Geology - Middle School

No one will fault you for wanting to dig into this geology word list. Learn about the structure of the earth, types of rock, earthquakes and volcanoes, the geologic time scale, and processes such as sedimentation and erosion. It won't take eons to master these essential terms.
91 words 427 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. active
    (of e.g. volcanos) erupting or liable to erupt
  2. aftershock
    a tremor following the main tremor of an earthquake
  3. asthenosphere
    the zone of Earth's mantle that lies below the lithosphere
  4. bed
    (geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock)
  5. boulder
    a large smooth mass of rock detached from a place of origin
  6. Cambrian
    the geologic period from about 541 to 485 million years ago
  7. Cenozoic
    the current geologic era, starting about 66 million years ago
  8. cinder
    a fragment of incombustible matter left after a fire
  9. cleavage
    the act of splitting
  10. composition
    the way in which someone or something is put together
  11. compression
    an increase in the density of something
  12. conglomerate
    a composite rock made up of particles of varying size
  13. continent
    one of the large landmasses of the earth
  14. continental drift
    the gradual movement of very large land masses
  15. continental shelf
    the relatively shallow seabed surrounding a continent
  16. convergence
    the occurrence of two or more things coming together
  17. core
    the central part of the Earth
  18. Cretaceous
    the geologic period from about 145 to 66 million years ago
  19. crust
    the outer layer of the Earth
  20. crystal
    a solid having a highly regular atomic structure
  21. density
    the amount per unit size
  22. dormant
    not erupting but not extinct
  23. earthquake
    vibration from underground movement along a fault plane
  24. element
    a substance that cannot be separated into simpler substances
  25. eon
    the longest unit of geological time
  26. epicenter
    a point on the Earth's surface directly above an earthquake
  27. epoch
    a unit of geological time that is divided into ages
  28. era
    a major division of geological time
  29. erosion
    the process of wearing or grinding something down
  30. extinct
    (of e.g. volcanos) permanently inactive
  31. extrusive
    forced while molten through cracks in the earth's surface
  32. fault
    a crack in the earth's crust resulting from displacement
  33. folding
    a geological process that causes a bend in a stratum of rock
  34. foliated
    having thin leaflike layers or strata
  35. foliation
    (geology) the arrangement of leaflike layers in a rock
  36. formation
    (geology) a distinct unit of rocks or layers
  37. fossil
    the remains of a plant or animal from a past geological age
  38. geologist
    a specialist in the history of the Earth recorded in rocks
  39. geyser
    a spring that discharges hot water and steam
  40. glacier
    a slowly moving mass of ice
  41. gravel
    rock fragments and pebbles
  42. hardness
    the property of being rigid and resistant to pressure
  43. hot spot
    a point of relatively intense heat or radiation
  44. hot spring
    a natural spring of water at a temperature of 70 F or above
  45. hydrosphere
    the watery layer of the earth's surface
  46. igneous
    produced by the action of fire or intense heat
  47. intrusive
    forced while molten into cracks between layers of other rock
  48. Jurassic
    the geologic period from about 201 to 145 million years ago
  49. lava
    rock that in its molten form issues from volcanos
  50. lithosphere
    the solid part of the Earth
  51. luster
    the property of something that shines with reflected light
  52. magma
    molten rock in the earth's crust
  53. magnetism
    attraction for iron
  54. magnitude
    the property of relative size or extent
  55. mantle
    the layer of the earth between the crust and the core
  56. Mesozoic
    the geologic era from about 252 to 66 million years ago
  57. metamorphic
    having undergone transformation by pressure, heat, etc.
  58. mineral
    a solid inorganic substance occurring in nature
  59. mineralogist
    a scientist trained in mineralogy
  60. Mohs scale
    a scale of hardness of solids
  61. molten
    reduced to liquid form by heating
  62. mountain
    a land mass that projects well above its surroundings
  63. normal fault
    an inclined fault in which the hanging wall appears to have slipped downward relative to the footwall
  64. organic
    having properties characteristic of living beings
  65. Paleozoic
    the geologic era from about 541 to 252 million years ago
  66. Pangaea
    (plate tectonics) a hypothetical continent including all the landmass of the earth prior to the Triassic period when it split into Laurasia and Gondwanaland
  67. pebble
    a small smooth rounded rock
  68. period
    a unit of geological time when a system of rocks formed
  69. plate
    a rigid layer of the Earth's crust
  70. plate tectonics
    the movement or study of the movement of Earth's crust
  71. reverse fault
    a geological fault in which the upper side appears to have been pushed upward by compression
  72. Richter scale
    a system once used to measure the strength of an earthquake
  73. rock
    material consisting of the aggregate of minerals
  74. sand
    a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral
  75. sediment
    matter that has been deposited by some natural process
  76. sedimentary
    formed by or containing the accumulation of deposited matter
  77. sedimentation
    the accumulation of matter deposited by some natural process
  78. seismograph
    an instrument for measuring movements of the ground
  79. seismologist
    a scientist who studies earthquakes
  80. shale
    a sedimentary rock formed by the deposition of successive layers of clay
  81. shear
    a deformation of an object in which parallel planes shift
  82. stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material
  83. stress
    (physics) force that produces strain on a physical body
  84. superposition
    (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest
  85. temperature
    the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment
  86. tension
    a stress that produces an elongation of a physical body
  87. Triassic
    the geologic period from about 252 to 201 million years ago
  88. tsunami
    a cataclysm resulting from a destructive sea wave
  89. volcanic
    relating to eruptions of gas and lava from the earth's crust
  90. volcano
    a fissure in the earth's crust through which gases erupt
  91. weather
    change under the action or influence of the climate
Created on Thu Feb 16 19:09:45 EST 2017 (updated Tue Apr 18 16:13:06 EDT 2017)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.