$500 |
This "king" of the carnosaurs wasn't from the Jurassic period, but the late Cretaceous
|
Minerals |
$100 |
You’ll discover not gold, but a black mark, after rubbing this “gold” on porcelain
|
Minerals |
$200 |
A scratch test won’t reveal a mineral’s allergies, but this property
|
Minerals |
$400 |
Over half the use of this mineral in the U.S. is for spreading on roads & highways to melt ice & snow
|
Minerals |
$1200 |
Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact variety of this soft mineral
|
Minerals |
Daily Double |
German geologist Abraham Werner gave this mineral its name, derived from a Greek word for "to write" |
Shake, Shake, Shake |
$400 |
These waves, from the Greek for "shake", that pass through the Earth's rocks are caused by earthquakes |
Shake, Shake, Shake |
$800 |
The force of these smaller post-earthquake tremors decreases quickly over time
|
Shake, Shake, Shake |
$1200 |
Herculaneum had not yet recovered from a 62 A.D. earthquake when this calamity occurred 17 years later |
Shake, Shake, Shake |
Daily Double |
These, like the thrust type, are defined as narrow zones where rock masses move in relation to one another |
Shake, Shake, Shake |
$2000 |
Differing from Richter, the MM or "modified" this scale uses witness observations to gauge intensity |
Geology |
$400 |
Around 132 A.D. Chinese scientist Chang Heng invented an early form of this earthquake detector |
Geology |
$800 |
One of the world's busiest geyser areas lies in a lava field near this Icelandic capital
|
Geology |
$1200 |
In the science of geology, petrographers are concerned with classifying these
|
Geology |
$1600 |
In 2003 it was located at 82 degrees north latitude, 112 degrees west longitude near Ellef Ringness Island |
Geology |
$2000 |
The glaciers in Alaska are remnants of the last Ice Age, which ended about 11,500 years ago during this epoch |
Dinosaur Lore |
$100 |
The oviraptor's name means "stealer of" these, which might also apply to some fossil hunters
|
Dinosaur Lore |
$200 |
In diplodocus, these individual back bones were hollow, keeping the animal's weight to 12 tons
|
Dinosaur Lore |
$300 |
Its two longer horns each could extend more than three feet
|
Dinosaur Lore |
$400 |
Robert Bakker "heated" up paleontology by suggesting dinosaurs were homeothermic, also called this |
Dinosaur Lore |
$500 |
Term for a meat-eating dinosaur like the Tyrannosaurus, or the title of a 1993 Roger Corman film
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$400 |
Green serpentine, seen here, is made into a gemstone that's a common substitute for this one
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$800 |
Kernite, a major source of borax, is named for Kern County in this California desert where it is mined
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$1200 |
The chief ore of iron, this mineral, is named for the fact that its powder, or the streak that it leaves, is blood red
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$1600 |
Carrara, Italy is famous for its quarries of this rock
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$2000 |
Obsidian is described as having this type of luster, from the Latin for "glassy"
|
Geology |
$400 |
The Mercalli scale measures the intensity of these from I to XII
|
Geology |
$800 |
Geysers aren't common; major centers include Yellowstone, Iceland & this country's North Island |
Geology |
$1200 |
This rock can be formed by the accumulation of shells or coral, but not from citrus fruit
|
Geology |
Daily Double |
This 9-letter geologic science is the study of the movement & distribution of all the Earth's waters
|
Geology |
$2000 |
A 6-mile-wide caldera, or volcanic crater, is a highlight of La Palma in this Spanish Island group off Africa |
Know Your Earth |
$400 |
Giovanni Arduino classified rocks oldest to newest as primary, secondary & this, a term still used
|
Know Your Earth |
$800 |
Temperatures range from about 2,000 to 8,000 degrees Fahrenheit in this part of the Earth between the crust & the core |
Know Your Earth |
$1200 |
Essential minerals can give rocks their names: ferromagnesian minerals contain this &/or magnesium
|
Know Your Earth |
Daily Double |
Change 2 letters in magnetism & you get this term for the formation of igneous rocks in the Earth's crust
|
Know Your Earth |
$2000 |
Named for the tiny time period that followed it, this interval covers 80% of geological time
|
Prehistoric Critters |
$400 |
As the "avis" suggests, Argentavis' distinction was being able to do this, even at over 250 pounds
|
Prehistoric Critters |
$800 |
The best guess on the purpose of Spinosarus' sail was that by turning it the beast could regulate this |
Prehistoric Critters |
$1200 |
