Geology is the branch of Earth science that deals with liquid and solid Earth, the rocks on which it is built, and the processes by which it changes over time. Geology can also include the study of the solid features of any terrestrial planet or natural satellite such as Mars or the Moon.
Geology Terms with Definitions
Following are some basic terms associated with the field of geology from a to z:
- Acid rock: The groups ultrabasic, basic, intermediate and acid
- Aftershock: A small earthquake that follows a main shock.
- Agglomerate: An indurated rock built of large angular rock fragments embedded in an ashy matrix and resulting from explosive volcanic activity. Occurs typically in volcanic vents.
- Aggregate: A mass consisting of rock or mineral fragments.
- Asphalt: A sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleum’s and in some natural deposits.
- Basalt: A fine-grained, mafic igneous rock composed predominantly of ferromagnesian minerals and with lesser amounts of calcium-rich plagioclase feldspar.
- Basement rock: The thick foundation of ancient, and oldest metamorphic and igneous rock that forms the crust of continents, often in the form of granite.
- Basic rock: Igneous rock with low silica content. The groups ultrabasic, basic, intermediate and acid constitute a series with progressively increasing SiO2
- Basin: A landform scooped out by water erosion.
- Carbon film: A type of fossil or preservation.
- Carbonate: A salt or ester of carbonic acid.
- Chalk: A soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of calcite coccolith plates.
- Dip slope: A geological formation often created by erosion of tilted strata.
- Disconformity: A surface that represents missing rock strata but beds above and below that surface are parallel to one another.
- Divergent boundary: The boundary separating two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other. Contrast convergent boundary.
- Epeirogenic: The simultaneous rising and falling movements of continents, maintaining isostasy.
- Epoch: A division of the standard geologic time scale subordinate to periods.
- Foliation: The parallel alignment of textural and structural features of a rock.
- Fossil: Any mineralized or otherwise preserved remains or traces (such as footprints) of animals, plants, or other once-living organisms.
- Gemstone: Also called a gem, fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semi-precious stone.
- Granite: A coarse-grained, often porphyritic, intrusive, felsic, igneous rock containing megascopic quartz,
- Hot spring: A natural spring resulting from the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater from beneath the Earth’s crust.
- Intrusion: body of igneous rock that has crystallized from molten magma below the surface of the Earth.
- Lava: Molten rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption.
- Limestone: A sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite
- Magnetite: An oxide of iron which crystallizes in the cubic system. It is attracted by a magnet but does not attract iron itself.
- Mica: Any of a set of minerals which crystallize in the monoclinic system.
- Sandstone: Sand in which the grains are cemented together by secondary silica or calcite.
- Slump: A form of mass wasting that occurs when a coherent mass of loosely consolidated materials or rock layers moves a short distance down a slope.
- Volcanic: Rocks that have crystallized from magma poured out at the surface or introduced at shallow depth.
- Zeolite: Microporous, alum inosilicate minerals commonly used as adsorbents.
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