Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Geology |
GeologyNoun1. A science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks. 2. The geological features of the earth. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "geology" was first used: 1735. (references) |
Etymology: Geology \Ge*ol"o*gy\, noun; plural Geologies. [Greek ge`a, gh^, the earth + -logy: compare to French g['e]ologie.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | GEOLOGY, n. The science of the earth's crust -- to which, doubtless, will be added that of its interior whenever a man shall come up garrulous out of a well. The geological formations of the globe already noted are catalogued thus: The Primary, or lower one, consists of rocks, bones or mired mules, gas-pipes, miners' tools, antique statues minus the nose, Spanish doubloons and ancestors. The Secondary is largely made up of red worms and moles. The Tertiary comprises railway tracks, patent pavements, grass, snakes, mouldy boots, beer bottles, tomato cans, intoxicated citizens, garbage, anarchists, snap-dogs and fools. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Geological | The study of the planet earth -- the materials it is made of, the processes that act on those materials, the products formed, and the history of the planet and its life forms since its origin. (references) |
Literature | Geology (g soft). The father of geology. William Smith (1769-1840). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Science | The scientific study of the origin, history, behavior, and structure of the Earth. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Geology (from Greek γη- (ge-, "the earth") and λογος (logos, "science")) is the science and study of the earth, its history, and the processes that shape it. The word was first used in this sense by Jean-André de Luc in the year 1778 and introduced by Bénédict de Saussure in the year 1779 as a fixed term. [An older sense of the word is first mentioned by Richard de Bury in 1473. He used it to distinguish between earthly and theological jurisprudence.]
Geology is also sometimes used about similar studies of other bodies of the solar system. However, specialised terms such as selenology (studies of the Moon), areology (of Mars), etc., are also in use.
History
Georg Agricola (1494-1555) wrote the first systematic treatise about mining and about smelting works: De re metallica libri XII with an appendix Buch von den Lebewesen unter Tage (book of the creatures beneath the earth). He covered subjects like wind energy, hydrodynamic power, melting cookers, transport of ores, extraction of soda, sulfur and alum, and administrative issues. The book has been published in 1556.
James Hutton is often viewed as the first modern geologist. In 1785 he presented a paper entitled Theory of the Earth to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In his paper, he explained his theory that the Earth must be much older than had previously been supposed, in order to allow enough time for mountains to be eroded, and for the sediment to form new rocks at the bottom of the sea, which were then raised up to dry land.
Followers of Hutton were known as plutonists because they believed that some rocks were formed by vulcanism which is the deposition of lava from volcanoes, as opposed to the neptunists, who believed that all rocks had settled out of a large ocean whose level gradually dropped over time.
William Smith (1769-1839) drew some of the first geological maps and began the process of ordering rock strata (layers) by examining the fossils contained in them.
Sir Charles Lyell first published his famous book, Principles of Geology, in 1830 and continued to publish new revisions until he died in 1875. He successfully promoted the doctrine of uniformitarianism. This theory states that slow geological processes occurred throughout the earth's history, and are still occurring today. In contrast, catastrophism is the theory that Earth's features formed in single, catastrophic events and remained unchanged thereafter. (Hutton believed in uniformitarianism, but the idea was not widely accepted at the time.)
The theory of continental drift was proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 and by Arthur Holmes, but wasn't broadly accepted until the 1960s when the theory of plate tectonics was developed.
See also: Timeline of geology
Fields
There are many different fields within the discipline of Geology, and it would be hard to list all of them. Some include, however: geochemistry, hydrogeology (or geohydrology), petroleum geology, economic geology, soil science, climatology, biogeology, geodetics and geophysics.
Subdisciplines within geology proper include structural geology, sedimentology and stratigraphy, mineralogy (study of minerals), petrology (study of rocks), geomorphology (study of landforms), seismology (also a field in geophysics) and volcanology (the study of volcanic activity).
There is also engineering geology, which supports civil engineering, especially geotechnical engineering, and geological engineering. The difference between geological engineering and engineering geology is real: geological engineers are licensed as engineers, engineering geologists are licensed as geologists.
