Questions tagged [terminology]
Terminology is the study of terms and their use. Terms are words and compound words that in specific contexts are given specific meanings, meanings that may deviate from the meaning the same words have in other contexts and in everyday language.
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What is meant by controlling and reacting factor?
I'm interested in issues related to Global warming and therefore started to read about it from this website --> Link
As I was reading I got stuck in the third paragraph of ...
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What is meant by controlling and reacting factor? [duplicate]
I'm interested in issues related to Global warming and therefore started to read about it from this website -->> link
As I was reading I got stuck in the third paragraph of ...
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What is a breadboard (retrieval) algorithm in the context of geophysical satellite retrievals/remote sensing?
In a recent met-jobs job posting (different version here) for a researcher with a background in climatology/meteorology/hydrology or
environmental sciences, I saw the phrase breadboard retrieval ...
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What is the difference between nappe and thrust sheet?
The titles of many geology articles contain words like "nappes and thrust sheets". Basically these are rather similar and in certain languages can be denoted with one term. The dictionaries tend to ...
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What is a "show" in petroleum geology?
Is a show when naturally ocurring oil seeps out of a fracture on the surface? Or is it when engineers fracture rocks in order to extract oil?
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The Size Hierarchy of a Landmass
If we judge a hierarchy of a landmass by size, here is what, in my knowledge, it would have looked like, from largest to smallest:
Continent
Subcontinent
???
Island
Islet
In regards to size, is ...
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Difference between "Geology" and "Physical(Natural) Geography"?
I know "Geology" is a branch of "Natural sciences" and is for studying natural and physical phenomena related to earth. But "Physical Geography/Natural Geography" seems to study exactly the same thing....
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Why are geologists and geographers not specialists in one of the branches of Earth science?
I though that geologists and geographers are specialists in one of the branches of Earth science, but they aren't.
Geology is a branch of Earth science, but geologists and geographers are in this ...
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If lava flows back into the ground, would it be called magma?
If lava flows back into the ground, would it be called magma again? Is there a difference if it flowed into a new hole vs the flow it came from?
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Topography in general sense
What does topography mean in topographical barrier? I can't fully understand the word topography. I have read the pages appearing on googling topography.
Topography is the arrangement of the natural ...
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Is the term "fertile ash" a misnomer?
I understand that volcanic ash contains minerals and can make soil more fertile.
But I've also heard the term "fertile ash" in some documentary (I have forgotten in what context). Is that a ...
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What is Stock or Overflow Pit? Is it a terminology in geography? What is the correct word for it? [closed]
I have an excel file that I have to make the join with another table that has a column listed of different kind of feature types. This was done by someone else who did GPS'ed and spell that word and ...
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What do you call boulders of non sedimentary rock that were lithified into sandstone?
I'm convinced there is a word for this. I was in the Hoodoos at Writing on Stone this weekend and kept noticing what looked like reddish quartzite boulders laying around in the sand, or sometimes ...
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Definition of "hundreds of ice accretion"
I saw this line today in a NWS weather alert:
ACCUMULATIONS...A FEW HUNDREDS OF ICE ACCRETION.
Is this standard terminology?
Does "hundreds (of)" somehow refer to a unit of measure, or
is there a (...
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What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
1. Question:
In the article, Global Warming vs. Climate Change is an example of the confusion regarding these terms.
What are the "official" definitions of "Climate Change" and "Global Warming"?
...
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What is the name for the forested areas in mountains below the treeline?
Taiga is the Russian word for big areas of forest wilderness in high latitude regions. What about forests in the mountains? What is the name for the forested areas in mountains which are below the ...
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Does this optical phenomenon have a name?
Last summer, I snuck out with a row boat around 4am. Eventually with the sun risen but still quite low in the horizon, I was rowing in the middle of the absolutely still lake when I witnessed an ...
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In hydrology, what's the difference between specific and total catchment area?
I am getting stuck on the concepts of Total Catchment Area (TCA) and Specific Catchment Area (SCA) as I try to learn more about TOPMODEL and hydrology modeling. What do these metrics mean in hydrology?...
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What is the technical term for spatially aggregated measures?
Is there an adjective to describe data that has areal weight, like area, biomass, population, etc. — data that has to be aggregated by sum for example — vs. data that doesn't, such as landcover ...
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Water levels: What does "mBf" mean?
I have seen the term MBf used in a couple of places (a ramp specification and a Hydrological Study) to describe height or depth of water. What is this unit? Can it be converted to meters?
For bonus ...
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What's the difference between Waste Water Reclamation and Waste Water Reuse? [closed]
I received a project which there's the follow topic:
Waste Water Reclamation and Reuse
Are they not the same meaning, reuse and reclamation in this case?
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What is Geoalchemy?
I am reading this paper, and the authors have an interesting affiliation:
Center for Geoalchemy, MIT? A quick Google Scholar search shows that it was a thing in the late 1970s to 1980s. Seems like ...
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What does the term "Snow Interval" mean?
When looking Weather Station readings from the National Weather Service website, what does the term "Snow Interval (inches)" actually mean? 6 hr and 24 hr readings are obvious, but I can't seem to ...
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What is the difference between eluvium and alluvium?
I was reading about kimberlite on Wikipedia and it mentioned eluvium. I've heard of alluvium, alluvial fans, alluvial deposits, etc. However, when I looked up eluvium, it sounded exactly like alluvium....
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Equinoxes and solstices: start of the season or mid-season?
In the United States, the upcoming autumnal equinox is marked on most calendars as the "first day of autumn." Similarly the solstices are commonly called the "first day of summer" and "first day of ...
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Why is q used for specific humidity?
$q$ is the symbol used for specific humidity in many textbooks and papers (at least in meteorology and climatology, I'm not familiar with it in other disciplines). Where does this symbol come from, ...
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Meaning of the C in the unit "mg C L-1"
Could somebody tell me what the "C" signifies in the unit mg C L-1? I was wondering if it stood for concentration but it seems redundant as litres are mentioned. Thanks.
The paper which uses the unit ...
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What are the guidelines for constructing variable names that follow CF conventions?
I am attempting to develop variable names following Unidata's climate forecasting (CF) variable naming guidelines, but for biological variables used to parameterize and evaluate land surface and ...
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Is there a difference between rock and stone?
I couldn't find the definitions from either source:
Geology Dictionary
Glossary of Geologic Terms
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Why is colored seismic inversion called 'colored'?
One of the seismic inversion algorithms is called 'colored' inversion. It is performed in the frequency domain and the point is in building an operator that directly transforms a seismic trace into ...
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Horizon letter for bedrock
What is the official letter for the bedrock soil horizon? I know that the letters to represent the A, B, and C horizons are widespread, but the fourth layer (bedrock) is referred to with different ...
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Naming convention for sea ice thickness per unit area of ice or ocean
When defining an area average of sea ice thickness, it is important to distinguish between an average taken over an ocean area
$$h_1 = \sum \frac{\text{sea ice thickness (in area)}}{\text{area}_\text{...
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Is there a standard definition of a hill? [closed]
I think we can all agree that these are hills:
Image from Wikipedia
They're kinda gentle, not too tall, and altogether nice-looking. But it's always bugged me that I can't come up with an objective ...
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