The branch of geology that deals with the origin, composition, structure, and alteration of rocks. 岩石学地质学的一个分支,研究岩石的起源、成分、结构和演变
Geology here passes over the continuation of the history of man to Archeology. 地质学在此把人类历史的延续移交给考古学。
geology
[ noun ] a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks <noun.cognition>
Geology \Ge*ol"o*gy\, n.; pl. {Geologies}. [Gr. ge`a, gh^, the earth + -logy: cf. F. g['e]ologie.] 1. The science which treats: (a) Of the structure and mineral constitution of the globe; structural geology. (b) Of its history as regards rocks, minerals, rivers, valleys, mountains, climates, life, etc.; historical geology. (c) Of the causes and methods by which its structure, features, changes, and conditions have been produced; dynamical geology.
2. A treatise on the science.
Note: The science of geology, as treating of the history of the globe, involves a description of the different strata which compose its crust, their order of succession, characteristic forms of animal and vegetable life, etc. The principal subdivisions of geological time, and the most important strata, with their relative positions, are often indicated in a diagram called "The Geological Series"
Natural \Nat"u*ral\ (?; 135), a. [OE. naturel, F. naturel, fr. L. naturalis, fr. natura. See {Nature}.] 1. Fixed or determined by nature; pertaining to the constitution of a thing; belonging to native character; according to nature; essential; characteristic; innate; not artificial, foreign, assumed, put on, or acquired; as, the natural growth of animals or plants; the natural motion of a gravitating body; natural strength or disposition; the natural heat of the body; natural color.
With strong natural sense, and rare force of will. --Macaulay.
2. Conformed to the order, laws, or actual facts, of nature; consonant to the methods of nature; according to the stated course of things, or in accordance with the laws which govern events, feelings, etc.; not exceptional or violent; legitimate; normal; regular; as, the natural consequence of crime; a natural death; anger is a natural response to insult.
What can be more natural than the circumstances in the behavior of those women who had lost their husbands on this fatal day? --Addison.
3. Having to do with existing system to things; dealing with, or derived from, the creation, or the world of matter and mind, as known by man; within the scope of human reason or experience; not supernatural; as, a natural law; natural science; history, theology.
I call that natural religion which men might know . . . by the mere principles of reason, improved by consideration and experience, without the help of revelation. --Bp. Wilkins.
4. Conformed to truth or reality; as: (a) Springing from true sentiment; not artificial or exaggerated; -- said of action, delivery, etc.; as, a natural gesture, tone, etc. (b) Resembling the object imitated; true to nature; according to the life; -- said of anything copied or imitated; as, a portrait is natural.
5. Having the character or sentiments properly belonging to one's position; not unnatural in feelings.
To leave his wife, to leave his babes, . . . He wants the natural touch. --Shak.
6. Connected by the ties of consanguinity. especially, Related by birth rather than by adoption; as, one's natural mother. ``Natural friends.'' --J. H. Newman. [1913 Webster +PJC]
7. Hence: Begotten without the sanction of law; born out of wedlock; illegitimate; bastard; as, a natural child.
8. Of or pertaining to the lower or animal nature, as contrasted with the higher or moral powers, or that which is spiritual; being in a state of nature; unregenerate.
The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. --1 Cor. ii. 14.
9. (Math.) Belonging to, to be taken in, or referred to, some system, in which the base is 1; -- said of certain functions or numbers; as, natural numbers, those commencing at 1; natural sines, cosines, etc., those taken in arcs whose radii are 1.
10. (Mus.) (a) Produced by natural organs, as those of the human throat, in distinction from instrumental music. (b) Of or pertaining to a key which has neither a flat nor a sharp for its signature, as the key of C major. (c) Applied to an air or modulation of harmony which moves by easy and smooth transitions, digressing but little from the original key. (d) Neither flat nor sharp; -- of a tone. (e) Changed to the pitch which is neither flat nor sharp, by appending the sign [natural]; as, A natural. --Moore (Encyc. of Music). [1913 Webster +PJC]
11. Existing in nature or created by the forces of nature, in contrast to production by man; not made, manufactured, or processed by humans; as, a natural ruby; a natural bridge; natural fibers; a deposit of natural calcium sulfate. Opposed to {artificial}, {man-made}, {manufactured}, {processed} and {synthetic}. [WordNet sense 2] [PJC]
12. Hence: Not processed or refined; in the same statre as that existing in nature; as, natural wood; natural foods. [PJC]
{Natural day}, the space of twenty-four hours. --Chaucer.
{Natural fats}, {Natural gas}, etc. See under {Fat}, {Gas}. etc.
{Natural Harmony} (Mus.), the harmony of the triad or common chord.
{Natural history}, in its broadest sense, a history or description of nature as a whole, including the sciences of {botany}, {zo["o]logy}, {geology}, {mineralogy}, {paleontology}, {chemistry}, and {physics}. In recent usage the term is often restricted to the sciences of botany and zo["o]logy collectively, and sometimes to the science of zoology alone.