The sharklike acanthodians were the first vertebrates with these; earlier ones had vacuum-cleaner mouths
|
Prehistoric Critters |
$1600 |
Fossils in Niger indicate the "super" type of this animal was the size of a bus; it often drowned its prey
|
Prehistoric Critters |
Daily Double |
If Horton climbed his family tree, he'd go from elephant to stegodon to stegolophodon to this
|
Minerals |
$200 |
Talc is at one end of the Mohs scale of hardness & this is at the other
|
Minerals |
$400 |
This phosphate popular in the jewelry of the Southwest U.S. derives its name from a Eurasian country |
Minerals |
$600 |
Minerals like pyrite, galena & sphalerite all contain this element, S, so they are grouped together
|
Minerals |
$800 |
The white sands of New Mexico's White Sands National Monument are this plaster material
|
Minerals |
$1000 |
A form of magnetite that has natural magnetic polarity is known as this "stone"
|
Geology |
$400 |
This molten volcanic rock was given its name by those who lived around Mount Vesuvius
|
Geology |
$800 |
The oxbow type of this is formed when a meander or stream is cut off from the principal channel
|
Geology |
Daily Double |
A sonar transducer is used by hydrographers to obtain knowledge about earthquake activity here |
Geology |
$1600 |
This "old" scientist's 37-volume "Historia Naturalis" covered all Roman knowledge of rocks & minerals
|
Geology |
$2000 |
It's believed that a land mass called Pangaea later split into 2: Laurasia & this one
|
Prehistoric Times |
$400 |
Scientists have identified over 4,000 species of these "3-lobed" sea creatures that lived during the Paleozoic era |
Prehistoric Times |
$800 |
Scientists say that North America had 4 of these: Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoian & Wisconsin
|
Prehistoric Times |
$1200 |
The Stone Age lasted until this metal replaced stone as the primary tool-making material
|
Prehistoric Times |
$1600 |
In 1868 Louis Lartet dug up the first skeletons of this prehistoric man in a cave in Les Eyzies in southwest France |
Prehistoric Times |
$2000 |
The name of this earliest human species is Latin for "skillful human being"
|
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
In 2006 a fossilized one of these containing 22 broken eggs sold at auction for $420,000
|
Dinosaurs |
$800 |
In 2001 Chinese scientists said a group of these made by dinosaurs included one 1 1/2 yards long
|
Dinosaurs |
$1200 |
No one knows the purpose, but like modern birds, the stegosaurus has a small hole in its skull called a fenestra, from the Latin for this |
Dinosaurs |
$1600 |
We grew up calling the alleged apatosaurus this; to us it'll always be this--so there!
|
Dinosaurs |
$2000 |
Known for long necks & small heads, dinosaurs like diplodocus belonged to this "lizard foot" group
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$100 |
Term for a lump of gold; the farther it's traveled from its source, the more rounded it is |
Rocks & Minerals |
$200 |
The most prized turquoise is this bird-related shade
|
Rocks & Minerals |
$300 |
Like graphite, molybdenite is used as a solid one of these for moving parts |
Rocks & Minerals |
$400 |
Calcite is recognizable from the bubbles that form when this is applied during a test |
Rocks & Minerals |
Daily Double |
Deposits near the mouth of the Orange River have been a rich source of these precious gemstones |
Geology |
$400 |
A deep ravine that's often dry in the summer, it shares its name with a "grand" dam in Washington state |
Geology |
$800 |
This layer of rock between the earth's core & crust makes up about 85 percent of the planet's mass
|
Geology |
$1200 |
From the Greek for "without shape", this term refers to rocks & minerals that have no crystalline structure |
Geology |
$1600 |
Lamina is a layer in this type of rock that is less than 1 cm. in thickness & is visually separable from other layers |
Geology |
$2000 |
"Bovine" term for a crescent-shaped lake formed in an abandoned river bend
|
Darwin |
$400 |
This 1859 book was a "natural selection" for readers; the first edition sold out in one day
|
Darwin |
$800 |
Darwin spent just 17 days ashore in these islands in 1835, but his studies there still reverberate today
|
Darwin |
$1200 |
Though he later became an agnostic, in his youth Darwin followed the traditions of this church
|
Darwin |
$1600 |
Darwin & his wife were these close blood relatives, as Darwin's mother & his wife's father were siblings
|
Darwin |
$2000 |
Darwin's paternal grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, declined an offer to become private physician to this 18th C. king |
Geology Test |
$400 |
One estimate says there are about 326 million cubic miles of this compound in, on & above the Earth
