Oxford Index Browse

Applied to the deepest part of the ocean, below about 2000 m. The abyssal zone covers approximately 75% of the ocean floor. Compare bathyal; neritic.

An extremophile (domain Archaea) that thrives in environments where the pH is below 5.0.

Informally, a body of strata that contains the maximum abundance of a particular fossil taxon occurring within the stratigraphic range of that taxon, and after which the zone is named.

A broadly used term which refers to the rate or extent of a change associated with some substance or system. For example, it may be the tendency of a metal high in the electromotive series...

The theory that present-day processes provide a sufficient explanation for past geomorphological phenomena, although the rate of activity of these processes may have varied. The theory was...

A silty clay, often calcareous, found in dry, desert-lake basins. This fine-grained sediment is usually deposited by desert floods which have eroded wind-blown loess deposits. The term is...

Applied to the south-facing slopes of Alpine valleys, which receive a high degree of insolation as a result of their aspect. Cultivation and settlement patterns often favour such slopes....

General term for the sedimentary products of wind (aeolian) deposition.

An uneven flow of air caused by irregularities in the surface (which may be that of a solid or of air of different density) over which the flow takes place.

The earliest (1.3–0.9 Ma) of four interglacial stages in N. America, following the Nebraskan glacial episode, and approximately equivalent to the Donau/Günz interglacial of Alpine...