| NEWS FROM AGI July 8, 1997 |
Contact Terry Ames: (703) 379-2480 E-mail: geopubs@agiweb.org |
ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- The fourth edition of the Glossary of Geology, just published by the American Geological Institute, reflects the dramatic technological changes affecting the earth-science profession. Geoscientists, for example, now use geographic information systems (GIS) and global positioning systems (GPS) as well as new tools and techniques for analysis, modeling, exploration, and communication. New discoveries, serving to advance scientific thought, inevitably lead to changes in terminology and usage. Editor Julia A. Jackson invited more than 100 geoscience experts to review and update terms and definitions for the latest edition of the Glossary. As a result, approximately 3,400 new entries have been added and another 9,000 definitions have been updated in the fourth edition, bringing the number of entries to 37,000.
The revision applies to nearly every discipline in the geosciences, including active fields such as carbonate sedimentology, environmental geology and geophysics, GIS, GPS, sequence stratigraphy, hydrogeology and hydraulics, marine and coastal geology, organic geochemistry, and paleoecology. The number of definitions for traditional fields such as seismology, stratigraphy, speleology and karst, structural geology and tectonics, paleontology, and igneous petrology has expanded as well.
The 4,000 mineral listings in the Glossary constitute the largest single group of terms. Since 1987, so much as been learned through the analysis of crystal structure that many of the mineral definitions required updating. Revised formulas are expressed in a form to emphasize crystal chemistry and structure.
Editor Julia A. Jackson worked as co-editor with the late Robert L. Bates on the second and third editions of the Glossary, published in 1979 and 1987. Until recently, she directed the communications and publications programs at the American Geological Institute and was editor of AGI's monthly earth-science magazine, Geotimes. A geologist, writer, and editor, Jackson is past president of the Association of Earth Science Editors (AESE) and writes a column, "It's About Time," for the Blueline, AESE's newsletter.
The fourth edition of the Glossary of Geology can be ordered from AGI's Publications Center, P.O. Box 205, Annapolis Junction, Md., 20701.Telephone: (301) 953-1744; fax: (301) 206-9789. ISBN 0-922152-34-9, hardbound, 8-1/2" x11", 800 pages. List price is $110.00; AGI Member Society price is $88.00, plus postage and handling. Contact the Publications Center for more detailed information.