See also: geologists, the Geologic timescale, minerals
External link
- James Hutton's Theory of the Earth
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Geology."
Synonyms: GeologySynonyms: formation (n), geological formation (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Inorganization | Mineralogy, geology, geognosy, geoscopy; metallurgy, metallography; lithology; oryctology, oryctography. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Geology is the study of pressure and time (The Shawshank Redemption; writing credit: Frank Darabont) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Periodicals | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | The western region of Australia's Great Sandy Desert is an area almost devoid of sand, but characterized by complex geology. Credit: NASA. |  | Dr. Dill expounding on his views of the geology of the South Australia Bight OCEANOGRAPHER around the world cruise. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | The Gulf Stream by the Coast Survey Based on a series of studies beginning in 1845 The Coast Survey established a number of sections for repeated observations The first systematic oceanographic studies of the Gulf Stream Integrated oceanography, marine geology, and meteorology into these cruises. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Submarine valleys of Georges Bank Contoured by Dr. Francis P. Shepard, "the father of marine geology" Work done by OCEANOGRAPHER. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |
 | DELTA loads up for diving to study geology in the Bahamas. Credit: National Undersea Research Program (NURP). |  | Dr. Francis P. Shepard, the "father of marine geology," discussing scientific findings of the International Indian Ocean Expedition on board the Coast and Geodetic Survey Ship PIONEER at a press conference in Colombo, Ceylon. Looking on were Dr. Robert Dietz, an early pioneer in plate tectonic theory, and Dr. Harris B. Stewart, Chief Oceanographer of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |
 | Map of "Geology of the Sea Bottom in the Approaches to New York Bay." This map depicts the upper reaches of Hudson Canyon and the remnants of a valley in continental shelf. This early physiographic map was published in the Coast and Geodetic Survey Annual Report for 1884, Appendix 13, p. 438. It was drawn by Adolph Lindenkohl and is the earliest published map of a submarine canyon. Credit: Sailing for Science - the NOAA Fleet Then and Now. |  | Sprague Parcel Geology Field Trip. Credit: Anne Boyd. |
 | Benjamin Silliman, D.D. L.L.D. Professor of chemistry, geology & mineralogy in Yale College / P.M. Whelpley, mezz. from a dagpe. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
 |
| "Dinobone" by Kevin Walsh Commentary: "Brachiosaurus femur (thigh bone of one of the largest dinosaurs) with University of Zimbabwe geology student Metrinah Ruzvidzo for scale." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Author | Quotation |
Ralph Waldo Emerson | We learn geology the morning after the earthquake. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | Depositing hazardous waste in landfill sites varies dramatically in price, depending on the type of waste and regional differences in geology and local markets. (references) | |
The Institute of Geology, the Northwest Polytechnical Institute, Technical University, and the “Rubin” laboratories also develop theories of wastewater recycling for other industries. (references) | ||
Economic History | Oman | Oman's complex geology makes exploration and production an expensive challenge. (references) |
Oman | Additionally, Oman has a number of older fields and fields with complex geology. (references) | |
Uzbekistan | The Uzbek State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources takes a leading position in carrying out exploration. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Geology" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.06% of the time. "Geology" is used about 634 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.06% | 628 | 10,333 |
| Noun (common) | 0.63% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.31% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 634 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "geology": areal geology ♦ economic geology ♦ engineering geology ♦ field geology ♦ mining geology ♦ oil geology ♦ petroleum geology ♦ physical geology ♦ stratigraphic geology ♦ structural geology ♦ subsurface geology ♦ superficial geology ♦ surface geology. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "geology": hydro-geology, Micro-geology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "geology"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | aardkunde. (various references) | |
