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McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Earth Science Second Edition McGraw-Hill NewYork Chicago SanFrancisco Lisbon London Madrid MexicoCity Milan NewDelhi SanJuan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be repro- duced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. 0-07-141798-2 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: 0-07-141045-7 All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. 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Contents Preface ................................................................................................................. v Staff ...................................................................................................................... vi HowtoUsetheDictionary ........................................................................... vii FieldsandTheirScope .................................................................................. ix PronunciationKey ............................................................................................ x A-ZTerms .................................................................................................... 1-448 Appendix .................................................................................................. 449-468 EquivalentsofcommonlyusedunitsfortheU.S. CustomarySystemandthemetricsystem .................................... 451 ConversionfactorsfortheU.S.CustomarySystem, metricsystem,andInternationalSystem .............................. 452-455 Geologiccolumnandscaleoftime .................................................... 456 Somehistoricalvolcaniceruptions ..................................................... 457 Principalregionsofastandardearthmodel ..................................... 458 Physicalpropertiesofsomecommonrocks ...................................... 458 Approximateconcentrationoforeelementsinearth’s crustandinores ............................................................................... 459 Soilorders .............................................................................................. 459 Elementalcompositionofearth’scrustbasedon igneousandsedimentaryrock ........................................................ 460 World’sestimatedwatersupply .......................................................... 460 Cloudclassificationbasedonairmotionand associatedphysicalcharacteristics ................................................. 461 Simplifiedclassificationofmajorigneousrockson thebasisofcompositionandtexture ............................................ 462 Averagechemicalcompositionofigneousrocks (totalsreducedto100%) .................................................................. 463 Dimensionsofsomemajorlakes ........................................................ 464 Characteristicsofsomeoftheworld’smajorrivers ......................... 465 The100highestmountainpeaks ........................................................ 466 Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. This page intentionally left blank. Preface TheMcGraw-HillDictionaryofEarthScienceprovidesacompendiumofmorethan 10,000 terms that are central to the broad range of disciplines comprising earthscience.ThecoverageinthisSecondEditionisfocusedontheareasof climatology, geochemistry, geodesy, geography, geology, geophysics, hydrology,meteorology,andoceanography,withnewtermsaddedandothersrevised asnecessary. Earthsciencestrivestounderstandtheorigins,evolution,andbehaviorofthe earthinabroadcontext,includingtheplaceoftheearthinthesolarsystem andthe universe.Muchof theadvancesin earthsciencehave resultedfrom thegreatlyimprovedabilitytomeasureandanalyzethecomplexinteractions overtimeofthecomponentpartsoftheearth,includingtheatmosphere,the biosphere,thehydrosphere,andthelithosphere.Thus,earthscienceishighly interdisciplinary,andanunderstandingoftheterminologyofthefieldscovered in this Dictionary is important for an appreciation of its literature and applications. AllofthedefinitionsaredrawnfromtheMcGraw-HillDictionaryofScientificand TechnicalTerms,SixthEdition(2003).Eachdefinitionisclassifiedaccordingto the field with which it is primarily associated. The pronunciation of each term is provided along with synonyms, acronyms, and abbreviations where appropriate.AguidetotheuseoftheDictionaryonpagesvii-viiiexplainsthe alphabeticalorganizationofterms,theformatofthebook,crossreferencing, and how synonyms, variant spelling, abbreviations, and similar information are handled. The Pronunciation Key is provided on page x. The Appendix provides conversion tables for commonly used scientific units as well as a revisedgeologictimescale,periodictable,historicalinformation,anduseful listingsofdatafromthevarioiusdisclriplinesofearthscience. Itistheeditors’hopethattheSecondEditionoftheMcGraw-HillDictionaryof Earth Science willserve the needs of scientists,engineers, students, teachers, librarians,andwritersforhigh-qualityinformation,andthatitwillcontribute