Glossary of Technical Terms1 abrasives Gritty materials used for grinding, aftershock An earthquake that occurs after polishing, or cutting. They are also used in a larger earthquake and originates at common household products like sandpaper, approximately the same place. fingernail files, and nonslip sur- faces for floors and stairs. Age of Fishes An informal name for the Devonian Period, when fish thrived in the Acadian Mountains The mountains built by world’s oceans. the Acadian Orogeny. aggregate One of the ingredients that, Acadian Orogeny A mountain-building together with cement, makes up concrete. event that happened about 410 to 380 Gravel and crushed stone are both used as million years ago, when the eastern part of concrete aggregate. the Iapetus Ocean closed and the small continent of Avalon was attached to proto- agnostid A kind of small trilobite with head North America. and tail almost alike; one group of agnostids lacked eyes. “Acadian Plateau” The high plateau that formed behind the mountains built by the Alleghanian Orogeny A mountain-building Acadian Orogeny. event that happened about 330 to 250 million years ago, when the continents of acid rain Rain that is so acidic that it proto-North America and proto-Africa damages the environment; caused by collided along a transform margin. pollution from industry and automobiles. alluvial fan A large fan-shaped deposit of accretion The addition of new crust to a coarse sediments made by a stream at the continent. foot of a steep slope. accretionary prism A wedge-shaped pile alluvial plain A flat land surface formed of contorted rocks and sediments that are from deposit made by a river. scraped off the down-going plate and added to the edge of the overriding plate during alluvial sediments Sediments deposited by subduction. a stream or flowing water. adjacent Next to. alumina Aluminum oxide (chemical composition Al2O3). It is found naturally as aeromagnetic map A map of the earth’s the mineral corundum. magnetic field made with a special instrument carried in an airplane. ammonoid An extinct kind of shelled cephalopod; important in determining the age of sedimentary rocks. 1 By J. M. Lauber and T. D, Mock 1 amphibian A cold-blooded vertebrate that Appalachian mountain-building episodes is able to live both on the land and in the The Taconian, Acadian, and Alleghanian water. Orogenies. amphibolite A dark-colored metamorphic Appalachian Upland An area of high rock composed of the minerals amphibole elevation in the Appalachian Mountains. and plagioclase. aqueduct A structure that carries a large amplitude The height of vibration of a quantity of flowing water. wave. aquifer An underground body of saturated ancestral Adjective describing a feature that rock or sediment that is both porous and existed in the past. permeable enough to provide useable quantities of water. anhydrite A light colored mineral found in evaporate deposits. Its chemical archaeocyathans Sponge-like creatures that composition is CaSO4. built reefs in the Early to Middle Cambrian seas. Note: Archaeocyathans is the plural of anorthosite An igneous rock composed archaeocyathid. almost entirely of the mineral plagioclase. Archean Adjective referring to the oldest anthracite grade The metamorphic grade part of geologic time, from the formation of that produces the highest quality of coal. the earth up to 2.5 billion years ago. anthraxolite A black substance similar to arctic climate A very cold climate found hard asphalt found in veins in sedimentary north of the arctic circle. rocks. arête A sharp ridge in rugged mountains, anticlinal trend The map direction of the formed by glacial erosion. long axis of an anticline. arkose A sandstone rich in the mineral anticline A fold in rock that is convex feldspar, commonly pink or red in color. upward. arkosic sandstone A coarse-grained anticlinorium A large anticline sandstone rich in the mineral feldspar. Appalachian Basement Rock in eastern arthropod An invertebrate animal with a New York that lies below younger rock that jointed body and limbs, usually with a hard was deformed during the formation of the covering. Insects, spiders, lobsters, crabs, Appalachian Mountains. barnacles, and the extinct trilobites are all arthropods. Appalachian Basin A basin that held a shallow inland sea during most of the asthenosphere A soft, flowing layer of the Paleozoic Era. Many of the sedimentary upper mantle; its lies under the lithosphere. rocks exposed in New York State were deposited in the Appalachian Basin. at depth Deep below the earth’s surface. 