|
Geology Test |
$800 |
It runs from the Gulf of California to the Gorda Ridge off Oregon between the North American & Pacific plates
|
Geology Test |
$1200 |
BMW engineers are working out the kinks to use this most abundant element in the universe as an auto fuel |
Geology Test |
$1600 |
Calcium bicarbonate from this, the most abundant soluble rock, is used by sea creatures in forming shells
|
Geology Test |
$2000 |
Deposits inside these are called speleothems & include stalactites & stalagmites
|
Dinosaurs |
$200 |
This "king" of the dinosaurs had a muscular jaw that, it's thought, could rip off 500 pounds of meat at once
|
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
This plant-eater is the largest, most common & best known of the horned dinosaurs
|
Dinosaurs |
$600 |
This dinosaur was swift, but not as fast or as smart as in "Jurassic Park"; it did have that scary sickle-like claw, though
|
Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
The name of the Laplatasaurus honors a river on the border of Uruguay & this country
|
Dinosaurs |
$1000 |
The famous 50-foot beast in the American Museum of Natural History is this dinosaur whose name comes from the Greek for "weight", as in an atmospheric meter |
Rocks and Minerals |
$200 |
This class of rocks is formed from deposits on lake beds & sea floors
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$400 |
Any old salt can tell you epsomite is this color
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$600 |
To identify a meteorite, Peterson's guide says to look for iron & this metal
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$800 |
The fossils in this type of rock may remain even after it's changed into marble
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$1000 |
Shale changes into this rock metamorphically & also by changing 2 letters |
Minerals |
$400 |
Drywall is also called gypboard, the "gyp" short for this
|
Minerals |
$800 |
The heavy mineral ilmenite, FeTiO3 , is the main source of this lightweight metal, symbol Ti
|
Minerals |
$1200 |
Vermiculite makes good insulation, but sadly the former main mine produced vermiculite riddled with this |
Minerals |
$1600 |
Formed in lava, leucite is common on the slopes of this mount above the Bay of Naples
|
Minerals |
$2000 |
Galena, Wisconsin's state mineral, is an ore of this metal seen on the state flag
|
The Earth |
$100 |
The Alps are an example of the fold type of these; the Tetons are the fault-block type
|
The Earth |
$200 |
Outside the U.S., the main areas where these spouting hot springs occur are Iceland & New Zealand |
The Earth |
$300 |
The inner core of the Earth is thought to be a solid ball composed mainly of nickel & this metal
|
The Earth |
$400 |
About a tenth of the Earth's surface is covered by this treeless region of the Arctic
|
The Earth |
$500 |
Triggered by earthquakes, these destructive sea waves have been known to travel at nearly 500 mph |
Walking With Dinosaurs |
$400 |
You might encounter a real Stegosaurus if you can go back to the late part of this geological period, a good one for dinosaurs
|
Walking With Dinosaurs |
$800 |
Until the recent discovery of the Gigantotasaurus fossil, 3 tons bigger, T. rex was thought to be the largest dinosaur of this dietary class... aaaagh!
|
Walking With Dinosaurs |
$1200 |
The Stegosaurus' plates could have been used in mating, may have been for defensive purposes, or may have served as living solar panels and helped the dinosaur regulate this
|
Walking With Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
Named for its cattle-like horns, this 9-tonner whose name means "bull lizard" had the largest head of any known land animal
|
Walking With Dinosaurs |
$2000 |
If a bite that could puncture a car roof wasn't enough, T. rex's teeth have recesses where these live; if the bite didn't kill you, the infection would
|
Rocks for Jocks |
$200 |
Geologists dig up & study these organic remains, whose name is from the Latin for "dug up"
|
Rocks for Jocks |
$400 |
Slate is this type of rock, the result of alterations to existing rocks
|
Rocks for Jocks |
$600 |
A speleologist studies caves; this is another name for a caver who explores caves as a hobby
|
Rocks for Jocks |
$1000 |
2-word term for the branch of geology that studies the phenomenon of continental drift
|
Gems and Minerals |
$200 |
Old masters could grind up hematite or cinnabar to make shades of this primary color
|
Gems and Minerals |
$400 |
The ancients called jade lapis nephriticus, as they thought it a stone that could cure this organ's ailments |
Gems and Minerals |
$600 |
You can find caledonite in this country that lent its ancient name to the mineral
|
Gems and Minerals |