toscientificliteracyandcommunication. MarkD.Licker Publisher v Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. Staff MarkD.Licker,Publisher—Science ElizabethGeller,ManagingEditor JonathanWeil,SeniorStaffEditor DavidBlumel,StaffEditor AlyssaRappaport,StaffEditor CharlesWagner,DigitalContentManager ReneeTaylor,EditorialAssistant RogerKasunic,VicePresident—Editing,Design,andProduction JoeFaulk,EditingManager FrankKotowski,Jr.,SeniorEditingSupervisor RonLane,ArtDirector ThomasG.Kowalczyk,ProductionManager PamelaA.Pelton,SeniorProductionSupervisor HenryF.Beechhold,PronunciationEditor ProfessorEmeritusofEnglish FormerChairman,LinguisticsProgram TheCollegeofNewJersey Trenton,NewJersey vi Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. How to Use the Dictionary ALPHABETIZATION. ThetermsintheMcGraw-HillDictionaryofEarthScience, Second Edition, are alphabetized on a letter-by-letter basis; word spacing, hyphen,comma,solidus,andapostropheinatermareignoredinthesequenc- ing.Forexample,anorderingoftermswouldbe: aircrafticing ARFOR airdischarge Argid air-massanalysis aridclimate FORMAT. Thebasicformatforadefiningentryprovidestheterminboldface, thefieldissmallcapitals,andthesingledefinitioninlightface: term[FIELD] Definition A field may be followed by multiple definitions, each introduced by a bold- facenumber: term[FIELD] 1.Definition.2.Definition.3.Definition. Atermmayhavedefinitionsintwoormorefields: term[CLIMATOL] Definition. [GEOL] Definition. Asimplecross-referenceentryappearsas: term Seeanotherterm. Acrossreferencemayalsoappearincombinationwithdefinitions: term[CLIMATOL] Definition. [GEOL] Seeanotherterm. CROSS REFERENCING. A cross-reference entry directs the user to the definingentry.Forexample,theuserlookingup“Antarcticvortex”finds: Antarcticvortex Seepolarvortex. The user then turns to the “P” terms for the definition. Cross references are alsomadefromvariantspellings,acronyms,abbreviations,andsymbols. abs Seeabsolute. bahada Seebajada. Ci Seecirruscloud. DDAvalue Seedepth-duration-areavalue. vii Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use. ALSOKNOWNAS...,etc.Adefinitionmayconcludewithamentionofa synonymoftheterm,avariantspelling,anabbreviationfortheterm,orother such information, introduced by “Also known as ...,” “Also spelled ...,” “Abbreviated ...,” “Symbolized ...,” “Derived from ....” When a term has morethanonedefinition,thepositioningofanyofthesephrasesconveysthe extentofapplicability.Forexample: term [CLIMATOL] 1. Definition. Also known as synonym. 2. Definition. SymbolizedT. Intheabovearrangement,“Alsoknownas...”appliesonlytothefirstdefini- tion;“Symbolized...”appliesonlytotheseconddefinition. term[CLIMATOL] 1.Definition. 2.Definition. [GEOL] Definition.Also knownassynonym. Intheabovearrangement,“Alsoknownas...”appliesonlytothesecondfield. term [CLIMATOL] Also known as synonym. 1. Definition. 2. Defini- tion. [GEOL] Definition. Intheabovearrangement,“Alsoknownas...”appliestobothdefinitionsin thefirstfield. term Also known as synonym. [CLIMATOL] 1. Definition. 2. Defini- tion. [GEOL] Definition. In the above arrangement, “Also known as ...” applies to all definitions in bothfields. viii Fields and Their Scope [CLIMATOL] climatology—That branch of meteorology concerned with the meanphysicalstateoftheatmospheretogetherwithitsstatisticalvariations inbothspaceandtimeasreflectedintheweatherbehavioroveraperiodof manyyears. [GEOCHEM] geochemistry—Thefieldthatencompassestheinvestigationof thechemicalcompositionoftheearth,otherplanets,andthesolarsystemand universeasawhole,aswellasthechemicalprocessesthatoccurwithinthem. [GEOD] geodesy—Thesubdivisionofgeophysicswhichincludesdetermina- tions of the size and shape of the earth, the earth’s gravitational field, and the location of point fixed to the earth’s crust in an earth-referred coordi- natesystem. [GEOGR] geography—The science that deals with the description of land, sea,andairandthedistributionofplantandanimallife,includinghumans. [GEOL] geology—The study or science of earth, its history, and its life as recordedintherocks;includesthestudyofthegeologicfeaturesofanarea, such as the geometry of rock formations, weathering and erosion, and sedimentation. [GEOPHYS] geophysics—Thebranchofgeologyinwhichtheprinciplesand practicesofphysicsareusedtostudytheearthanditsenvironment,thatis, earth,air,and(byextension)space. [HYD] hydrology—The science dealing with all aspects of the waters on earth,includingtheiroccurrence,circulation,anddistribution;theirchemical and physical properties; and their reaction with the environment, including theirrelationtolivingthings. [METEOROL] meteorology—Thescienceconcernedprimarilywiththeobser- vationoftheatmosphereanditsphenomena,includingtemperature,density, winds,clouds,andprecipitation. [OCEANOGR] oceanography—The science of the sea, including physical oceanography(thestudyofthephysicalpropertiesofseawateranditsmotion in waves, tides, and currents), marine chemistry, marine geology, and marinebiology. ix Copyright 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Click Here for Terms of Use.