Earth, nature, and environment trivia quiz questions.

Which gas released by car exhausts, stops the blood hemoglobin from working correctly?
A: Carbon Monoxide.

What name is given to the hard white material of elephant tusks?
A: Ivory.

What device is added to a car's exhaust system to reduce pollution?
A: Catalytic converter.

Which Australian mammal lays eggs?
A: Duck-billed platypus.

What is the term for something that will break down naturally?
A: Biodegradable.

Which is the most common gas in the atmosphere?
A: Nitrogen.

Which fuel is formed by the fossilization of plants?
A: Coal.

Oxygen forms approximately what proportion of the atmosphere?
A: 20%.

What kind of tide appears at full Moon?
A: Spring tide.

What is the term given to the study of the weather?
A: Meteorology.

What is the second most common gas in the atmosphere?
A: Oxygen.

What is the name given to the outermost layer of the Earth?
A: Crust.

Which country produces the world's largest quantity of municipal waste per person per year?
A: USA.

Which is the largest national park in Europe?
A: Hobe Tauern in Austria.

Which sea is so highly polluted that the Barcelona Convention was set up in 976 to try and clean it up?
A: Mediterranean Sea.

What was the viral disease controversially introduced into Britain during the 1950s to reduce the rabbit population?
A: Myxomatosis.

What is the collective noun for larks?
A: Exhalation.

What is the scientific scale for measuring the hardness of rocks?
A: Mohs' scale.

What is the world's smallest continent?
A: Australia.

Which gas forms approximately 1% of the atmosphere?
A: Argon.

What is the term for the energy obtained from hot, underground rocks?
A: Geothermal.

What name is given to the rocks swallowed by dinosaurs to assist their digestion?
A: Gastroliths.

Which animal has been hunted almost to extinction because of its horn?
A: Rhinoceros.

Which chemical, commonly used to increase crop yield, sometimes contaminates drinking water?
A: Nitrate.

Where is the Glacier Bay national park?
A: S E Alaska.

When you recycle a drink can, which metal is it you are recovering?
A: Aluminum.

What is the earth's core made of?
A: Molten iron and nickel.

What is the name of the liquid rock which pours from a volcano?
A: Lava.

What is the term applied to the process of gathering together weather forecasts from various recording stations?
A: Synoptic forecasting.

What kind of natural phenomenon 'meanders'?
A: A river.

What is a cloud?
A: Water vapor condensed into droplets.

What is the collective name for rain hail, snow, and sleet?
A: Precipitation.

What is the hardest natural substance known?
A: Diamond.

What was the name of the ship that spilt 85,000 tons of oil off the Shetland Islands in 1993?
A: Braer.

What is the collective noun for crows?
A: Murder.

What are the three main greenhouse gases?
A: Carbon dioxide; methane; chlorofluorocarbons.

25% of which traditional British feature was cut down between 1945 and 1985 because of agricultural mechanization?
A: Hedges / hedgrerows.

What is the maximum speed of a garden snail: 0.03 mph, 0.3 mph, or 3 mph?
A: 0.03 mph.

Someone who studies tectonics is probably an expert in which field?
A: Movement of continental plates.

What common mineral is formed by the fossilization of vegetation?
A: Coal.

Which theory compares the Earth to a living organism?
A: Gala hypothesis.

In which part of the atmosphere is the ozone layer?
A: Stratosphere.

Where are you likely to come across a laccolith?
A: In igneous rock.