Geoscience

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process used to extract oil and natural gas from deep underground. It involves injecting a high-pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into rock formations to create fractures, allowing the trapped hydrocarbons to flow out for collection.

In geoscience, ablation refers to the process of losing material from a glacier, ice sheet, or snowpack through melting, sublimation, or calving. It reduces the mass of the ice or snow, often affecting the overall size of glaciers and ice formations.

In geoscience, abrasion is the process of wearing down rocks and surfaces through friction, often caused by particles like sand, pebbles, or ice being carried by wind, water, or glaciers. This results in the smoothing and shaping of landforms over time.

In geoscience, absolute age refers to the exact age of a rock, fossil, or geological event, usually measured in years. It is determined through methods like radiometric dating, which uses the decay of radioactive isotopes to pinpoint a precise age.

An abyssal hill is a small, rounded elevation on the deep ocean floor, typically rising a few hundred meters above the surrounding abyssal plain. These features are among the most common landforms on Earth and are usually formed by volcanic activity or tectonic processes.

An abyssal plain is a vast, flat, and deep region of the ocean floor, typically found at depths of 3,000 to 6,000 meters. It is one of the flattest and smoothest surfaces on Earth, formed by the accumulation of fine sediments over time.

An accreted terrane is a fragment of crustal material, often an island arc or microcontinent, that has been tectonically attached to a larger continental plate. This process occurs through plate collisions, adding new landmass to the edge of continents.

In geoscience, accretion is the process by which material is gradually added to a landmass, such as when sediment accumulates along a coastline, or when tectonic plates collide, causing fragments of crust to attach to a continent.

In geoscience, accumulation refers to the process of gathering or depositing material, such as snow, ice, or sediment. In the context of glaciers, it specifically means the addition of snow and ice that increases the glacier’s mass.

An active margin is a coastal region where a continental plate meets an oceanic plate, often characterized by tectonic activity such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and mountain building. These margins are typically marked by deep ocean trenches and rugged coastlines.

any of several lower-magnitude earthquakes that follow the main shock of a larger earthquake. An aftershock results from the sudden change in stress occurring within and between rocks and the previous release of stress brought on by the principal earthquake. Aftershocks occur in rocks located near the epicentre or along the fault that harboured the principal quake.

Albedo, [von lat. weiße Farbe], Maß für die von Oberflächen reflektierte Strahlung. In der Meteorologie das Verhältnis des von der Oberfläche in den Halbraum reflektierten Strahlungsflusses zu dem aus dem Halbraum auf die Oberfläche einfallenden Strahlungsfluß, ausgedrückt in Prozent. Die Albedo ist stark von den Eigenschaften der bestrahlten Fläche abhängig und für die verschiedenen Spektralbereiche unterschiedlich groß.

Alluvial fans are cone shaped accumulations of coarse sediment deposited at the transition from confined flow in a canyon to unconfined flow in a basin. This also corresponds to a break in slope. As the slope shallows and the flows spread out, the flows slow down and deposit much of the sediment that they were able to transport in the canyon.

Amphibolit ist definiert als Gestein, das durch die metamorphe Umwandlung von Basalt, dessen Tiefenäquivalent Gabbro oder anderen Meta-Basiten unter Druck- und Temperaturbedingungen der Amphibolit-Fazies entstanden ist (T ≈ 550–700 °C, P ≈ 200–1200 MPa).

Andesit ist ein vulkanisches Gestein („Ergussgestein“), das insbesondere in Subduktionszonen und in den vulkanischen Zonen der ozeanischen Rücken (beispielsweise auf Island) auftritt.

Lavas of andesitic or intermediate composition commonly form a somewhat different type of flow, known as a block lava flow. These resemble aa in having tops consisting largely of loose rubble, but the fragments are more regular in shape, most of them polygons with fairly smooth sides. Flows of more siliceous lava tend to be even more fragmental than block flows.

The angle of repose, or critical angle of repose, of a granular material is the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane on which the material can be piled without slumping. At this angle, the material on the slope face is on the verge of sliding. The angle of repose can range from 0° to 90°.

negatively charged element

An antecedent stream is a stream that maintains its original course and pattern despite the changes in underlying rock topography. A stream with a dendritic drainage pattern, for example, can be subject to slow tectonic uplift. However, as the uplift occurs, the stream erodes through the rising ridge to form a steep-walled gorge. The stream thus keeps its dendritic pattern even though it flows over a landscape that will normally produce a trellis drainage pattern.

Anthropogenic geology (AG) is the study of geological materials and morphologies created, reshaped, or otherwise modified by humans and human activity.

In structural geology, an anticline is a type of fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex up in which the hinge or crest is the location where the curvature is greatest, and the limbs are the sides of the fold that dip away from the hinge.

Aquiclude, Grundwassersperrer (veraltet), Gesteinskörper, der größere Wassermengen speichert, aber nicht durchläßt. Aquicluden sind praktisch undurchlässige Gesteine, die auch als Grundwassernichtleiter bezeichnet wurden.

An aquifer is a body of porous rock or sediment saturated with groundwater. Groundwater enters an aquifer as precipitation seeps through the soil. It can move through the aquifer and resurface through springs and wells.

