Glossary of Geology

This third edition of the Glossary of Geology contains approximately 37,000 terms, or 1,000 more than the second edition, as well as 650 emendations and corrections. In addition, it includes for the first time the division of cited terms in syllables, with accents to aid in pronunciation. Approximately 150 references have been added to the 2,000 in the second edition. Literature cited ranges from the early 1790s to 1986.New entries are especially numerous in the fields of carbonate sedimentology, hydrogeology, marine geology, mineralogy, ore deposits, plate tectonics, snow and ice, and stratigraphic nomenclature.Many of the definitions provide background information. Thus the reader will learn the difference between sylvanite and sylvinite, and many other look-alike pairs; the origin of such terms as charnockite and lottal; the meaning of BHP, LVL, MORB, and more than 100 other abbreviations now common in the geoscience vocabulary; and the dates when many terms were first us