GeoRef Thesaurus

Eleventh Edition

Barbara A. Goodman Editor

Published by the AMERICAN GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE Earlier Editions GeoRef Thesaurus and Guide to Indexing, First Edition Copyright © 1977 American Geological Institute Second Edition, 1978 Third Edition, 1981 Fourth Edition, 1986 Fifth Edition, 1989

GeoRef Thesaurus, Sixth Edition Copyright © 1992 American Geological Institute Seventh Edition, 1994 Eighth Edition, 1997 Ninth Edition, 2000 Tenth Edition, 2004

GeoRef Thesaurus, Eleventh Edition Copyright © 2008 American Geological Institute All rights reserved

All cover images courtesy of World Image Bank http://www.earthscienceworld.org/images

Front cover photos: Photomicrograph of Foraminifera, Copyright © Michael Collier Orpiment crystals on matrix, Copyright © Stonetrust, Inc. Glaciation in the Patagonian Alps, Copyright © Michael Collier Seismograph at Arizona State University, Phoenix. Courtesy Albert Copley. Copyright © Oklahoma University Perspective view of Venus, generated by computer from Magellan data, lowland plains and Ovda Regio, Courtesy NASA, JPL

Back cover photo: Cut into the north branch alluvium of the San Andreas Fault, California Copyright © Marli Miller, University of Oregon

Composed in Palatino.

International Standard Book Number 978-0-922152-82-7 Printed in the United States of America

American Geological Institute 4220 King Street Alexandria, VA 22302-1502 Phone: 703/379-2480; Fax: 703/379-7563 WWW: http://www.agiweb.org E-mail: [email protected] Price: $139.95 Contents

Acknowledgements...... iv Introduction ...... v Source and Development of the Vocabulary ...... v Changes in This Edition ...... vi Term Relationships ...... vi Notes for Terms ...... ix Term Validation ...... ix Autoposting ...... ix Singular and Plural Terms ...... ix Searching ...... x Alphabetization...... xii

Sources ...... xiii Abbreviations ...... xiv Suggestions and Corrections...... xiv Thesaurus, A-Z, Numerals ...... 1 U. S. Physiographic Map ...... 817 Major Geochronologic and Chronostratigraphic Units . . 818

iii Acknowledgements

The eleventh edition of the Thesaurus was prepared at AGI by Barbara A. Goodman, Senior Editor, Geo- Ref in consultation with Afifa Kechrid, and Jim Mehl, Associate Editors, GeoRef, and Sharon Tahirkheli, Director of Information Systems, GeoRef. In addition the rest of the Vocabulary Task Force (VTF), a sub- committee of the GeoRef Advisory Committee, assisted in the preparation. The VTF reviewed new Term proposals and contributed ideas and expert advice on other changes. VTF members Dena Hanson, Joachim Gersemann and Jani Hurstinen also helped with new term suggestions, and/or with term devel- opment. GeoRef Editor/Indexers, Richard J. Abram, A. Jorge Mandolesi, Bill Robertson, and Linda Schramm, served as consultants. For stratigraphic, geographic and other questions, most GeoRef Editor/ Indexers made helpful suggestions, answered questions, and submitted corrections. Reviewers Mark Wilson, Wooster College and Peter Harries, University of South Florida were our consultants. Law- rence Berg handled the computer programming, and Karin Mills provided needed expertise with Ventura Publisher. Monika Long created the web pages and provided meeting support. The cover was designed by Brenna Tobler.

Members of the Vocabulary Task Force: Dena Fracolli Hanson (Chair) Fort Worth, Texas

Raili Aumo Geologian Tutkimuskeskus Espoo, Finland

Joachim Gersemann Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe Hannover, Germany

