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Glossary

A B C D E F GH I J K LM N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Adamant

A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness.

Aeon

The longest division of geological time; two or more eras.

Anticlinal

Occurring at right angles to the surface or circumference of a plant organ .

Antiquarian

One who collects or studies antiquities.

Aperture

An opening or open space.

Asphalt

A dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons.

Bitumen

Any of various mixtures of hydrocarbons (as tar) often together with their nonmetallic derivatives that occur naturally or are obtained as residues after heat-refining natural substances (as petroleum); specifically : such a mixture soluble in carbon disulfide.

Bituminous shale

An argillaceous shale impregnated with bitumen, often accompanying coal.

Coal

A black or brownish black solid combustible substance formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable matter without free access of air and under the influence of moisture and often increased pressure and temperature that is widely used as a natural fuel.

Copper

A common reddish metallic element that is ductile and malleable and is one of the best conductors of heat and electricity.

Crevice

A narrow opening resulting from a split or crack.

Dexterous

Mentally adroit and skillful : CLEVER.

Epoch [geochronologic]

(a) A geologic-time unit longer than an age and shorter than a period, during which the rocks of the corresponding series were formed. (b) A term used informally to designate a length (usually short) of geologic time.

Fault

(Geol. & Mining) A dislocation caused by a slipping of rock masses along a plane of facture; also, the dislocated structure resulting from such slipping.

Fossils

A remnant, impression, or trace of an organism of past geologic ages that has been preserved in the earth's crust.

Ganoid fishes

Having, or being fish scales consisting of bone and an outer shiny layer resembling enamel.

Gem

A precious or sometimes semiprecious stone cut and polished for ornament.

Gneiss

A foliated metamorphic rock corresponding in composition to a feldspathic plutonic rock (as granite).

Granite

A very hard natural igneous rock formation of visibly crystalline texture formed essentially of quartz and orthoclase or microcline and used especially for building and for monuments.

Gypsum

A widely distributed mineral consisting of hydrous calcium sulfate that is used especially as a soil amendment and in making plaster of paris.

Hydrocarbon

An organic compound (as acetylene or butane) containing only carbon and hydrogen and often occurring in petroleum, natural gas, coal, and bitumens.

Ichnology

The study of trace fossils, especially the study of fossil tracks.

Igneous

Said of a rock or mineral that solidified from molten or partly molten material, i.e. from magma; also, applied to processes leading to, related to, or resulting from the formation of such rocks. Igneous rocks constitute one of the tree main  classes into which rocks are divided, the others being metamorphic and sedimentary.

Kerosene

A flammable hydrocarbon oil usually obtained by distillation of petroleum and used for a fuel and as a solvent and thinner.

Lepidodendron

A genus of fossil trees of the Devonian and Carboniferous ages, having the exterior marked with scars, mostly in quincunx order, produced by the separation of the leafstalks.

Lepidostrobus

Lepidostrobus represents the fruiting bodies or cones of the Lepidodendron tree .Lepidodendron cones are almost always found individually, indicating they were attached individually to the tree rather than in clusters.This specimen is shown approximately actual size.

Limestone

A rock consisting chiefly of calcium carbonate or carbonate of lime. It sometimes contains also magnesium carbonate, and is then called magnesian or dolomitic limestone. Crystalline limestone is called marble.

Manganese

An element obtained by reduction of its oxide, as a hard, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty, but easily oxidized. Its ores occur abundantly in nature as the minerals pyrolusite, manganite.

Maltha

A variety of bitumen, viscid and tenacious, like pitch, unctuous to the touch, and exhaling a bituminous odor.

Mineralogy

The science which treats of minerals, and teaches how to describe, distinguish, and classify them.

Mississippian period

Of, relating to, or being the period of the Paleozoic era in No. America following the Devonian and preceding the Pennsylvanian or the corresponding system of rocks.

Ooze

A soft deposit (as of mud, slime, or shells) on the bottom of a body of water.

Ores

A mineral containing a valuable constituent (as metal) for which it is mined and worked.

Paleontologist

A science dealing with the life of past geological periods as known from fossil remains.

Precambrian period

The time before 600 million years ago.

Slate

An argillaceous rock which readily splits into thin plates; argillite; argillaceous schist.

Strata

Subsequent in origin; -- said of minerals produced by alteertion or deposition subsequent to the formation of the original rocks mass; also of characters of minerals (as secondary cleavage, etc.) developed by pressure or other causes.

Trace Fossil

A sedimentary structure consisting of a fossilized track, trail, burrow, tube, boring, or tunnel resulting from the life activities (other than growth) of an animal, such as a mark made by an invertebrate moving, creeping, feeding, hiding, browsing, running, or resting on or in soft sediment. It is often preserved as a raised or depressed form in sedimentary rock.

Unconformable

Said of strata or stratification exhibiting the relation of unconformity to the older underlying rocks; not succeeding the underlying rocks in immediate order or age or not fitting together with them as parts of a continuous whole. In the strict sense, the term is applied to younger strata that do not "conform" in position or that do not have the same dip and strike as those of the immediate underlying rocks.

Vein

A bed of useful mineral matter.

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