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| The Science of the Earth, including its composition, its structure, its origin, its life forms, the physical and chemical processes that affect it, and its history. |
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| Study of the origin and development of Earth, including its life forms, through tme. Also known as historical geology. |
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| A general term for a scientific investigation involving an iterative process of empirical observation, hypothesis building, and testing. |
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| A scientific concept that is tantamount to fact. |
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| The scientific theory that explains processes by which biologic species give rise to other species, principally by way of genetic changes and natural selection. |
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| The scientific theory that Earth's outer shell, or lithosphere, is composed of pieces that interact with each other as they "float" on a hot, deformable asthenosphere |
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| The outer, relatively rigid layer of the Earth, approximately 100 km thic, overlying the asthenosphere. It includes the entire crust plus the upper mantle. |
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| The outermost layer of the Earth, defined by density, composition, and seismic velocity differences from the underlying mantle. |
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| The layer within the upper mantle and below the lithosphere where rocks are relatively ductile and easily deformed. |
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| The sum of the physical, chemical, and biological processes operating on and within Earth. |
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| The principle that processes acting on Earth today have also operated in the geologic past. |
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| Principle of Superposition |
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| In an undisturbed succession of strata, the oldest strata are at the base of the succession, and the youngest strata are at the top of the succession. |
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| The science of layered rocks, developed from three principles first stated by Niels Stenson. |
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| Sedimentary strata were originally deposited nearly horizontally and parallel to the Earth's surface. |
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| At the time of deposition, a sedimentary unit extended laterally and continuously in all directions until it thinned out or otherwise reached the limits of its depositional range. |
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| A paradigm that attempted to explain the development of erosional surfaces and the extinction of species by violent, rapid calamities such as giant floods. |
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| Principle of cross-cutting relationships |
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| A rock unit, sediment body, or fault that cuts another geologic unit is younger than the unit that was cut. |
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| principle of incuded fragments |
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| Fragments of a rock or sediment body contained within another rock or sediment are from a preexisting (older) rock or sediment than the one in which they are contained. |
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| principle of biotic succession |
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| body fossils occur in strata in a definite, determinable order. |
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| a naturally occurring crystalline solid or a synthetic, chemically identical equivalent. |
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| A solid composed of atoms and molecules that have a regular internal structure and an external form defined by flat faces. |
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| Secretion of minerals as bones, teeth, shells, external coverings, or other structures by biologic organisms. |
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| The smallest individual particles that show all the distinctive properties of a chemical element. |
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| The most fundamental substances into which matter can be seperated by normal chemical means. |
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| positively charged particles |
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| negatively charged particles |
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| A bond in which one atom loses an electron from its outer shell to another atom. |
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| A bond in which electrons are shared, rather than exchanged, between atoms. |
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| Weak attractive forces that occur between electrically neutral molecules that have symmetrical charged distributions. |
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| Present in minerals such as iron, nickel, copper, gold, and silver, result from the close packing of atoms. |
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| A mineral that has a silicate tetrahedron as the bsic chemical property. |
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| A mineral that contains a carbonate ion. |
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| A conceptual model that describes the origin, alteration, and destruction of rocks through the action of Earth processes. |
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| Rock formed from the crystallization of magma. |
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| Molten rock, including any suspended crystals (mineral grains) and dissolved gases. |
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| Unconsolidated particles of rock that have been transported by agents of erosion and unconsolidated particle formed as skeletal material through biomineralization. |
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| A rock, usually layered, formed from sediments and from minerals precipitated under aqueous conditions. |
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| Rock whoes original mineralogy or texture has been transformed through any combination of heat, pressure, chemical environment, and shearing stress. |
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| Igneous rock, usually coarsely crystalline, that resulted from the cooling and solidification of magma within Earth's crust. Also know as plutonic rock. (inside earth, large crystals.) |
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| Igneous Rock, usually finely crystalline, that resulted fro the cooling and solidification of magma erupted onto Earth's surface. Also known as volcanic rock. (outside earth, small crystals.) |
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| The processes involved in changing sediments to rock. |
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| A relatively soft type of limestone composed almost exclusively of tiny calcite plates secreted by marine microorganisms called coccoliths. |
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| layering in sedimentary rocks. also known as lamination. |
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| All the chemical, physical, and biologic changes that sediments undergo between the time of deposition and the time of lithification. |
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| Metamorphism that affects large areas of the crust. |
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| Localized metamorphism associated with the intrusion or extrusion of an igneous magma; heat and hydrothermal fluids may be involved in the metamorphic activity. |
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| The technique of establishing a chronology of events arranged in relative sequential order. |
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| Numerical Age Dating or Absolute Dating |
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| The technique of establishing when events occurred according to how much time has elapsed since their geologic occurrence. Geologic time that has elapsed is measured in thousands, millions, or billions of years. |
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| The study of layered rocks, including their compositions, origins, geometric relationships, and ages. |
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| Matching of strata from one location to another. |
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| Stratigraphic correlation on the basis of rock type. |
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| The fundamental unit of lithostratigraphy; it has a definable top and bottom and is mappable across geographic space. |
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| Zoning of stratigraphic layers and arrangement of those layers according to relative time of deposition using the ranges of fossils. |
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| A stratigraphic interval defined by its fossil content and usually given the name of a charcteristic fossil present in that interval. Also known as a zone. |
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| A positive or negative shift in the isotopic ratio of an element, as recorded through a succession of stratigraphic layers. |
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| correlation of strata using ratios of chemical isotopes. |
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| Correlation of strata on the basis of erosin surfaces that seperate packages of sediments or sedimentary rocks called sequences (depositional sequences) |
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| A surface of erosion or nondeposition |
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| an unconformity in which strata below and above the erosion surface are parallel. |
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| A relatively confomable package of sedimentary strata that is bounded below and above by unconformities or their equivalnt conformities. Also known as a depositional sequence. |
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| Highly energetic electromagetic rays that have short wavelengths. |
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| A chronology of Earth history. |
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| The fundamental unit of chronostratigraphy. |
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| The unit of geologic time equivalent to a system. |
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| An unstable isotope that decays, or transforms, into a daughter product. |
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| An isotope formed from the radioactive decayof a parent isotope. |
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