How well do you follow Earth and space science news? Take one of our quizzes to find out!

A lush wetland area, with low bushes rising from the water, under a blue sky
True or false? Tropical wetlands are not significant sources of natural methane emissions to the atmosphere. Credit: Dilanthaonline/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Eos News Quiz | 21 September 2023


Previous quizzes

A page from an ancient text with text and a drawing of circles and other shapes depicting an eclipse
During what type of event does a blood moon occur? Credit: New York Public Library, Public Domain







Eos News Quiz
15 September 2023

A satellite image shows blue sea ice in the Nares Strait and open water toward the bottom of the image.
Are phytoplankton blooms more prolific below thin or thick sea ice? Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery







Eos News Quiz
11 September 2023

A stock illustration shows two cartoon people near an oversized computer with a chatbot on the monitor.
Recent rapid advances in the development of LLM–based chatbot systems that can generate responses to natural language prompts and carry on sophisticated conversations may reshape how people engage with science topics like climate change. What is LLM short for? Credit: iStock.com/Anastasia Usenko









Eos News Quiz
6 September 2023

View of a lake surrounded by tall mountains
A land of vast glaciers and heavy snows that feed many major rivers, the _____ _____, often considered to be Earth’s “Third Pole,” is also a major influence on the global climate system. Credit: Tenace10/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0









Eos News Quiz
28 August 2023

Green ocean mixed with blue close to a brown land
What pigment gives phytoplankton a green color? Credit: NASA Earth Data/Ocean Color Image Gallery







Eos News Quiz
23 August 2023

A creek flows in a forest.
What nutrient is prevalent in agricultural fertilizer but also contributes to algal blooms, eutrophication, and dead zones in waterways? Credit: Jerry Ackerman, U.S. EPA








Eos News Quiz
17 August 2023

A four-legged animal with furry brown hair and a pair of curved, tan horns stands on grassy ground behind a rock, and a younger animal of the same breed appears in the background.
What animal is this? Credit: Eric Post







Eos News Quiz
11 August 2023

A group of college students inside, some sitting and some standing, all looking in the same direction.
True or false? Studies have found that mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness are prevalent among Ph.D. students. Credit: iStock.com/David Schaffer








Eos News Quiz
7 August 2023

Sunlight shines through plumes of ice crystals and dust grains jetting from a gray sphere.
An ingredient that is part of the biochemistry of life has been found on Enceladus. What are the six essential elements of life? Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute








Eos News Quiz
1 August 2023

A satellite image of a light brown landmass with patches of green. In the center is a cloud of smoke with a bright orange streak.
Fagradalsfjall on Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula is at it again. The volcano last erupted in what year? Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery








Eos News Quiz
24 July 2023

A close-up image of the Moon showing a single large crater surrounded by a field of smaller craters
How can scientists determine the ages of craters on the Moon? Credit: NASA, Public Domain







Eos News Quiz
17 July 2023

Illustration of early hominins arriving in a multibiome mosaic landscape
The Pleistocene is better known by what nickname? Credit: IBS Center for Climate Physics







Eos News Quiz
10 July 2023

Researchers stand on a field of ice marked by spots of open water.
Scientists have measured Arctic sea ice every September since 1979. How much sea ice has been lost since then? Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen, Public Domain








Eos News Quiz
3 July 2023

Artist’s impression of LP 791-18 d, an exoplanet heated by tides
True or False? Planetary systems around red dwarfs are generally more tightly packed than planetary systems around Sun-like stars. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KRBwyle), Public Domain








Eos News Quiz
27 June 2023

A beaver dam made of numerous small branches sits in a small pond, with mountains in the distance.
True or False? Beaver dams tend to degrade local ecosystems because they reduce habitat for other animals and hoard water that would otherwise be distributed more widely. Credit: Schmiebel/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0








Eos News Quiz
20 June 2023

A large boat loaded with shipping containers sails in front of a port as the Sun rises in the background.
When fish populations decrease, do more or fewer maritime pirate attacks occur? Credit: iStock.com/Joesboy







Eos News Quiz
13 June 2023

Cracked, parched soil in the foreground, with trees and water visible in the distant background
True or False? Climate change is drying soils. Credit: Water Resources Mission Area, USGS







Eos News Quiz
08 June 2023

A close-up of a smooth gray semispherical body in space with a red spherical body in the background
What are the names of Mars’s two moons? Credit: Emirates Mars Mission







Eos News Quiz
05 June 2023

Photo from the ocean floor with rocks looking at an angle toward the surface
The Blob was an ocean heat wave that struck part of the _____ Ocean between 2013 and 2016. Credit: Jim Beaudoin, Unsplash