Jani Hurstinen Geologian Tutkimuskeskus Espoo, Finland

Dorothy McGarry University of California, Los Angeles

John Mulvihill Vienna, Virginia

Patricia Sheahan Konsult International Inc. Willowdale, Ontario,

iv Introduction

This eleventh edition of the GeoRef Thesaurus may have been used in GeoRef, prior to their contains 23,065 valid and 7,740 invalid terms, of addition to the Thesaurus which about 1780 are newly added. This Thesau- rus is a guide to the index terms used in GeoRef, a For some terms, a year is given, in parentheses, database consisting of bibliographic citations and following the term. This is the year the term first abstracts covering the field of and its al- appeared in the Thesaurus. A substantial number lied environmental sciences. For each term, the of terms which occurred in older GeoRef records, Thesaurus includes, as appropriate, hierarchical but were not currently valid, have been converted and other relationships, usage notes, dates of addi- to currently valid terms. Any Broader Terms have tion, indexing rules, geographic coordinates, and also been added. This substitution makes the in- guidelines for searching. Cross-references from dexing terminology in GeoRef more consistent, invalid to valid terms are included. and has prompted us to remove the dates from many terms, as no longer meaningful. The user The main section of the Thesaurus consists of term may assume that if a date is not given, the term entries and cross-references, arranged alphabeti- will be in the GeoRef file in its currently valid cally. Indexing terms and text in this Thesaurus form since 1978. are expressed in American English with limited entry points for variant spellings. The substitution of valid for invalid terms has re- duced the differences in indexing among the four The Thesaurus is generally organized according to major bibliographic files which have been com- the American National Standard, Guidelines for the bined in GeoRef: Construction, Format, and Management of Monolin- gual Controlled Vocabularies (ANSI/NISO Z39.19- Bibliography of North American Geology 2005). (publications from 1785-1970) Geophysical Abstracts (published from 1966- 1971) Bibliography and Index of Geology Exclusive of Source and Development of North America (published from 1933-1968) Bibliography and Index of Geology (published the Vocabulary from 1969-2005) The first edition of the Thesaurus was published in 1977. At that time GeoRef had been in its elev- The index term vocabulary in all of the above de- enth year of production at AGI and was using an rived, in part, from that in the early volumes of indexing scheme based on earlier geology bibliog- the Bibliography of North American Geology, ed- raphies. In the early editions, many previously ited by John M. Nickles and published by the U.S. valid adjectival terms were converted to nouns, es- Geological Survey. pecially composition, (e.g. acidic composition, for- When these old bibliographies were added to merly two terms), deposit, ore, environment, GeoRef, the index terms in them were included, survey, process, and sedimentation terms (Age without modification. A large number of these terms continue to be used in adjectival form). terms have been converted to currently valid Other major changes in form occurred for geo- terms, many other terms have not. Records origi- graphic terms in 1989-1993, meteorites, and nally indexed with the terminology of the old bib- earthquakes: see Searching below. liographies still comprise 14% of the GeoRef file. Impetus and funding to produce the 1977 Thesau- rus came from companies which had The procedure followed in adding terms to this begun to search GeoRef on ORBIT in 1973. The edition of the Thesaurus began with the compila- 1977 Thesaurus was based on a term frequency list tion of a list of candidate terms consisting of all consisting of terms used in GeoRef from 1967- non-valid terms used since the previous edition. 1976. For this edition, the most recent list of invalid terms used in 2004 through 2007 was compiled. GeoRef indexers use the terms in the Thesaurus. Depending on type and frequency of use, these They also add, as needed, words from source doc- terms became candidates for the Thesaurus. Each uments, which are not in the Thesaurus. This prac- candidate term was then searched to determine tice assures that fresh terminology will continue to how and how often it occurred in GeoRef, and a appear in GeoRef without the delay involved in way of handling it was proposed by the Thesau- formally adding a term in the Thesaurus. This rus editor. These proposals were discussed within practice also means that terms and their variants AGI and with the Vocabulary Task Force.

