Glossary#
Below are some important definitions. A useful, general glossary of geological terms is found on opengeology.org
- Anticline#
- Anticlinorium#
- Antiform#
- Asthenosphere#
A rheological domain that is the weaker zone that lies beneath the plates and allows them to move freely
- Axial Surface#
- Axial trace#
- Basin#
- Bending#
- Buckling#
- Craton#
a region of the Earth’s crust that has experienced little or no tectonic deformation for at least a billion years.
- Crest line#
- Culmination#
- Depression#
- Dynamics#
- Dome#
- Elastica#
- Facing Direction#
- Fold, accordion#
- Fold, amplitude#
- Fold, assymetric#
- Fold, axial plane or axial surface of#
- Fold, axial trace of#
- Fold, axial trend of#
- Fold, axis#
- Fold, box#
- Fold, chevron#
- Fold, close#
- Fold, conical#
- Fold, conjugate#
- Fold, cylindrical#
- Fold, domain#
part of the fold delimited by inflexion lines. Domains with negative curvature (Upward closing) are called antiforms, domains with positive curvature (downward closing) are synforms.
- Fold, en-echelon#
- Fold, eyed#
- Fold, facing direction of#
- Fold, gentle#
- Fold, inclined#
- Fold, interlimb angle of#
- Fold, isoclinal#
- Fold, kink#
- Fold, limb#
- Fold, neutral#
- Fold, non-cylindrical#
- Fold, open#
- Fold, parasitic#
- Fold, polyclinal#
- Fold, polyharmonic#
- Fold, tight#
- Fold, upright#
- Fold, vertical#
- Fold, wavelength#
- Fold, zigzag#
- Hinge line#
Lines joining the points of minimum curvature and lines joining the points of
- maximum curvature.#
- Hinge line surface#
- Hinge zone#
- Inflexion line#
Lines joining the points of zero curvature.
- Inflexion line surface#
- Interlimb angle#
- Inverted saddle#
- Kinematics#
- Lithosphere#
A rheological domain that describes the upper layer of the Earth that has the most plate-like characteristics.
- Median surface#
- Monocline#
- Plate (Tectonic Plate)#
A fragment of the Earth’s lithosphere that is strong and moves like a rigid block on the surface. Implicitly, plates refers to the oceanic lithosphere because the continental lithosphere is often much weaker and deformable.
- Plate Boundary#
The “rigid” plates move relative to one another without deforming except for the very narrow accommodation zones at their edges which are known as the plate boundaries. There are three main types of plate boundaries: convergent, divergent and transform which have their own kinematic “rules” and internal structure.
- Plate Boundary (Convergent)#
- Plate Boundary (Divergent)#
- Plate Boundary (Transform)#
- Rheology#
- Saddle#
- Strain / Strain-rate#
- Stress#
- Syncline#
- Synclinorium#
- Synform#
- Trough line#
- Wavelength#