Eos News Quiz
30 May 2023

Globally, how many premature deaths is fine particulate matter (PM2.5) responsible for each year? Credit: SreeBot/Wikimedia CommonsCC BY 3.0









Eos News Quiz
22 May 2023

Europa situated in front of Jupiter.
Where might we find watery oceans in our solar system? Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI







Eos News Quiz
17 May 2023

An aerial view of a river flowing in Crescent Lake in Lake Clark National Park
Inland waters include which types of water bodies? Credit: U.S. National Park Service, Public Domain







Eos News Quiz
09 May 2023

A partially missing stone archway is flanked by stone lionlike statues
How can tree rings be used to illuminate past climates? Credit: Carole RaddatoCC BY-SA 2.0







Eos News Quiz
04 May 2023

A photo looking up between tall trees with red bark and green canopy.
What is the world’s tallest tree species? Credit: Richard Masoner/Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0







Eos News Quiz
01 May 2023

A packed baseball stadium with a bright green field on a sunny day. The field is photographed from above and behind home plate looking toward the outfield.
Which baseball stadium will experience the largest increase in the number of home runs thanks to climate-driven warming? Credit: Rex Hammock, CC BY-SA 2.0








Eos News Quiz
24 April 2023

Mesa Arch, Canyonlands National Park, Utah
Are you downtown D.C. or an isolated island? Make some Earth and space sciences choices and we’ll let you know. Shown here is the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park in Utah. Credit: DonyaNedomam/Depositphotos.com
Photo of hundreds of foram tests on a black background
Where do planktonic foraminifera live? Credit: Mushika/iStock









Eos News Quiz
19 April 2023

Satellite image of Earth’s Eastern Hemisphere.
Choose some of your favorite Earth sciences and we’ll tell you who on Earth we think you are—a deep, brooding ocean or a bright, sunny plain? Credit: NASA
A house has gaping holes in its sides as a result of earthquake damage.
True or false? Firsthand “felt reports” from people who experienced earthquakes are better at identifying low-impact quakes than high-impact quakes. Credit: Walter Mooney, USGS








Eos News Quiz
13 April 2023

One person sits and two others stand on part of a large outcrop of gray rock.
Which Earth science facilities and consortia are funded by the National Science Foundation? Credit: Xavier Comas







Eos News Quiz
07 April 2023

A photo of a statue of a dinosaur-like creature next to city buildings.
In the 1954 sci-fi classic, Godzilla first appears off the coast of what country? Credit: Tokyo Cheapo








Eos News Quiz
03 April 2023

Cross sections of several logged trees reveal banded patterns of dark and light wood
Is tree growth more correlated with humid-cool or dry-warm air masses? Credit: Monika Grabkowska, Unsplash








Eos News Quiz
30 March 2023

Aerial image of the 1952 landslide showing the debris path that leads into the ocean
Scientists recently found that a landslide in what country might have been the first Arctic landslide caused by climate change? Credit: Kristian Svennevig








Eos News Quiz
22 March 2023

The skyline of San Francisco, shrouded by clouds and smog, sits against a pastel blue and orange background.
True or false? In California, transportation and agriculture are both significant contributors to nitrogen dioxide emissions. Credit: Amelia Cui, Unsplash








Eos News Quiz
20 March 2023

A white water tower against a blue sky with trees in the foreground.
Why is phosphate sometimes added to the U.S. water supply? Credit: Kansas Water Science Center/USGS, Public Domain








Eos News Quiz
16 March 2023

A satellite image of land, water, and white ice
When does Arctic sea ice reach its maximum extent each year? Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Eos News Quiz
13 March 2023

Image of the Anak Krakatau volcano erupting
What substances do volcanoes spew into the atmosphere? Credit: flydime, CC BY 2.0










Eos News Quiz
9 March 2023

A moose stands on a hill, partially occluded by shrubbery. Pine trees rise in the background.
How do moose help cool down a forest? Credit: Bryan Rodriguez, Unsplash







Eos News Quiz
7 March 2023

An artist’s illustration of a brownish orb in front of a background of white stars. A ring made up of small gray pieces of debris surrounds the orb. To the left of the planet is a smaller brownish orb. To the right is a bright star.
Which objects in the solar system have been discovered to have rings? Credit: ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO








Eos News Quiz
3 March 2023

Three hailstones, each about the size of a baseball, sit atop grass with a measuring tape extended beside them to indicate their size.
What variables are thought to be involved in deep atmospheric convective activity that can produce hailstones? Credit: iStock.com/spxChrome