2 Atlantic Coastal Plain The low, wide plain basement rock The deeply eroded along the east coast of North America. metamorphic bedrock that is usually covered by younger sedimentary rocks. attached echinoderms An echinoderm that grows attached to the sea bottom. basin A depression or low area that holds (or once held) a lake, sea, or ocean. Avalon A small continent that was attached to proto-North America during the Acadian Bass Island Structural Trend A complex Orogeny. anticline found below the earth’s surface in western New York. It is a structural trap axes The plural of axis. An axis is a string that contains oil and natural gas. line that divides a shape into two symmetrical halves. beach ridge A long sandy mound on a beach, beyond the reach of storm waves or Baltimore Canyon Trough A large buried high tide. It was built by waves and currents basin on the continental shelf south of Long when the water level was higher. Island. bed A layer of rock, usually sedimentary bar A bank made of sand or other rock. sediments, at least partly underwater, along the shore or in a river. bedding Layers in sedimentary rock. barrier island A long narrow, sandy island, bedding plane The flat to undulating built by waves near a beach. surface that physically separates layers of sedimentary rock. barrier shoal An underwater sandbank or sand bar roughly parallel to the shoreline. bedding surface A surface within a layered sedimentary rock that represents the original basalt A dark-colored, dense rock formed surface where sediments were deposited. from molten rock. Oceanic crust is made of balsat. bedrock The solid rock that lies under the soil. basalt flow Basalt formed from molten rock that flowed out onto the surface of the earth bedrock geology The solid rock of the and hardened. earth’s crust exposed at the surface of the earth; also, the study of that rock. It may be balsaltic lava Molten rock that flows out covered by surficial geology. onto the earth’s surface, where it cools and hardens to become basalt. benchmark A mark on a permanent object indicating elevation; used as a reference in basaltic volcanism Volcanic activity that topographic mapping. produces basaltic lava. bentonite a clay-rich rock that is made from Basement Hinge Zone The zone in an volcanic ash. offshore sedimentary basin where the depth of the basement increases rapidly. 3 biotite a dark brown to black mineral found bog Wet, spongy ground, frequently in both igneous and metamorphic rocks. surrounding a body of open water. bioturbation Churning and stirring of brachiopod An invertebrate sea animal with sediment by living things. a two-part shell. Brachiopods have existed from the Cambrian Period to the present and birdseye A cavity in limestone or dolostone are an important fossil in the correlation of filled with the mineral calcite or dolomite. marine sedimentary rocks. bison Buffalo. brackish water Water that is somewhat salty. bivalve mollusk An invertebrate animal with a soft body and a shell made up of two braided streams Streams that divide into a parts. number of smaller channels that reunite farther downstream. black mica A dark-colored mineral of the mica group, usually biotite. breccia A rock made of sharp-edged pieces of other rocks that have been cemented blast furnace The type of furnace used to together. refine iron ore. brine Water with a high amount of blastoid A kind of stalked echinoderm dissolved salts. blind thrust Thrust fault in rocks below the brittle deformation The breaking of rock surface of the earth, where it can’t be seen. by faulting or fracturing. Brittle deformation takes place in rock at or near block diagram A diagram that shows three the surface of the earth. dimensions; for example, geologic cross sections (as in Figure A-4) that also include brittle structure A break in rock caused by drawings of the land surface. faulting, fracturing, or jointing. bluestone A fine-grained kind of bryozoan An invertebrate sea animal that graywacke, bluish gray to olive green in lives in permanently attached colonies. color. It splits into thin slabs and is used for building and paving stone. buoyant Adjective referring to crust that is lighter than the surrounding crust. bluff A high steep bank or cliff. calcareous Composed partly or completely body fossil Fossils that represent the of calcium carbonate. Used to describe mineralized or organic internal or external sediments, rock, or shells of organisms. skeleton of organisms or the impression of the form of the organism. Shells, bones, calcareous nodules Lumps of limestone petrified wood, leaves, and body that form within sediments. impressions are types of body fossils. 4 calcite A white to colorless mineral (chemical composition CaCO3). One of the carbonate sequence Strata of carbonate two carbonate minerals; the other is rock. dolomite. carbonate shelf A flat, shallow area where calcitic Containing the mineral calcite. carbonate rock is deposited. calcium carbonate A substance (chemical caribou A kind of deer related to the composition CaCO3)found in the mineral reindeer. calcite and in animal bones and shells. carnivorous Meat-eating calcsilicate rock A metamorphic rock formed form impure limestone or dolostone. Carthage-Colton Mylonite Zone A narrow zone of intensely deformed rocks in the “Cameron’s Line” A major geologic Adirondack region; it separates the boundary in southeastern New York and Northwest Lowlands from the Central New England.