Q.1
What is the estimated age of the Earth?
  • 4,500 years
  • 45,000 years
  • 4.5 million years
  • 4.5 billion years
Q.2
The oldest rocks that seem to contain fossils of microbes have been found in Australia. How long after the formation of the Earth were they thought to have been formed?
  • One billion years
  • One million years
  • One thousand years
  • They were formed at the same time as the Earth
Q.3
The South Downs are made from chalk formed during the ...
  • quaternary period
  • cambrian period
  • carboniferous period
  • cretaceous period
Q.4
The Cotswolds are partly formed from a type of limestone that formed during the ...
  • cambrian period
  • jurassic period
  • carboniferous period
  • neogene period
Q.5
Another type of limestone is found in Britain, for example, in the Pennines. When was this formed?
  • Triassic period
  • Jurassic period
  • Carboniferous period
  • Palaeogene period
Q.6
The last great ice age is said to have started about 120,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago. This puts it in which era and period?
  • Cenozoic, cretaceous
  • Palaeozoic, devonian
  • Cenozoic, quaternary
  • Mesozoic, cambrian
Q.7
Granite is a very hard rock that is found in several places in Britain. There are significant outcrops in Scotland (formed about 400 million years ago) and the SW peninsula (formed about 280 million years ago). Which of the following combinations of periods is correct (Scottish granite first)?
  • Devonian and permian
  • Jurassic and triassic
  • Cambrian and permian
  • Ordovician and quaternary
Q.8
If you were able to travel back in time, to which of the following periods would you go to see a dinosaur?
  • Jurassic
  • Cretaceous
  • Triassic
  • Any of the above
Q.9
Imagine that you are a farmer and your farm is in an area where the main rock is carboniferous limestone. What would you be most likely to be farming?
  • Sheep and cows
  • Wheat
  • Sweetcorn
  • Vegetables
Q.10
One analogy to help you visualize the scale of geological time is to compare it to London's tallest building, the Shard. If the height of the Shard represents all of geological time, which one of the following would represent human history?
  • The thickness of a triple decker cheese sandwich
  • Half of the height of the Shard
  • The thickness of a postage stamp
  • About the height of a double decker bus
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