Geology Glossaries

A look at some weird words, and why we need them, and where you can find their definitions.

Geology derives many of its words from the discipline of architecture. Here's the first list of these terms on the Web.

When is an exposure really an outcrop, or vice versa?

Geologic terms that are poorly used, improperly used, or just irritating.

One big file with no minerals, but 700 other terms, from Geotechnica Electronic Media Service of Colorado.

About 125 major terms briefly defined from the University of California Museum of Palontology.

Short but wide-ranging general list for introductory geology from Houghton Mifflin publishers.

A Portuguese glossary from the Universidade de Brasília.

Yes, everything you need to know in Gaelic, from www.achainn.ie.

U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 95-807 lists hundreds of terms and some guidance in the ways of the intriguing Icelandic language.

By Russ Rowlett, University of North Carolina, a very cool resource with a great link list.

More than 1000 Latin and Greek word elements that show up in formal plant names are listed by Karen Fletcher of the Garden Gate site. Very useful for dissecting fossil names.

A great hyperlinked resource from Zoom Dinosaurs, for smart people of all ages and a superb browse.

An extensive, well-researched treasure trove on the Dinosauria.com site—includes a sound file for each name, so you'll never go wrong.

The Geofisica blog translates hundreds of Spanish geological and geophysical terms.

Part of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, this illustrated list has about 180 different definitions.

A specialized list from Integrated Geophysics Corporation, Houston, Texas.

An enormous site by UNESCO covering 11 languages. The English section has some 2000 entries.

A nice collection of words that are normally scattered around the dictionary, from the Northeast Lithic Database site.

From the Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom, with many pictures.

28,000 terms compiled by the Bureau of Mines, easy to search and navigate. There are other mining glossaries, but why bother? Well served from Hacettepe University in Turkey.

A very large (over 4300 entries) and wide-ranging list from Steven Baum of Texas A&M University.

The Schlumberger company performs a great service with this large wordlist for the petroleum industry and the science that underlies it.

About 150 terms related to geologic time units, major life forms, and common fossil body parts.

All about these important microfossils and their living counterparts, from the University of Utrecht, Netherlands.

From the Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom, this list is much wider-ranging than the other mineral lists.

A very specialized, colorful resource by Carlos Cramez of Universidade Fernando Pessoa in Portugal.

A well-illustrated list from the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

A sound source for this complex specialty from the Soil Science Society of America.

Some 200 words and concepts related to space weather and the sun, from the National Geophysical Data Center.

The Australian Speleological Association publishes this list of some 750 terms, ranging from "cave" to "stygoxene," maintained by Max Meth.

A huge and beautifully illustrated wordlist of everything related to trilobites, created by Sam M. Gon III.

A gorgeous set of images with definitions from the U.S. Geological Survey.

From VolcanoWorld.

The U.S. Geological Survey, the government's lead agency on water matters, posts this set of about 150 definitions.

From the Water Quality Association.

About 80 terms related to beaches and surf are presented by Australia's Manly Hydraulics Laboratory.