Landforms Vocabulary

Uniformitarianism

The idea that natural processes behave more or less than the same way today as they have to route the past and will continue to do so in the future

Stratigraphy

Sequence of rocks in relation to the time of their deposition, arrangement of rocks in layers or strata

Pangea

A supercontinent that incorporated almost all the land masses on earth

Continental drift

The movement of continents resulting from the motion of tectonic plates

Relative dating

Determining the age or order of things from the past or past events without knowing or calculating the actual age

Fossils

The preserved remains or traces of an organism that lived in the past

Mold

Forms when sediments bury an organism and the sediments change into rock, the organism decays, leaving a cavity and the organisms shape

Cast

Forms when a mold is filled with sand or mud that hardens into the organism’s shape

Petrified fossil, permineralized fossil

Forms when minerals soak into the buried remains replacing them and changing them into rock

Preserved fossil

Form when entire organisms or parts of organisms are prevented from decaying by being trapped in rock, ice, tar, or Amber

Carbonized fossil

Forms when organisms or parts like leaves, stems, flowers, and fish are pressed between layers of soft mud or clay, that hardens, squeezing almost all the decaying organism away and leaving the carbon imprint in the rock

Trace fossil

Forms when the mud or sand hardens into stone where an organisms footprint, trail, or burrow is left behind

Index fossil

The fossil known to have lived in a particular geologic age that can be used to determine the date of the rock layer in which it was found

Law of Superposition

In undisturbed rock layers, newer layers will be deposited over older layers

Geology

The study of the rocks, processes, and history of earth

Geologic Time Scale

The system of chronological measurement that relates to the history of events in earths past consisting of fossils and major events that have caused major geologic or biologic changes throughout history, such as mass extinctions

Extinction

The complete elimination (dying out) of a species due to its inability to survive and adapt to its environment

The Law of Crosscutting Relationships

States that rock layers that cut across other rock layers are younger than those they cut

Sedimentary rock

Rock formed by deposition of sand, clay, and other pieces of rock that are compacted together under pressure

Igneous rocks

A type of rock formed under or above ground when magma or lava cools

Metamorphic rock

Rock is created from the transformation of other rock types through heat and pressure

Fault

A fracture along which blocks of the earths crust are caused by the shifting or dislodging of the earths crust. Types include normal, strike-slip, or reverse.