Glossary
Earth Sciences Professor Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential earth sciences professor terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key earth sciences professor vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in earth sciences professor training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Climate
- Long-term weather patterns.
- Core sample
- Cylinder of sediment or ice.
- Field camp
- Intensive field course.
- GIS
- Geographic information systems.
- Igneous rock
- Rock from cooled magma.
- Metamorphic rock
- Rock changed by heat and pressure.
- Meteorology
- Study of weather.
- Mineral
- Natural crystalline solid.
- Oceanography
- Study of oceans.
- Plate tectonics
- Movement of Earth’s plates.
- Research cruise
- Ship-based research.
- Sedimentary rock
- Rock from sediment.
- Seismology
- Study of earthquakes.
- Stratigraphy
- Study of rock layers.
- Tenure
- Permanent status.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Earth Sciences Professor practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Earth Sciences Professor training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.