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The concise Oxford dictionary of Earth sciences / A. Allaby (1991)

Public Titre : The concise Oxford dictionary of Earth sciences Type de document : Dictionnaire / Usuel Auteurs : A. Allaby, Auteur ; M. Allaby, Auteur Editeur : Oxford, Londres, ... : Oxford University Press Année de publication : 1991 Collection : Oxford Reference Importance : 410 p. Format : 13 x 19 cm ISBN/ISSN/EAN : 978-0-19-286125-2 Note générale : Bibliographie Langues : Anglais (eng) Descripteur : [Vedettes matières IGN] Terminologie [Termes IGN] anglais (langue) [Termes IGN] sciences de la Terre et de l'univers Résumé : (Auteur) Setting intellectual boundaries that would serve to define 'geology' has never been simple. As long ago as 1830, in his Principles of Geology, Charles Lyell expressed the view that the geologist should be well versed in chemistry, natural philosophy, mineralogy, zoology, comparative anatomy, and botany. For at least a century and a half those who would study the structure and composition of the Earth have had to familiarize themselves with a wide range of scientific disciplines. In our own century the inclusion of the atmosphere, oceans, and surface waters, the 'fluid Earth', has added more disciplines to the list, while the veritable explosion of new ideas and new discoveries has added still more. The rapid growth in our understanding of continental drift, sea-floor spreading, and then plate tectonics, augmented by dramatic advances in all branches of geophysics and geochemistry, have made it possible - and necessary - to interpret what is seen at and near the land surface in terms of processes that occur far below. At the same time the exploration of the solar system has provided information about planetary formation and evolution that compels us to view afresh our own planet and its history. Strictly speaking, the word 'geology' describes all studies of the Earth. It is derived, after all, from the two Greek words ge ('Earth') and logia ('speech' or 'discourse'), linked by an 'o' (as are almost all '-Iogy' words). Traditionally, however, 'geology' has come to mean the study of rocks. This narrow sense can be broadened to the 'geologic sciences', but the connotation of rocks remains and cannot easily encompass such studies as oceanography or climatology. 'Geoscience' was one term proposed, but apart from involving an uncomfortable marriage of roots from two linguistic sources (scientia is the Latin for 'knowledge'), it is incorrect. The prefix being 'ge-', not 'geo-', the word should be 'gescience', which is unattractive. T. C. Chamberlin used the name 'Earth sciences' to embrace astronomy, cosmogony, and cosmology as well as the traditional disciplines, and Alfred Wegener (originally a meteorologist) also used it, but it was not until the 1960s that it began to gain a wider currency. Learned journals began to use it and, especially in North America, academic institutions began to include it in their titles. Understanding the Earth, a British textbook written for the Department of Earth Sciences of the newly formed Open University and published in 1971, adopted the new name wholeheartedly. Within ten years it was widely accepted, used sometimes in the singular, nowadays commonly in the plural. When, in the late summer of 1985, our friends at the Oxford University Press invited us to compile a dictionary of terms used in the topics directly related to studies of the Earth, it was clear, therefore, that it should be a dictionary of 'Earth sciences'. If the decision about the title of the book was straightforward, it was not so easy deciding which disciplines the term, and so the dictionary, should cover, for although 'Earth sciences' was widely used, opinions varied as to precisely what they include. Numéro de notice : 16430 Affiliation des auteurs : non IGN Nature : Dictionnaire Permalink : https://documentation.ensg.eu/index.php?lvl=notice_display&id=37894