Eos News Quiz
28 February 2023

Tree rings shown on a cut piece of timber
Our March theme focuses on rocks and rings. Are you more of a Saturn or a sequoia? Find out with our seriously silly quiz. Credit: Michel Arnaud








Put a Ring On It!
27 February 2023

Close-up photo of tree rings
What climate events can tree rings be used to decipher? Credit: iStock.com/Ja’Crispy









Eos News Quiz
24 February 2023

Four bolts of lightning strike the ground simultaneously against a purple sky.
True or false? In a new study, scientists described a new method that can pinpoint where in a cloud a lightning strike begins. Credit: Mathias Krumbholz/Wikimedia, CC-BY-SA 3.0








Eos News Quiz
21 February 2023

Heart-shaped reef island in the Great Barrier Reef
The ocean is aqua / This poem is brief / This island is found / on the _____. Credit: alicia3690, CC0








Eos News Quiz
14 February 2023 ❤️

Photo of Mars from space. Red sphere with black patches near center and white areas on two sides.
Which planet has a denser atmosphere, Earth or Mars? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS








Eos News Quiz
9 February 2023

Black freighter at sea with gray, cloudy skies in the background
How costly are natural hazards to maritime trade every year? Credit: Louis VestCC BY-NC 2.0








Eos News Quiz
3 February 2023

Geologists can harpoon the Whaleback anticline in which U.S. state? (Hint: It is a former coal mine located in the Middle Anthracite region). Credit: Universities Space Research Association/Earth Science Picture of the Day/Dave Kerr










Eos News Quiz
31 January 2023

A person’s hand holding many pills and a pile of pills on the surface underneath
True or false? Breakdown products from pharmaceuticals are always less toxic than their original parent compound. Credit: SharonDawn/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0









Eos News Quiz
25 January 2023

photo of the seafloor at Isla de San Andrés, San Andres and Providencia, Colombia
Our February theme is Science at the Seafloor. Take our seriously silly quiz to see where you splash down. Credit: Andrés Dallimonti/Unsplash








Oh Say, Can You Sea?
24 January 2023

A forest scene depicts the base of several hemlock trees with their roots exposed.
Which element’s isotopes did scientists recently use to predict plant water use? Credit: Nicholas_T/Flickr, CC BY 2.0








Eos News Quiz
18 January 2023

An artist’s rendering of Earth covered in ice
How thick was the ice that covered our planet during its Snowball Earth periods? Credit: Oleg Kuznetsov/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0








Eos News Quiz
11 January 2023

A drone hovers over a beach.
True or false? Scientists can measure wind speeds using drones. Credit: Jim Makos, CC BY-ND 2.0









Eos News Quiz
3 January 2023

An illustrated scientific diagram shows how groundwater interacts with the rest of the water cycle.
Where does a large part of the world’s liquid freshwater supply come from? Credit: Credit: Dr. Andrew Fisher/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photograph of Arctic sea ice
For the past 25 years, has Greenland consistently lost more ice than it gains each year? Credit: iStock.com/Michal Balada
A map of the world centered on the Pacific Ocean, with continents in gray and oceans in white. Lines of bright colors cross the oceans and wind around continents, depicting the locations of transoceanic subsea cables.
True or false? Heavy physical cables are still necessary for the Internet to work as we expect it to. Credit: TeleGeography’s Submarine Cable Map, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo of a polar bear and two cubs traversing a field of snow and ice
How many ice-free days can polar bears endure? Credit: Kristin Laidre
Spacecraft view of the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa showing a complex pattern of ridges and bands.
Aside from Earth, which solar system body offers the best evidence of plate tectonic activity? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute








Eos News Quiz
6 December 2022

3D rendering of Earth
How fast is excascale computing? Credit: sdecoret/Depositphotos







Eos News Quiz
29 November 2022

An oil pump appears in the foreground against a background of buildings.
Cubic kilometer for cubic kilometer, where is the world’s richest oil field? Credit: iStock.com/Gary Kavanagh








Eos News Quiz
18 November 2022

Take Our Quiz!
Are you a spark of lightning or a glacial glide? Find your signature Earth or space science phenomenon with our fun and scientifically silly 10-question quiz.