v In developing this eleventh edition of the Thesau- all papers on a concept before that concept was rus we introduced new terms in each of the years added as a term in the Thesaurus, it is recom- between 2006 and 2009 with a larger number in- mended to search a term's variants found by con- troduced for 2007 and 2009. In this eleventh edi- sulting an alphabetic index of terms in GeoRef tion, about 1780 new terms were added. Given the through a stemming process involving an "index", usual three to four years between editions of the "browse", or "expand" on the term. To call atten- Thesaurus, and the requirement of at least ten to tion to this, the following cautionary note has been thirty postings during the 3-5 recent years consid- added at the foot of each page spread in the The- ered, by the time a term is added, we have a good saurus: idea of the final form the term will take in the liter- ature. In addition, the total postings in GeoRef are "Prior to its inclusion in the Thesaurus, variants of now given weight as well. By examining the fre- a term may occur in GeoRef." quencies of terms over the years, it is usually pos- sible to choose the form which has become generally accepted in the geological literature as Changes in This Edition the new Thesaurus term. As in the previous edition, the main thrust of this After this eleventh edition is published, the proce- edition was the addition of new terms and a num- dure for adding terms is expected to change. In ber of corrections to existing terms. The 1780 new addition to examining recent usage, we plan to terms include an estimated 1365 valid terms. All compile lists of terms that have been used steadily counties in the United States that were not previ- over extended periods of time. We also plan to de- ously included in the Thesaurus have now been velop new terms more frequently. Corrections and added. Most of the remaining terms were devel- changes to previously-used non-valid terms will oped from recent invalid term vocabulary. Geo- continue to be made on an as-needed basis. We do graphic terms were emphasized. Hierarchies for not plan to issue the twelfth or subsequent metamorphic rocks, Porifera, Cnidaria, and editions in print. Mollusca were reviewed. Site and leg terms were added to complete coverage for the Ocean Drilling We do expect to continue the formal designation Program. About 80 Integrated Ocean Drilling Pro- of an edition for some time and to continue our gram terms were added. Additional terms will be careful review process with a cycle of up to five added as new reports are published. years. For this eleventh edition, the hierarchical lists and indexing advice which previously ap- Some cross-references (See Also term relation- peared as appendices in our editions, may be ships) between geographic and other terms were found online at www.agiweb.org/georef/ removed because they were considered to be of lists.html. These lists are still referenced in term limited use. These included cross-references be- notes in the Thesaurus. In summary, the lists and tween very general geographic terms and all their letter designations are given below. ocean drilling sites; between geographic terms and meteorites; and between general geographic terms List A, GeoRef Categories/Subjects covered and rock units. Notes were checked to ensure that List B, Age-dating methods useful information was retained. Indexers were List C, Commodities given newer terms on an annual basis. Where a List D, Chemical elements, methods, and data year is appropriate, these bear the years 2006-2009. List E, Geologic ages List F, List G, Meteorites The eleventh edition of the GeoRef Thesaurus was List H, Igneous rocks copied for printing from its electronic version on List I, Sedimentary rocks December 8, 2008. List J, Metamorphic rocks List K, Sedimentary structures List L, List M, Soils List N, Sediments Term Relationships List O, Geographic terms List P, Major terms List R, Rock units In the GeoRef Thesaurus, the following relation- ships may occur for a given term: As explained in this section, natural language - the Geographic Coordinates (CO) - For a geographic terminology found in the geological literature - Term, the rectangular area covered by the term, has been used in indexing for GeoRef and contin- expressed in latitudes and longitudes; degrees, ues to be used therein. Consequently, to retrieve minutes, and seconds.

vi Used for (UF) - A synonym or alternative form of Used For relationships direct the Thesaurus the term which may have been used prior to the user from synonyms and alternate forms to time the term was adopted. Many of these have valid terms. now been converted to the current term. When a term has been added to the Thesaurus, Broader Term (BT) - A Broader Term refers to a its form and usage are established. But during group of which the term is a member or an area or the years prior to being added, synonyms and age of which the term represents a part. variants of the term may have been used in GeoRef. These can be factored into a search by Narrower Term (NT) - A Narrower Term refers to doing an “index”, “browse”, “expand,” or specific member of a group which is represented ”scan“ on a term and including alternate forms by the term or an area or age which is part of a in the search. Used Fors have been included larger area or age represented by the term. Note from synonyms and alternate forms. If an alter- that the Narrower Terms shown under a term in a nate form can be found in proximity in an al- Thesaurus entry are only the terms narrower by phabetical index of terms through an “index”, one hierarchical level, not all the Narrower Terms. “browse”, or “expand” on the term, it usually See Also (SA) - A valid term which is related to the does not appear as a Used For. Names of for- term in some way other than the above relation- mations, for example, commonly have several ships. variants in the literature. There may not be a Used For in the Thesaurus from each of these a. Geographic Coordinates (CO) variants to the valid term if all forms begin with the same word. More likely, there will be Used In use since September 1977, Geographic Coor- Fors from terms which do not sort alphabeti- dinates have a fixed length of 30 characters. The cally with the valid term. Thus, there may not Coordinates define a rectangular geographic be a Used For from PCB to PCBs, but there is a area using latitudes and longitudes. For exam- Used For from polychlorinated biphenyls to ple, for Brazos County Texas, N lat. 30°20’- PCBs. Examples of Used Fors are: 30°58’ and W long. 96°5’-96°40’, the coordinates are: muscovite Holocene UF potash mica UF Post-glacial Brazos County Texas CO N302000N305800 praseodymium Brunswick Germany W0960500W0964000 UF Pr UF Braunschweig Germany In indexing, coordinates have been assigned at greenschist neutron probe the discretion of the indexer for the principal UF prasinite UF probe, neutron area or areas which are studied in a document. They are not automatically added for each area For every Used For there is a corresponding term in a citation. Also coordinates are found Use entry in the Thesaurus from the invalid only in the portion of GeoRef produced from term to the valid term. For example: September 1977 on. bornite erubescite For all the citations published prior to Septem- UF erubescite Use bornite ber 1977, there are no coordinates and searches Some of the Used Fors were valid terms, e.g. for geographic locations are limited to index Abyssinia and spectrometry, and for one reason terms. It is advisable to use coordinates to sup- or another have been replaced by other terms. plement a search on geographic index terms.