Arkose, mehrdeutig in der Literatur verwendeter Begriff. Als Feldbezeichnung beschreibt Arkose einen meist hellgrauen bis rötlichen, schlecht sortierten Sandstein mit hohem Feldspatanteil und wechselndem Gehalt an Gesteinsfragmenten.

If water reaches the ground surface under the natural pressure of the aquifer, the well is termed a flowing artesian well. Fossil water aquifers can also be artesian if they are under sufficient pressure from the surrounding rocks, similar to how many newly tapped oil wells are pressurized.

Block-and-ash flows contain dense juvenile blocks and ash, and form from growing lava domes that explode, decrepitate, or collapse, generating hot rock avalanches that rapidly transform into block-and-ash flows.

Asteroiden, Planetoiden, planetenähnliche, rotierende Kleinkörper von meist unregelmäßiger Gestalt. Sie haben sich vermutlich in einer Frühphase der Entstehung unseres Sonnensystems gebildet und nehmen heute einen Asteroidengürtel zwischen den Umlaufbahnen von Mars und Jupiter ein, vielleicht einen zweiten jenseits des Jupiters.

Astrobiologie ist die Wissenschaft, die das Leben im Universum untersucht, einschließlich seiner Entstehung, Entwicklung und Verbreitung. Du wirst lernen, wie Wissenschaftler nach Spuren von Leben auf anderen Planeten und Monden suchen. Diese Disziplin kombiniert Erkenntnisse aus der Biologie, Chemie und Astronomie, um Antworten auf eine der größten Fragen der Menschheit zu finden.

Die Atommasse ist die Masse eines einzelnen Atoms. in der SI-Einheit Kilogramm (kg), in der atomaren Masseneinheit (u, früher auch amu).

The atomic number or nuclear charge number (symbol Z) of a chemical element is the charge number of an atomic nucleus. For ordinary nuclei composed of protons and neutrons, this is equal to the proton number (np) or the number of protons found in the nucleus of every atom of that element. The atomic number can be used to uniquely identify ordinary chemical elements. In an ordinary uncharged atom, the atomic number is also equal to the number of electrons.

Basalt ist das vulkanische Äquivalent zum Gabbro (Plutonit), der zwar die gleiche chemische Zusammensetzung hat, aber tief in der Erdkruste aus einem Magma vergleichsweise langsam auskristallisierte und nicht nach Austritt an der Erdoberfläche relativ rasch zu Basalt erstarren konnte.

Basaltic lavas are emitted in effusive (Hawaiian style) eruptions where they either ooze out from vents or are ejected in lava fountains that may be propelled a hundred feet (30 m) or more into the air before landing and starting to flow as molten rock. Lavas that are discharged at high rates generally travel faster and further from their vent than ones that are erupted at lower rates. Topography, especially the steepness of slopes on which lavas flow, also greatly impact the speeds and distances that they can travel. Basaltic lava flows generally travel as either:

• broad sheets,

• in channels,

• or through lava tubes.

Ein durch Intrusion entstandener ausgedehnter Tiefengesteinskörper mit nach unten ausweichenden Flanken.

Batholith großer, meist diskordanter Pluton mit mehr als 100 km2Ausstrichbreite an der Erdoberfläche und unbekannter Basis.

In geology, a bed is a layer of sediment, sedimentary rock, or volcanic rock "bounded above and below by more or less well-defined bedding surfaces".[1] A bedding surface is three-dimensional surface, planar or curved, that visibly separates each successive bed (of the same or different lithology) from the preceding or following bed. Where bedding surfaces occur as cross-sections, e.g., in a 2-dimensional vertical cliff face of horizontal strata, are often referred to as bedding contacts. Within conformable successions, each bedding surface acted as the depositional surface for the accumulation of younger sediment.

Biologic sedimentary rocks form when living organisms die, pile up, and are then compressed and cemented together. Types of biologic sedimentary rock include coal (accumulated plant material that is carbon-rich), or limestone and coquina (rocks made of marine organisms).

Blueschist, also called glaucophane schist, is a metavolcanic rock[1] that forms by the metamorphism of basalt and rocks with similar composition at high pressures and low temperatures (200–500 °C (392–932 °F)), approximately corresponding to a depth of 15–30 km (9.3–18.6 mi). The blue color of the rock comes from the presence of the predominant minerals glaucophane and lawsonite.

Blueschists are schists typically found within orogenic belts as terranes of lithology in faulted contact with greenschist or rarely eclogite facies rocks.

A volcanic bomb or lava bomb is a mass of partially molten rock (tephra) larger than 64 mm (2.5 inches) in diameter, formed when a volcano ejects viscous fragments of lava during an eruption. Because volcanic bombs cool after they leave the volcano, they are extrusive igneous rocks. Volcanic bombs can be thrown many kilometres from an erupting vent, and often acquire aerodynamic shapes during their flight. Bombs can be extremely large; the 1935 eruption of Mount Asama in Japan expelled bombs measuring 5–6 m (16-20 ft) in diameter up to 600 m (2,000 ft) from the vent. Volcanic bombs are a significant volcanic hazard, and can cause severe injuries and death to people in an eruption zone.