Find Your Phenomenon!
18 November 2022

Researcher Liezel Rudolph stands next to an unmarked signpost on Marion Island.
Researchers recently completed an open-access geospatial database of the Prince Edward Islands. Where are the Prince Edward Islands? Credit: Liezel Rudolph








Eos News Quiz
14 November 2022

A crew of about a dozen people handle a sediment core at their scientific drilling site at Chew Bahir in Ethiopia.
What species of hominins were hanging around Chew Bahir 60,000 years ago? Credit: Frank Schaebitz








Eos News Quiz
09 November 2022

A bolt of lightning flashes across a night sky.
Is there more lightning over sea or over land? Credit: Abel Escobar/Pixabay







Eos News Quiz
03 November 2022

A mass of steaming, orange-glowing lava consumes a street sign as it flows over a roadway.
To be useful in evacuation planning in places like Hawaii, models that forecast lava flows must accurately predict what characteristics?. Credit: A. Lerner/U.S. Geological Survey, Public Domain







Eos News Quiz
27 October 2022

During the summer monsoon, warm, moist air from which ocean blows across the Indian subcontinent?







Eos News Quiz
24 October 2022

Skyline of a construction site in Mumbai, India
True or false? Across the city of Indore, India, a network of low-cost sensors revealed that most air pollution comes from a single type of source. Credit: Ikshit Patel, Unsplash








Eos News Quiz
20 October 2022

Diagram showing various water cycles on Earth.
The USGS released a new water cycle diagram to include what feature for the first time? Credit: Hayley Corson-Dosch/USGS VizLab








Eos News Quiz
13 October 2022

Three globes showing deep mantle structures in shades of red (hot structures) and blue (cold structures), with shading in each color family indicating depth. The first globe represents the mantle at 200 million years ago. The second shows the mantle at 100 million years ago. The third shows the present-day mantle. Superimposed atop the mantle structures are gray outlines of where a new model shows the continents were at each time. These globes show Asia and Australia on the left and the Pacific Ocean on the right.
When did Pangea break up? Credit: Ömer F. Bodur







Eos News Quiz
13 October 2022

Bubbles rise toward the ocean surface.
Carbon capture and storage wells need to be 800 meters deep. Why? Credit: Jeremy Bishop/Unsplash







Eos News Quiz
7 October 2022

Aerial view of a muddy river delta with meandering stream channels emanating from a river emerging from a forest
By what process do loose agglomerations of sediments gradually compress under the weight of newly added material, contributing to land subsidence?








Eos News Quiz
5 October 2022

Close-up of green olivine sand grains
Although olivine is a relatively inexpensive mineral, it does have a gem-quality variety. What is it?







Eos News Quiz
28 September 2022

An underwater volcano helped Tonga gain a new island. Choose another island.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from USGS









What Ocean Are You?
27 September 2022

Air bubbles rise from a scuba diver who is looking at a coral reef.
Coral bleaching results when what happens?






Eos News Quiz
23 September 2022

A distinctive mushroom cloud blossoms over the cloud line during detonation of the Ivy Mike hydrogen bomb in 1952.
The “bomb pulse” has helped scientists accurately date organic materials. What bomb set off that pulse?








Eos News Quiz
21 September 2022

View of a lake in the distance with mud cracks in reddish soil in the foreground.
The “Millennium” drought, which lasted roughly from 1997 to 2010, primarily affected what region?








Eos News Quiz
16 September 2022

A large wall of ice looms above a body of water, and a waterfall trickles down the ice near the center of the image.
Glaciers in Kenai Fjords National Park, Alaska, can terminate over land, lakes, or the ocean. Which type of glacier is slowest to retreat?
Shown here is Holgate glacier.








Eos News Quiz
14 September 2022

Green building with many windows and white AC fans near each window
What percentage of homes in Europe have air-conditioning?







Eos News Quiz
9 September 2022

A tall jet of lightning extends upward from a bright thundercloud in front of a dark starry sky. The gigantic jet is bright white at the base and then transitions to blue and then to red as it reaches upward. The top of the jet is wider than the base.
Gigantic jets of lightning are the rarest transient luminous event on Earth. How often do they occur each year?








Eos News Quiz
7 September 2022

Aerial image of a spiral storm over the southern United States
True or false? The “social cost of carbon” is defined as the economic benefits of emitting an additional 1 ton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.








Eos News Quiz
2 September 2022

Satellite image of the Mississippi delta.
Most deltas are susceptible to land loss during sea level rise, whereas others gain land because of changes in the courses of rivers. This famous delta is experiencing land loss in most areas but gaining in others. What delta are we looking at?









Eos News Quiz
31 August 2022

A new study analyzes the potential of social sensing for assessing natural hazards. What is social sensing?








Eos News Quiz
29 August 2022

What have scientists compared the shaking surface of the Sun to?

Eos News Quiz
25 August 2022

Satellite image of ancient lava flows on Mars
Scientists are pretty sure water flowed across the ancient Martian landscape. How did the water get there?