It is the responsibility of the indexer to assign c. Broader Term (BT) coordinates for the area studied where enough information is provided to define the area. If the Most Broader Terms represent groups of which area corresponds to an index term, the indexer the term is a member. For example: uses the coordinates for that term in the The- peridot saurus. Otherwise, the indexer must derive the BT olivine group coordinates from information in the paper or by BT nesosilicates consulting an atlas. In practice, coordinates are BT orthosilicates usually assigned for land areas smaller than BT silicates about five degrees; before 2005, about half a de- gree. For ocean areas, coordinates are usually Broader Terms are listed in order from the most assigned for areas smaller than about ten de- specific to the most general. Thus in the above grees; before 2005, about five degrees. example, peridot is a member of the olivine group, the olivine group is a member of the b. Used For (UF) nesosilicates, etc.

vii Two notable exceptions to this member-group d. Narrower Term (NT) relationship are geographic locations and ages. For geographic locations, a part-whole relation- These are terms for specific members of the ship prevails. For example: groups represented by the term. For example: Gymnospermae Minas Gerais Brazil NT Bennettitales State in E central Brazil. NT Caytoniales BT Brazil NT Coniferae BT South America NT Coniferales etc. Brazil BT South America In this example Bennettitales is a member of the group Gymnospermae as are Caytoniales, Specific lakes, rivers, faults and mountains Coniferae, Coniferales and the other Narrower wholly within a country have that country as a Terms of Gymnospermae. Broader Term. For any term, only its Narrower Terms on the Ocean Drilling Program and the Deep Sea Drill- next level down are listed. If a Narrower Term ing Project are Broader Terms to the Legs and itself has Narrower Terms, these will not ap- Sites under them. However Legs and Sites are pear under the term. Thus, in the above exam- considered geographic terms and are provided ple, Pachypteris, a Narrower Term of with Geographic Coordinates. Indexers are ex- Caytoniales, will not appear under Gymno- pected to supplement them with appropriate spermae as an NT. geographic Broader Terms provided in the See Also. Terms which have multiple sets of Broader Terms are displayed as Narrower Terms under DSDP Site 610 each of the immediate Broader Terms. In the ex- Feni Ridge, Rockall Trough, NE central At- ample above, the term, C-14/C-12 appears as lantic. an NT under radioactive isotopes, stable iso- BT Leg 94 topes and carbon. BT IPOD BT Deep Sea Drilling Project Narrower Terms are arranged in alphabetical Stratigraphic terms such as formations and order. groups have ages as Broader Terms. Ages have An important exception to the member-group part-whole relationships. For example: relationship of Narrower Terms is geographic Lockatong Formation locations in which the Narrower Terms of a BT Upper term are in a part-whole relationship. For exam- BT Triassic ple: BT Mesozoic Missouri Senonian NT Adair County Missouri BT Upper NT Andrew County Missouri BT Cretaceous NT Atchison County Missouri BT Mesozoic NT Audrain County Missouri etc. All Broader Terms of a term are shown under Another exception is for ages where strati- that term. The country is always added where graphic terms appear under appropriate ages in relevant. North America, however, is not Narrower Terms and age terms appear in Nar- autoposted to Narrower Terms of a country. rower Terms under ages of which they are parts. For example: A few terms have multiple sets of Broader Terms. These sets are shown as BT1, BT2, etc. For example: NT Ackley Granite NT Barre Granite C-14/C-12 NT Group BT1 radioactive isotopes NT Cedar City Formation etc. BT1 isotopes Paleozoic BT2 stable isotopes NT Acadian Phase BT2 isotopes NT Acatlan Complex BT3 carbon NT Alice Springs Orogeny In this example, the immediate Broader Terms NT Ambo Group are the first encountered in each hierarchy: BT1 ...... radioactive isotopes, BT2 stable isotopes, and NT Devonian etc. BT3 carbon.