Albanian | gjeologji. (various references) | |
Arabic | علم طبقات الأرض, عالم بطبقات الأرض, جيولوجيا, دراسة المادة الصلبة. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | геология. (various references) | |
Chinese | 地質學 , 地質 , 地质 (Geologic, Geological). (various references) | |
Czech | geologie. (various references) | |
Danish | geologi. (various references) | |
Dutch | geologie, aardkunde. (various references) | |
Esperanto | geologio. (various references) | |
Farsi | زمین شناسی , دانش زمین شناسی . (various references) | |
Finnish | geologia. (various references) | |
French | géologie. (various references) | |
German | Geologie. (various references) | |
Greek | γεωλογία. (various references) | |
Hebrew | גאולוגיה. (various references) | |
Hungarian | földtan. (various references) | |
Indonesian | geologi. (various references) | |
Italian | geologia. (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 地質学 , ジェット燃料 (diethylene glycol, diopter, gem, gemstone, gender, gender gap, general, general strike, generalist, generate, generation, generation gap, generator, generic, generic brand, genetic, genetic algorithms, genetic system, genocide, gentleman, geography, geometric, geometry, Geotopia, gerontocracy, gerontology, Japanese External Trade Organization, jealousy, jelly, Jenkins, Jerry, jet fuel, JETRO, The End). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ジオロジー , ちしつがく. (various references) | |
Korean | 지질학. (various references) | |
Manx | creg-oaylleeaght (geological). (various references) | |
Norwegian | geologi. (various references) | |
Papiamen | geologia. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | eologygay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | geologia. (various references) | |
Romanian | geologie. (various references) | |
Russian | геология. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | geologija. (various references) | |
Spanish | geología. (various references) | |
Swedish | geologi. (various references) | |
Thai | ธรณีวิทยา. (various references) | |
Turkish | yerbilim, jeolojik yapı, jeoloji, jeolojí. (various references) | |
Turkmen | geologiяa (r). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | геологія. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | khoa địa chất, địa chất học. (various references) | |
Welsh | daeareg. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | RM:Uffizi federal d'aua e geologia. (various references) |
| Medieval Latin | 700-1500 | geologia. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words ending with "geology": photogeology. (additional references) | |
| |
"Geology" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: egology, genology, geoiogy, geoloay, geologi, Geologie, geolu, goelogy, Golgo, Gollogly, googy, Reologi, teology. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "geology" (pronounced jēÄ"lujē) |
| 6 | -ē Ä" l u j ē | anesthesiology, archaeology, archeology, cardiology, embryology, epidemiology, etiology, genealogy, ideology, physiology, radiology, sociology, theology. |
| 5 | -Ä" l u j ē | anthology, anthropology, apology, astrology, bacteriology, biology, biotechnology, chronology, cosmetology, criminology, cytology, dendrochronology, dermatology, kinesiology, doxology, ecology, endocrinology, entomology, epistemology, ethnology, ethology, etymology, geomorphology, gerontology, graphology, gynecology, histology, Hymnology, immunology, limnology, meteorology, methodology, microbiology, micropaleontology, mineralogy, morphology, mycology, mythology, neurology, numerology, oncology, ontology, ophthalmology, ornithology, otology, paleontology, pathology, penology, petrology, pharmacology, Pomology, psychology, rheumatology, seismology, serology, terminology, toxicology, urology, virology, zoology. |
| 4 | -l u j ē | analogy, cosmology, elegy, eulogy, trilogy. |
| 3 | -u j ē | prodigy, strategy. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-g-g-l-o-o-y" | |
-1 letter: googly. | |
-2 letters: gooey, leggy, loggy, looey, ology. | |
-3 letters: eggy, gleg, gley, gogo, loge, logo, logy, ogle, oleo, yegg. | |
-4 letters: egg, ego, gel, gey, goo, goy, leg, ley, log, loo, lye, ole. | |
-5 letters: el, go, lo, oe, oy, ye, yo. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-g-g-l-o-o-y" | |
+1 letter: gemology. | |
+2 letters: gemmology. | |
+3 letters: angelology, gorgeously, gynecology. | |
+4 letters: gerontology, gynaecology, gynecologic. | |
+5 letters: geohydrology, geologically, gobbledygook, gynecologies, gynecologist, photogeology. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Familiar 10. Quotations: Non-fiction 11. Usage Frequency 12. Expressions | 13. Expressions: Internet 14. Translations: Modern 15. Translations: Ancient 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
