Physical Geography Online Quiz

An equinox is one of the two times of the year (21 March and 22 September) when the amount of daylight and night time hours are just about equal duration.

A yardang is a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semi-consolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand, and deflation which is the removal of loose material by wind turbulence.

Isobars are lines on a weather map that join places that have the same air pressure at a particular time.

The air above the land warms up and rises and the cool air over the sea moves in to take its place, resulting in the sea breeze in the daytime. At night, as the sea maintains its temperature better and is warmer than the land, the roles of land and sea reverse and convection of air results in the land breeze.

A former tributary glacier valley that is incised into the upper part of a U-shaped glacier valley, higher than the floor of the main valley. Hanging valley streams often enter the main valley as waterfalls. A hanging glacier connects the upper valley to the lower valley.

Volatile Matter (VM) is the percentage loss in mass, adjusted for moisture, when coal is heated out of contact with air under standard conditions. Anthracite has the lowest proportion of volatile matter.

The troposphere is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, and is also where nearly all weather conditions take place. It contains 75% of the atmosphere's mass and 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols. Troposphere is the warmest because it is closest to the ground, where the heat is coming from.

Soil erosion is the natural process in which the topsoil of a field is carried away by physical sources such as wind and water. In terrace farming, a terrace is a piece of the sloped plane that is cut into a series of successively receding platforms, that resemble steps. This prevents rain from washing away soil, hence preventing soil erosion.

Pluto was the planet furthest away from the Sun is coldest. However, due to the IAU's decision in 2006 to reclassify Pluto as a “dwarf planet”.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.