viii e. See Also (SA) hydrocarbons For economic deposits, see petro- The See Also is used to indicate relationships leum; natural gas; bitumens; as- other than Used For, Broader Term and Nar- phalt; oil sands; oil . For rower Term. For DSDP/ODP/IODP Sites, Legs, discussion as pollutants, search and Expeditions, See Alsos are provided to the (hydrocarbons OR petroleum) most specific valid geographic term available with pollution; also see petro- unless this term is considered very general. For leum products and oil spills. (Note modified 1995.) Legs, they are provided to geography for each Site. Examples of See Also relationships are: c. Indexer Note (IN) Gallup Sandstone SA Mesaverde Group These notes tell how a term is to be used in both SA New Mexico the printed index and in GeoRef. The phrase “includes use” which occurs fre- SA absolute age quently in the notes is for examples of current SA biochronology and significant GeoRef usage. It means “this is periodicity an important use” but not “this is the only use.” SA earthquakes SA frequency SA Milankovitch theory SA orogeny Leg 108 Term Validation SA Cape Verde Basin The Thesaurus is used in the production of Geo- SA Cape Verde Rise Ref to validate the terms used to index new cita- SA Mid-Atlantic Ridge tions. As each index term is typed, it is compared SA North Atlantic SA South Atlantic to a list of valid Thesaurus terms. If the term is found in the validation file, it is accepted. If it is not found, and the term is correctly spelled, the in- valid term is accepted for the citation and a record of it is saved. Such invalid terms become candi- Notes for Terms date terms for the next edition of the Thesaurus. In addition to the above relationships, terms have explanatory notes. There are three kinds: year, general notes, and Indexer Notes (IN). Autoposting a. Year Whenever terms are used by an indexer their The year in parentheses following some terms is Broader Terms are added in the record through an the year the term was introduced as valid in the automated lookup. For example, whenever an in- Thesaurus. For discussion, see Source and De- dexer uses Atchison County Kansas the terms velopment of the Vocabulary above. Kansas and United States are added as index terms in the record. This is referred to as b. General notes autoposting. Kansas, and United States are These immediately follow terms and are not Broader Terms (BTs) of the term Atchison County prefaced by a caption. Valid terms are under- Kansas. All BTs are autoposted, except for North lined in the notes with few exceptions. America and a few general terms, not shown as BTs, such as the terms, minerals, processes, prop- • “Also search” - An “also search” statement is erties, and Western Hemisphere. Sometimes BTs included in the Note when it is not possible to will not be added automatically if the terms span suggest searching an alternative term through two or more major geologic eras or occur in sev- a UF relationship. These notes are used when eral geographically separated locations. Here, the the user needs to search on a combination of indexer is required to decide and add the appro- terms rather than a single term. For the term priate Broader Terms. caliper logging, the Note reads “Before 1978, also search well-logging AND caliper.” • Geographical term locations - Brief notes on the location of many geographical terms are Singular and Plural Terms given. In deciding whether an index term should be sin- • Scope notes - These define the use of the term gular or plural in GeoRef, the guideline followed in GeoRef. For example: is that individual entities - C-14, bayerite, etc., are

ix singular. All other terms, for which the plural not been converted to currently valid terms or form makes sense, particularly classes of entities, even to the current style of valid terms. e.g. rocks, minerals, etc., are plural. The plural form is used for nearly all non-geographic and When searching GeoRef, be aware that variants of non-proper noun terms in GeoRef. Significant ex- a term may have been used in GeoRef prior to its ceptions occur in Meteorites and Rock types. See inclusion in the Thesaurus. Variants can be Lists G, H, I, and J at http://www.agiweb.org/ searched as follows: georef/lists.html To retrieve citations entered into GeoRef before the year a term was introduced search variants in the Basic Search.