Daily Double |
A beryl named for a New York financier isn't johnite or pierpontite, but this
|
Gems and Minerals |
$1000 |
Antimony is the usual base of this dark eye shadow used by Middle Eastern women
|
Official State Dinosaurs & Fossils |
$200 |
The Triceratops found in this state's Black Hills won official fossil status
|
Official State Dinosaurs & Fossils |
$400 |
Montana's state fossil, the Maiasaura, had this type of mouth, like the platypus
|
Official State Dinosaurs & Fossils |
$600 |
Haddonfield, in this Eastern state, was the site of the first "nearly complete" dinosaur find - a Hadrosaurus |
Official State Dinosaurs & Fossils |
$800 |
The teeth from Maryland's Astrodon were cut open in 1858 & revealed this pattern, hence its name |
Official State Dinosaurs & Fossils |
$1000 |
Saurophaganax was named this state's official fossil in 2000 & you can see one at the Sam Noble Museum in Norman |
The Earth |
$100 |
The modified Mercalli scale ranks these 1-12: 1 - not felt except by few, 12 - total destruction |
The Earth |
Daily Double |
We're in the holocene epoch of the quaternary period of the Cenozoic one of these |
The Earth |
$300 |
Basalt is an igneous rock & rock salt is this type
|
The Earth |
$400 |
William Smith was the 1st to date rocks using these found within them
|
The Earth |
$500 |
The stratosphere includes this layer of the atmosphere that absorbs ultraviolet light |
Rocks and Minerals |
$500 |
Originally these were quartz pebbles found in the Rhine River
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$1000 |
There are deposits of this type of coal under half of West Virginia
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$1500 |
Some of these fine-grained laminated sedimentary rocks are a source of oil
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$2000 |
Connemara, Ireland is famous for the green-streaked variety of this stone
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$2500 |
Now under the Coronation Chair, this stone came to England from Scotland |
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
Many now think that unlike modern reptiles, dinosaurs were homeothermic, meaning this
|
Dinosaurs |
$800 |
Edmontosaurus, discovered in this Canadian province in 1917, was almost defenseless & was preyed upon by the T-rex |
Dinosaurs |
$1200 |
Despite its great size, this "plated lizard" had a brain the size of a walnut
|
Dinosaurs |
$1600 |
This city's Carnegie Museum of Natural History has the first Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, found in 1902
|
Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
This name of the ferocious predator seen in "Jurassic Park" means "one who seizes quickly"
|
Geology |
$200 |
It's a circular hollow often formed by volcanic action or by a meteor strike
|
Geology |
$400 |
It's a valley formed between 2 parallel faults; there's a "Great" one in the Eastern Hemisphere
|
Geology |
$800 |
A moraine is the rocky material left behind by one of these
|
Geology |
$1000 |
When discussing sedimentary rock, this term means formed of layers or beds
|
The Earth |
$200 |
An ocean wave's speed largely depends on the speed of this phenomenon in the air above |
The Earth |
$400 |
The Mer de Glace is the 2nd longest of these in the Alps
|
The Earth |
$600 |
The Greek & Latin words for this fuel were "anthrax" & "carbo"
|
The Earth |
$800 |
You find one of these at the point where an aquifer intersects the slope of a hillside
|
The Earth |
$1000 |
Geologists named the material of the Earth's crust "sial'" because of these 2 main elements |
Dinosaurs |
$200 |
Anatosaurus was this type of dinosaur named for a feature it shared with the platypus
|
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
Guinness says the smallest one of these among the dinos was the walnut-sized one of the 30-foot Stegosaurus |
Dinosaurs |
$600 |
The BBC's "Truth About Killer Dinosaurs" staged a fight between T. rex & this 3-horned beast
|
Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
Patagosaurus thrived on this continent 160 to 170 million years ago
|
Dinosaurs |
$1000 |
Also a type of modern bird, this word follows "ovi" & "Utah" in dinosaur names
|
Geology |
$400 |
This rock from Georgia was used to sculpt the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial
|
Geology |
$600 |
Crude oil can be extracted from this rock, the most abundant sedimentary rock in the Earth's crust |
Geology |
$1200 |
The Hawaiian islands consist mostly of this hard, dark volcanic rock
|
Geology |
Daily Double |
Due to its luster, German miners gave this "pleasant" rock its name, which means "spark"
|
Geology |
$2000 |
The Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown is the tallest structure in the U.S. made entirely of this |