{Natural law}, that instinctive sense of justice and of right and wrong, which is native in mankind, as distinguished from specifically revealed divine law, and formulated human law.
{Natural modulation} (Mus.), transition from one key to its relative keys.
{Natural order}. (Nat. Hist.) See under {order}.
{Natural person}. (Law) See under {person}, n.
{Natural philosophy}, originally, the study of nature in general; the natural sciences; in modern usage, that branch of physical science, commonly called {physics}, which treats of the phenomena and laws of matter and considers those effects only which are unaccompanied by any change of a chemical nature; -- contrasted with {mental philosophy} and {moral philosophy}.
{Natural scale} (Mus.), a scale which is written without flats or sharps.
Note: Model would be a preferable term, as less likely to mislead, the so-called artificial scales (scales represented by the use of flats and sharps) being equally natural with the so-called natural scale.
{Natural science}, the study of objects and phenomena existing in nature, especially biology, chemistry, physics and their interdisciplinary related sciences; {natural history}, in its broadest sense; -- used especially in contradistinction to {social science}, {mathematics}, {philosophy}, {mental science} or {moral science}.
{Natural selection} (Biol.), the operation of natural laws analogous, in their operation and results, to designed selection in breeding plants and animals, and resulting in the survival of the fittest; the elimination over time of species unable to compete in specific environments with other species more adapted to survival; -- the essential mechanism of evolution. The principle of natural selection is neutral with respect to the mechanism by which inheritable changes occur in organisms (most commonly thought to be due to mutation of genes and reorganization of genomes), but proposes that those forms which have become so modified as to be better adapted to the existing environment have tended to survive and leave similarly adapted descendants, while those less perfectly adapted have tended to die out through lack of fitness for the environment, thus resulting in the survival of the fittest. See {Darwinism}.
{Natural system} (Bot. & Zo["o]l.), a classification based upon real affinities, as shown in the structure of all parts of the organisms, and by their embryology.
It should be borne in mind that the natural system of botany is natural only in the constitution of its genera, tribes, orders, etc., and in its grand divisions. --Gray.
{Natural theology}, or {Natural religion}, that part of theological science which treats of those evidences of the existence and attributes of the Supreme Being which are exhibited in nature; -- distinguished from {revealed religion}. See Quotation under {Natural}, a., 3.
{Natural vowel}, the vowel sound heard in urn, furl, sir, her, etc.; -- so called as being uttered in the easiest open position of the mouth organs. See {Neutral vowel}, under {Neutral} and Guide to Pronunciation, [sect] 17. [1913 Webster +PJC]
Syn: See {Native}.
"The wind erosion is important," said Sveinn Jakobsson, head of the geology department at the Icelandic Museum of Natural History. "This is a very stormy place." The assault of the elements is wearing Surtsey down, too.
Yale's faculty in biology, geology and geophysics, forestry and environmental studies will provide the institute's core academic resources, the school said.
Most are special habitats for the rarer plants, birds and animals; some are chosen for their geology.
She spent her childhood in Nigeria and earned her geology degree at St Andrew's University, Glasgow.
"There's probably almost as many ideas on the origin of these things as there are people who have looked at them," said Charles Higgins, a geology professor at the University of California-Davis.
Magellan is designed to study the geology and geography of Venus, heated to 900 degrees Fahrenheit by a "greenhouse effect" gone berserk.
Stanford University has 21 geology majors, compared with about 50 in 1979.
Oil men are here not just because the geology is promising, but also because they are running out of alternatives.
A Duke University marine geology professor, Orrin Pilkey, said the jetties will cause even more erosion on the Outer Banks.
David Pieri, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who is working with the Japanese on the instrument, said that Aster initially was focused on oil exploration, but would now be used to study geology more widely.
The professors, Clarence Menninga and Davis Young of the geology department and Howard Van Till of the physics department, who have a combined 52 years at Calvin, did not attend the board's news conference.
The classes were an odd gumbo of topics: Cajuns and Creoles in Louisiana films, Louisiana architecture, Mississippi River customs and geology, and the Cajun waltz and two-step.
Based on his own research, plus a hunch that defied conventional geology, he claimed there would be soil underneath the coral.
William Orr, a geology professor at the University of Oregon and curator of its Thomas Condon Collection of Fossils, brought six bones from the site to the Woodburn City Council meeting Monday.
Two of the illusions were particularly dangerous: that "the geology of the Pottsville Basin was favorable to underground coal mining," and that "careless miners, rather than negligent operators, were responsible for mine accidents."
He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1958 after earning a bachelor's degree in geology at the City University of New York, and later earned a master's degree in business administration from George Washington University.
But on Wednesday, a Colorado School of Mines geology professor confirmed that the rock was a meteorite.