Searching Subject Categories General guidance for searching of index terms and One or more of 30 Subject Categories (also called Categories is given below. As well, the reader is broad disciplines or subject headings) are assigned referred to notes in specific index terms and to the to each reference. The codes may be used in hierarchical lists, e.g. List C, Commodities, which searching both as words (phrases) or codes. For are posted on the GeoRef website at http:// each of the 30 Subject Categories and its subdivi- www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html.. All GeoRef sions, the specific codes used, topics covered, and records contain index terms and Categories. The related topics in other fields see List A, at http:// terms chosen from the Thesaurus and from the www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html. Additional terminology in the documents indexed as well as search hints are also provided on the web site. Categories are assigned by GeoRef indexers with geoscience degrees. Subject and geographic loca- The 30 general categories include: tions of documents are indexed with specific terms, to which Broader Terms are autoposted. 01 This in-depth indexing enables one to search with 02 confidence. If the Thesaurus is carefully consulted 03 Geochronology in constructing a search, the results should meet 04 Extraterrestrial geology expectations. 05 Igneous and metamorphic 06 Sedimentary petrology For specific field identifiers, and also for specific 07 Oceanography direction on searching variant concepts and con- 08 , general studies of both fossil structing search statements, see the documenta- plants and animals tion for the individual retrieval system. 09 Paleontology, paleobotany 10 Paleontology, invertebrate 11 Paleontology, vertebrate 12 , historical geology and Basic Search paleoecology 13 Areal geology, general Words and concepts are also searchable as free 14 Areal geology, maps and charts text. This is sometimes displayed as an index or 15 Miscellaneous and mathematical geology called a Basic Search. The Basic Search usually 16 contains words and phrases from titles and ab- 17 , general stracts, as well as index terms. For some searches, 18 Geophysics, solid-Earth index terms, used alone, provide the best results 19 Geophysics, because of their greater precision. The Thesaurus 20 Geophysics, applied indicates term limits through hierarchies or term 21 and relationships and notes. It provides an historical 22 record of the index term vocabulary of GeoRef. 23 Surficial geology, geomorphology See Source and Development of the Vocabulary, 24 Surficial geology, Quaternary geology above. 25 Surficial geology, soils 26 , general — geology of Since there was no Thesaurus before 1978, variant deposits forms of terms are likely to have been used then. 27 Economic geology of metal ore deposits The major terms (See List P, at http:// 28 Economic geology of non-metal deposits www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html) in the older 29 Economic geology of energy sources GeoRef records were controlled, and many of 30 them have been converted to currently valid terms. But there were many other terms in the Boolean operators especially with Subject Catego- older records which were uncontrolled and have ries may also be used to eliminate unwanted as-

x pects from a search. A search on magmas, for paleoecology, biogeography, ecology and bio- example, could be restricted to Earth-bound pro- chemistry papers, it is best to search systematic cesses by using the Boolean Not with Extraterres- names, in combination with the appropriate topic trial as a Subject Category. term. For searches on specific taxa, the species and/or Rock Units, Geologic Age Terms genus name may be used in searching. Keep in mind that general studies discussing more than 10 Stratigraphic formations are particularly fluid en- taxa will rarely be indexed using the specific tities. Since any author can propose a new formal terms. A more general strategy is advisable for name with proper documentation, the searcher is such searches. cautioned to use every possible variant, e.g. Smith Formation, Smith Sandstone, Smith Group, etc., For further discussion, see List F Fossils at the even after the year GeoRef established a valid GeoRef website http://www.agiweb.org/georef/ term. Indexers are instructed to use the GeoRef lists.html term (see List R); however, in some cases it may not fit, most often because of lithologic (sand ver- Geochemistry and Commodities sus siltstone) variation. In a few cases, the same geographic name occurs in unrelated locations, For complete retrieval of commodities, search both e.g. Windermere System in Canada and the specific and general terms. For example, a search Windermere Group in England. In most of these on deposits should include a search on cases, the ages will also differ and the unwanted ceramic materials, excluding andalusite deposits age or geography may be excluded. Occasionally and deposits. official changes are made in stratigraphic nomen- clature. These are incorporated in the controlled To isolate economic papers from non-economic, it vocabulary as they are identified. is advisable to coordinate pre-1981 commodity terms with the economic geology Category or with Age terms may be searched individually. A high ore deposits (for metals) or deposits (for nonmet- degree of specificity is often possible, especially if als). See specific term entries or List C at http:// the term is included in the Thesaurus. For age www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html. The term terms considered major (see List E at http:// metal ores is autoposted to all the specific metal www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html such as Creta- ore terms. ceous, it suffices to use the term as is and not worry about subdivisions, since those generally Minerals autopost Cretaceous. For information on autoposting see specific terms. To search for a particular species, the common name of that species must be used Age-dating Methods bearing in mind possible varieties (agate, chalce- dony... or titanite and sphene...) and that the The specific methods can be searched in combina- American f is used for the British ph. See List L at tion with a specific age term (see List E), or a mate- http://www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html. rial. For references to methodology search in Some mineral species may not be treated from a combination with "methods"; for references to ac- mineralogical point of view. It is advisable there- tual date measurements, search "absolute age" or a fore to search for mineralogic papers using the specific absolute age method in combination with mineral species together with the general term "dates". Some of the relative age methods may be mineralogy or the mineralogy category. used for other purposes besides dating. To limit a search to age-dating, search in combination with To search a group of minerals, search for the geochronology in the Category. See Searching group name (e.g., for pyrite and all other sulfides, Subject Categories above. search the group name "sulfides"). For more infor- mation see specific minerals in the main body of Fossils the Thesaurus. For papers dealing with gemmological aspects, search for a mineral in combination with "gems". For mineral collecting In a search for paleontology papers on a fossil search a mineral in combination with (collecting group, search the systematic name. To exclude OR popular geology). stratigraphy papers, add NOT stratigraphy to the search strategy. Broader Terms in the list are Clay mineralogy as a discipline is treated sepa- autoposted to their Narrower Terms, except for rately. A search of the term "clay mineralogy" will Hemichordata which is not autoposted. For strati- retrieve papers dealing with all aspects of clays: graphic papers on a fossil group search the sys- mineralogy, structure, composition, occurrence as tematic name AND biostratigraphy. For constituents of rocks, etc.