Dinosaurs |
$200 |
Although its name suggests that it had 5 of these, the Pentaceratops had just 3; 2 were merely enlarged cheekbones
|
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
Scientists believe that dinosaurs lived through 3 geologic periods: Triassic, Jurassic, then this next one
|
Dinosaurs |
$600 |
The name Psittacosaurus means this type of lizard; it had a strong beak like that on this present-day bird
|
Dinosaurs |
$800 |
High levels of this metal, at. #77, in rocks near dinosaur fossils led to the asteroid theory of their demise
|
Dinosaurs |
$1000 |
Similar to an Apatosaurus, this 52'-tall herbivore whose name means "arm lizard" had longer forelegs than hindlegs |
Geology |
$200 |
The mineral Andalusite was discovered in & named for a region in this country
|
Geology |
$400 |
Fluvial is a term that refers to these geographic features
|
Geology |
$600 |
Granite is composed mainly of feldspar & this transparent crystalline material
|
Geology |
$800 |
A 79 A.D. letter about the death of this "Elder" scientist had the first accurate description of a volcanic eruption |
Geology |
$1000 |
In 1812 this German scientist devised a scale to measure the hardness of minerals
|
Sham Rocks |
$200 |
Some colorless forms of this element with the chemical symbol Zr are known as matura diamonds
|
Sham Rocks |
$400 |
Gary Dahl used 3 tons of stone from Rosarito Beach to create these 1970s fads that couldn't even fetch |
Sham Rocks |
$600 |
Many experts have doubted the authenticity of a kouros statue at this oilman's L.A. museum |
Sham Rocks |
$800 |
In 2000 NASA helped bust a man who pled guilty to trying to sell these fake items from Apollo 11 |
Sham Rocks |
$1000 |
To stop graffiti on the real thing, visitors can now sign a fake replica of this in the Juyongguan section |
The Good Earth |
$400 |
Of 10%, 50% or 80%, the portion of an iceberg that floats above the water
|
The Good Earth |
$600 |
Ruffles chips have these & so do ocean floors, but they're underwater mountain ranges
|
The Good Earth |
$800 |
The eruption of this Indonesian volcano in 1883 was heard more than 2,000 miles away
|
The Good Earth |
Daily Double |
Because it passes through a London borough, the Prime Meridian at 0 degrees longitude has this other name |
The Good Earth |
$2000 |
From the Greek for "middle life", it's the era on Earth that ended with the demise of the dinosaurs |
Geology |
$200 |
This precious stone is crystalline carbon
|
Geology |
$400 |
This aluminum ore was discovered at Le Bau, France
|
Geology |
$600 |
You'll find stalactites and stalagmites in caverns made of various types of this sedimentary rock
|
Geology |
$800 |
Since it doesn't transmit an earthquake's S-waves, scientists believe this must be partly liquid |
Geology |
$1000 |
The process of coalification runs from peat to this type of coal
|
Fun With Dinosaurs |
$400 |
In 1902 in Montana, paleontologist Barnum Brown unearthed the first specimen of this dinosaur "king"
|
Fun With Dinosaurs |
$800 |
Hadrosaurus & Corythosaurus are among dinosaurs that had this type of bill, like a platypus
|
Fun With Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
The Oviraptor's name means that it stole these from other dinosaurs but new evidence suggests that it was misnamed |
Fun With Dinosaurs |
$1600 |
This 3-horned plant-eater's 10-foot-long head is said to be the largest ever possessed by a land animal
|
Fun With Dinosaurs |
$2000 |
This dinosaur known for the bony plates along its back had multiple spikes at the end of its tail for protection
|
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 |
$200 |
Estimates are that it would have measured 8.25 on the scale named for this man |
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 |
$400 |
Most of the destruction came from these that followed the quake
|
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 |
$600 |
The quake was this fault's fault
|
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 |
$800 |
This Italian tenor was in town to perform when the earthquake struck
|
The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 |
$1000 |
This author from nearby Oakland surveyed the damage & declared, "San Francisco is gone" |
Paleontology |
$100 |
500-million-year-old fish are the first known fossils of this backboned group of animals
|
Paleontology |
$200 |
Its tooth, mentioned in "Mack the Knife", is Georgia's state fossil & can date back 375 million years
|
Paleontology |
$400 |
The Sandhill type of this can fly; Diatryma, the predatory 7-foot "terror" type, couldn't
|
Paleontology |
$500 |
Trilobites were among the first creatures to have these; they were compound crystals that survive as fossils
