Earth Science, Geologic Time & Fossils, WIT-İZM
Planet Earth has billions of years of history, from the time when it was an inhospitable ball of hot magma to when its surface stabilized into a variety of diverse zones capable of supporting many life-forms. Many are the species that lived through the various geologic eras and left a trace of their existence in the fossils that we study today. But Earth is never done settling, as we can see from the earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and other phenomena manifested in Earth’s crust, oceans, and atmosphere.
Earth Science, Geologic Time & Fossils Encyclopedia Articles By Title
witherite, a carbonate mineral, barium carbonate (BaCO3), that is, with the exception of barite, the most common......
Witwatersrand System, major division of Precambrian rocks in South Africa (the Precambrian began about 3.8 billion......
Wolf Creek Crater, huge meteorite crater 65 miles (105 km) south of Halls Creek, Western Australia. The crater......
wolframite, chief ore of tungsten, commonly associated with tin ore in and around granite. Such occurrences include......
woolly rhinoceros, (genus Coelodonta), either of two extinct species of rhinoceros found in fossil deposits of......
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) created to promote the establishment......
Worthenia, genus of extinct gastropods (snails) preserved as common fossils in rocks of Devonian to Triassic age......
wulfenite, lead molybdate, PbMoO4, a minor source of molybdenum and the second most common molybdenum mineral.......
wurtzite, a zinc sulfide mineral that occurs typically in Potosí, Bolivia; Butte, Mont.; and Goldfield, Nev. It......
Georg Wüst was a German oceanographer who, by collecting and analyzing many systematic observations, developed......
Xenacanthus, long-surviving but now extinct genus of freshwater sharks. Xenacanthus survived from the end of the......
xenolith, rock fragment within an intrusive igneous body that is unrelated to the igneous body itself. Xenoliths,......
xenotime, widely distributed phosphate mineral, yttrium phosphate (YPO4), though large proportions of erbium commonly......
Yonaguni Monument, underwater rock structure that was discovered in the mid-1980s near Yonaguni Island, Japan.......
Younger Dryas, cool period between roughly 12,900 and 11,600 years ago that disrupted the prevailing warming trend......
zeolite, any member of a family of hydrated aluminosilicate minerals that contain alkali and alkaline-earth metals.......
zeolite facies, one of the major divisions of the mineral facies classification of metamorphic rocks, the rocks......
Zhang Heng was a Chinese mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. His seismoscope for registering earthquakes......
zinc (Zn), chemical element, a low-melting metal of Group 12 (IIb, or zinc group) of the periodic table, that is......
zincite, mineral consisting of zinc oxide (ZnO), usually found in platy or granular masses. Its blood-red colour......
zircon, silicate mineral, zirconium silicate, ZrSiO4, the principal source of zirconium. Zircon is widespread as......
Ferdinand Zirkel was a German geologist and pioneer in microscopic petrography, the study of rock minerals by viewing......
Karl Alfred, knight von Zittel was a paleontologist who proved that the Sahara had not been under water during......
zoogeography, the branch of the science of biogeography (q.v.) that is concerned with the geographic distribution......
İzmit earthquake of 1999, devastating earthquake that struck near the city of İzmit in northwestern Turkey on August......