xi Rocks, Sedimentary Structures, Sediments, and see the instructions for the search platform that Soils you are using. The basic geographic unit of the Thesaurus is the Search for specific rocks, sediments, or sedimen- country name. In the United States, Australia, tary structures by name, including singular and Canada, and China, the states and provinces are plural forms. Stemming or truncation may be used; in the United Kingdom, the large subdivi- used. See list H for igneous rocks, list I for sedi- sions are used. For geographic terms which were mentary rocks, list J for metamorphic rocks, list K never valid, the searcher must search our current for sedimentary structures, list N for sediments, coordinated forms for U. S. cities since 1989, and and list M for soils. For example, to retrieve pa- the city with the state before that date e.g. Alexan- pers in which igneous or metamorphic rocks were dria Virginia; OR Alexandria and Virginia. For cit- a major topic, search igneous and metamorphic ies and administrative areas outside the United petrology as a category with igneous rocks or States, the search is similar, before 1993 and after, metamorphic rocks as desired. For more informa- e.g. Keswick AND Great Britain; OR Keswick Eng- tion on autoposted terms see the indexing terms land; Cherepovets AND USSR; OR Cherepovets for specific rock, sediment or sedimentary struc- Russian Federation. Users searching the former ture names in the body of the Thesaurus. For com- Soviet republics, may retrieve material going back posite rock names, e.g. biotite gneiss, it is to 1978 by searching on the modern country name, advisable to search both the specific rock name e.g. Russian Federation. However, they are cau- and the separate parts of the name truncated and tioned that USSR was treated as the country name, combined. Related topics such as intrusions or and the republics may not have been indexed for diagenesis, are listed by subject in Subjects Cov- all records. Since 1992, the term USSR is generally ered. For sedimentary or metamorphic rocks only used for older articles on the whole former which are commodities see List C. Soviet Union territory. Since 2007, Yugoslavia has To search for a soil group, search for all possible also been used for older articles where individual variations, including different names in different republics cannot be determined. Consult the entry classifications and in different languages. For ex- for the country to determine variations of the ample, to search for Latosols, you must also search form. For information on major geographic terms for Sol-ferralitique. The American names have and hierarchy see List O at http:// been used most commonly in GeoRef indexing. www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html. See List M at http://www.agiweb.org/georef/ Directionals such as terms beginning with "north- lists.html. ern", "eastern", "northwestern", "south-central", etc., may be searched. These terms are often used Meteorites informally in addition to broader valid terms in indexing, especially in combination with state To search for meteorites use the specific term such names in the United States and province names in as 'Allende Meteorite' or the general term 'meteor- Canada, e.g. southern Kansas, south-central On- ites'. To search records before 1981, also search the tario. They are used with country names outside name, such as Allende and meteorites. Truncation the U.S. and Canada, except for Great Britain, e.g. or stemming to find variants or searching using eastern Malawi, northeastern England. the basic search is advisable. Indexers do not al- In GeoRef searching and indexing, terms for cities ways have access to the spelled-out form of the refer not only to the area within the city limits, but name, so for Antarctic meteorites and other mete- also to the immediately surrounding region. orites with groups named with a geographic loca- tion, it is a good idea to search both the complete name and the abbreviation in combination with the number as well, e.g. (Elephant Moraine or EET Alphabetization or EETA) AND 79001. See List G at http:// Terms are sorted in a modified word-by-word pat- www.agiweb.org/georef/lists.html. tern rather than letter-by-letter. Specifically: • The sort is on actual spaces, punctuation, let- Geographic Locations ters, and numerals in that order. • If the first or last character is punctuation, it is Geographic searching is best achieved by using all treated as if it does not exist. variants of an area name including political, phys- • Punctuation is addressed so it will be grouped iographic and geologic. It is possible to be as spe- in ASCII order: space, apostrophe, open pa- cific as a town or county, and as general as a renthesis, closed parenthesis, comma, hyphen, country or continent. For oceans and continental slash, or virgule. margins, it is advisable to use the coordinates as • Number sequences in terms are sorted numer- well. For information on searching coordinates, ically.

