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Wollemi pine

(Encyclopedia)Wollemi pine wŏlˈəmīˌ [key], primitive tree, Wollemia nobilis, of the conifer family Araucariaceae, named after Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, Australia, where it was discovered in 199...

lithosphere

(Encyclopedia)lithosphere lĭthˈəsfērˌ [key], brittle uppermost shell of the earth, broken into a number of tectonic plates. The lithosphere consists of the heavy oceanic and lighter continental crusts, and the...

lava

(Encyclopedia)lava läˈvə [key], molten rock that erupts on the earth's surface, either on land or under the ocean, by a volcano or through a fissure. It solidifies into igneous rock that is also called lava. Bef...

Miocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Miocene epoch mīˈəsēn [key], fourth epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era of geologic time (see Geologic Timescale, tablegeologic timescale, table), lasting from around 24.6 to 5.1 mill...

plate

(Encyclopedia)plate: see electron tube.

asthenosphere

(Encyclopedia)asthenosphere ăsthēnˈəsfēr [key], region in the upper mantle of the earth's interior, characterized by low-density, semiplastic (or partially molten) rock material chemically similar to the overl...

Ballard, Robert Duane

(Encyclopedia)Ballard, Robert Duane bălˈərd [key], 1942–, American marine geologist, b. Wichita, Kans.; Ph.D. Univ. of Rhode Island, 1974. From 1969 to 1997 he was associated with Woods Hole Oceanographic Inst...

Galápagos Islands

(Encyclopedia)Galápagos Islands gəlăpˈəgōs [key] [Span.,=tortoises], archipelago and province, 3,029 sq mi ...

fault

(Encyclopedia) CE5 Types of faults fault, in geology, fracture in the earth's crust in which the rock on one side of the fracture has measurable movement in relation to the rock on the other side. Faults on othe...

Oligocene epoch

(Encyclopedia)Oligocene epoch ŏlˈəgōsēnˌ [key], third epoch of the Tertiary period in the Cenozoic era of geologic time, lasting from 38 to 24 million years ago. More of North America was dry land during the ...
 

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