|
-Ologies |
$400 |
From the Greek meaning "study of ancient existence", it's the study of prehistoric plants & animals from fossil remains |
Geology |
$200 |
One of these struck Boston in 1755, Missouri in 1811 & Charleston in 1886, so it's not west coast-specific |
Geology |
$400 |
Of the 3 main classes of rock, this one accounts for about 75% of all the exposed rocks on land |
Geology |
Daily Double |
From the Greek kryos, "ice", it's the shape a mineral grows into when unrestricted
|
Geology |
$800 |
Term for a plate pulling apart; a great valley in Africa has been formed by & named for it
|
Geology |
$1000 |
1 of the 3 minerals on the Mohs scale that can be scratched with a copper penny
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$400 |
For its state mineral, Colorado chose rhodochrosite, which is a deep shade of this primary color |
Rocks and Minerals |
$800 |
Scoria, a dark, glassy rock created from this, is heavier than pumice & has bigger holes |
Rocks and Minerals |
$1200 |
Galena is the principal ore of this metallic element, symbol Pb
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$1600 |
This blackboard rock is formed when shale is subjected to immense heat & pressure |
Rocks and Minerals |
$2000 |
On the Mohs scale, this mineral can be scratched by every other mineral
|
Destination Earth |
$400 |
The hardest substances in nature are wurtzite boron nitride & lonsdaleite; this gem is actually third |
Destination Earth |
$800 |
Despite their name, spring these, caused by alignment of the Sun, Moon & Earth, happen in the ocean in every season |
Destination Earth |
$1200 |
On the Earth's surface, it's 24,901 miles long
|
Destination Earth |
$1600 |
The 4 types of these waves are primary, secondary, Rayleigh & Love
|
Destination Earth |
$2000 |
The axial this of the Earth is 23.5 degrees
|
Dinosaurs |
$200 |
Nicknamed Sue, the largest of these, the "King of the Dinosaurs", was uncovered in South Dakota in 1990
|
Dinosaurs |
$400 |
This plant-eater named for the 3 horns on its face was at least 25 feet long
|
Dinosaurs |
$600 |
The 75-foot-long Apatosaurus has also been known by this name, which means "thunder lizard"
|
Dinosaurs |
Daily Double |
The Mamenchisaurus could really stick this out -- it had the largest of any dinosaur, about 36 feet |
Biology |
$500 |
Found even in dinosaurs, this world's oldest known disease is still considered incurable
|
Geology |
$100 |
Derived from Latin meaning "dug up", it's the remains of a plant or animal preserved in rock
|
Geology |
$200 |
A fracture in the earth along which the sides are displaced; the San Andreas is a dramatic example |
Geology |
$300 |
It's the shallow body of water enclosed within an atoll
|
Geology |
$400 |
This "powdery" mineral is number 1 on the Mohs scale of hardness
|
Geology |
$500 |
Longer than an era, this is the longest geological time unit
|
Paleontology |
$200 |
It describes the mouth of the ancient hadrosaur & the mouth of the modern platypus |
Paleontology |
$400 |
The name of the Ichthyornis comes from the Greek for "bird" & this type of animal |
Paleontology |
$600 |
It was similar to the mammoth but it had different teeth
|
Paleontology |
$800 |
Continent that was home to the Albertosaurus
|
Paleontology |
$1000 |
The fossils of these common 3-lobed primitive arthropods are useful date markers |
Rocks and Minerals |
$100 |
Term for the minerals from which metals are extracted
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$200 |
Single-letter chemical designation of a diamond
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$300 |
Largest block ever found of it in U.S., 56 tons, was used for Tomb of the Unknown Soldier |
Rocks and Minerals |
$400 |
Mark Twain defined it as a hole in the ground with a liar standing at the top
|
Rocks and Minerals |
$500 |
Fizzing when acid is applied, this mineral is the base of the Portland cement industry |
Geology |
$200 |
The Star of India is what kind of precious stone?
|
Geology |
$400 |
The mouth of the Mississippi or a Helen Reddy "Dawn"
|
Geology |
$600 |
Pliny the Elder, Roman geologist, died while observing this volcano erupting
|
Geology |
Daily Double |
Earth's atmosphere layer which lies between the troposphere & the mesosphere |
Geology |
$1000 |
Rainwash, wind action & differential weathering formed this S. Dakota area
|
You can find an archive of Jeopardy! questions over at J!-Archive.com. Videos present are courtesy of J!-Archive.com. Images used in the questions are a mixtures of ones used in the show and my interpretation of what they might have been and still get across the intent of the clue. Images used on this site are from J!-Archive.com unless linked to another source.