xii • All letters are treated as if they are capitalized. The New International Atlas, 25th anniv. ed. Therefore, acronyms sort as words. (Rand McNally and Co., 1999) • Terms with initial numerals follow the letter The Times Atlas of the World, Comprehensive ”Z“. Edition, 9th ed, with revisions (Times Books, New York, NY, 1994) U.S. Geological Survey, Geographic Names Infor- mation System, Accessed Dec. 8, 2008 The following publications were consulted for identifying and determining term hierarchies for Geomorphology new GeoRef index terms for this edition of the Thesaurus. Publications are listed according to Earth Impact Database, 2008. University of New subject headings and within subject headings. Brunswick, Planetary and Space Science Centre, (Accessed Nov. 26, 2008)

Jackson, J. A., ed., , 4th ed. Metamorphic Rocks (Am. Geol. Inst., Alexandria, VA, 1997) McGraw-Hill editorial staff, McGraw-Hill Dictio- Fettes, D., et. al., eds., Metamorphic Rocks; a Clas- nary of Scientific and Technical Terms, 6th ed. sification and Glossary of Terms, Recommenda- (McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, 2002) tions of the International Union of Geological Neuendorf, K. K. E., et. al., eds., Glossary of Geol- Sciences Subcommission on the Systematics of ogy, 5th ed. (Am. Geol. Inst., Alexandria, VA, Metamorphic Rocks, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005) New York, 2007)

Geography Meteorites

Central Intelligence Agency, The 2008 World Grady, M. M., Catalogue of Meteorites, 5th ed., Factbook, bridge, UK, 2000) and The Natural History Mu- Accessed Nov. 26, 2008 seum's Meteorite Catalogue Database Accessed Nov. 26, York, NY, 1998) 2008 Geoscience Australia, Place Names, < http:// www.ga.gov.au/maps/names/ > Accessed on Nov. 26, 2008 Mineralogy (Nonsilicates) Geoscience Australia, ProvExplorer -- Geological Provinces Interactive Mapping System, accessed on eral species, varieties and synonyms, 3rd ed. Nov. 26, 2008 (Chapman & Hall, New York, 1993) Hammond Citation World Atlas (Hammond World Atlas Corp., Union, NJ, 2000) Mineralogy (Silicates) Integrated Ocean Drilling Program, United States Implementing Organization, Ac- Strunz, H., and Nickel, E. H., Strunz Mineralogical cessed Nov. 26, 2008 Tables; chemical structural mineral classification JOIDES, Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Pro- system, 9th ed. (E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlags- gram, Initial Reports Accessed Dec. 8, 2001) 2008 Merriam Webster's Geographic Dictionary, 3rd ed. Paleontology (Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, MA, 1997) National Imagery and Mapping Agency, NGA Paleobiology Database Ac- GEONet Names Server (GNS), Accessed Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, 1st ed. and Nov. 26, 2008 2nd eds. and revisions where available. (Geol. National Informatics Centre, India, Districts of In- Soc. Am./Univ. Kansas Press) dia, Accessed Dec. 8, Zoological Record Thesaurus (Thomson Reuters, 2008 2008)

xiii Stratigraphy

U. S. Geological Survey, National Geologic Map Database, Geologic Names Lexicon, "GEOLEX" Accessed Dec. 8, 2008; last modi- fied Feb. 16, 2007 Geoscience Australia, Stratigraphic Units Database, Accessed on Nov. 26, 2008) Moores, E. M., et al., eds., Encyclopedia of Euro- pean and Asian Regional Geology, Encyclope- dia of Earth Sciences Series (Chapman & Hall, London, 1997) U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Names Commit- tee, Divisions of Geologic Time -- Major Chronostratigraphic and Time Units, U.S. Geo- logical Survey Fact Sheet 2007-3015, 2 p., March 2007

Abbreviations Entries for index terms listed in the main body of the Thesaurus contain abbreviations, most of which indicate relationships between terms. They are as follows:

IN Indexer Note CO Geographic Coordinates UF Used for BT Broader Term, of a term with one hierarchy BT1,BT2, etc. Broader Term, of a term with multiple hierarchies NT Narrower Term SA See Also For a detailed explanation of the above, see the In- troduction.

Suggestions and Corrections You may send suggestions for new terms and term corrections to the attention of the GeoRef Thesaurus Editor at the American Geological Insti- tute, 4220 King Street, Alexandria, VA 22302. E-mail: [email protected] Corrections for individual or groups of records in the GeoRef file as well as general comments may be sent to Monika Long: [email protected].

Web version edited 1/28/2010 xiv