Eos News Quiz
25 August 2022

An enormous stellar flare erupts from Proxima Centauri in this artist’s representation.
Look on the sunny side, whether it’s Bono or Baudelaire. Find your sun sign with our 10-question personality quiz.








What Sun Are You?
24 August 2022

By what two forces are hillslopes primarily shaped?







Eos News Quiz
23 August 2022

In this digital illustration, three small rocky planets orbit a pulsar. One planet is large in the foreground and has a polar aurora and cratered surface. The other two are smaller in the background. A pulsar appears at top left in the image and is depicted as a bright white point source emitting white beams at 5 o’clock and 11 o’clock. Purple and green loops and swirls surround the point of light and represent the strong magnetic field of a pulsar.
Astronomers have only found 8 planets around pulsars, those cosmic lighthouses that are born when massive stars die. By which methods have pulsar planets been found?








Eos News Quiz
18 August 2022

Burned landscape of the Indian Creek watershed in southern Colorado after the Spring Creek Fire
How does wildfire affect snowpack and snowmelt in the U.S. West?







Eos News Quiz
15 August 2022

Aerial view of the Colorado River
What percentage of Colorado’s water does Denver Water, which serves about 25% of the state’s population, use?








Eos News Quiz
10 August 2022

Lake Carezza with evergreens and snowy mountains in the background.
According to new research, about how much methane do lakes (including Lake Carezza in Italy, pictured) release into the atmosphere every year? Credit: Umberto Salvagnin/Flickr, CC BY 2.0








Eos News Quiz
4 August 2022

What are the least understood planets in our solar system?







Eos News Quiz
2 August 2022

Anesthesiologists can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by replacing inhaled anesthetics with intravenous ones.
Are gases used for anesthesia during surgery more potent than other greenhouse gases like methane and carbon dioxide?








Eos News Quiz
29 July 2022

The Colorado River with canyons in the background
True or false? Changes in climate can alter chemical concentrations in rivers.







Eos News Quiz
27 July 2022

YouTube video

Jonas Vingegaard of Denmark won the Tour de France. You’ve got a week to follow an international sports competition. Where are you going?

Three-tiered calcite formation.
Researchers propose a new way to sort minerals. On what is the new categorization based?







Eos News Quiz
22 July 2022

Map showing faults around the San Francisco Bay
How well do you know the Bay Area’s faultlines?







Eos News Quiz
22 July 2022

True or false? You can safely roast marshmallows over an erupting volcano.







Eos News Quiz
18 July 2022

Detail from Eos Mars poster
The Chassigny meteorite fell to Earth from Mars more than 200 years ago. Which part of Mars did this meteorite come from?








Eos News Quiz
18 July 2022

An artist’s rendering of InSight on the surface of Mars
Name that mission! NASA’s _____ lander has provided insights and observations about seismic waves on Mars.








Eos News Quiz
14 July 2022

JWST’s First Deep Field image
What is the James Webb Space Telescope slated to observe during its first year of observations:








Eos News Quiz
13 July 2022

Map showing southern Europe and northern Africa
High school students from the Azores used a Raspberry Pi to measure Earth’s magnetic field and pinpoint its pole locations using data from the ISS. Where are the Azores?








Eos News Quiz
5 July 2022

In Florida, stormwater ponds protect the quality of nearby waterways by containing sediment, which sinks to the bottom of the ponds, and prevent erosion by limiting runoff. How many stormwater ponds are in Florida?








Eos News Quiz
22 June 2022

InSight’s magnetometer was originally intended as a support for which area of study on the Red Planet?








Eos News Quiz
17 June 2022

As wildfire smoke rises into the atmosphere, sunlight spurs chemical reactions that alter the smoke’s original components (primary organic aerosols) and create new ones, called what?








Eos News Quiz
16 June 2022

Lake Snow Eagle is 198 meters (650 feet) deep, 48 kilometers (30 miles) long, and 14 kilometers (9 miles) wide. Why was it discovered only 4 years ago?








Eos News Quiz
15 June 2022

A coronal mass ejection from a star 450 light years from Earth sent two billion billion pounds of mass rocketing into space. (Yes, billion billion.) Where is the coronal mass ejection on this illustration?








Eos News Quiz
10 June 2022

What information is helping scientists study ancient landslides off the coast of New Zealand to better assess the modern-day risk of tsunamis around the Tasman Sea?








Eos News Quiz
3 June 2022

The January eruption of Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai, in Tonga, was a one-in-a-thousand-year blast. Where in the world is Tonga?








Eos News Quiz
13 May 2022

What innovative tool or tools did scientists use to track a category-4 hurricane directly from the ocean?








Eos News Quiz
6 May 2022