Glossary
Geoscientist Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential geoscientist terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key geoscientist vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in geoscientist training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Aquifer
- Water-bearing rock.
- Boring log
- Record of a drill hole.
- Contaminant plume
- Spread of pollution underground.
- Core
- Drilled rock sample.
- Fault
- Crack where rocks move.
- Field camp
- Hands-on geology course.
- Geohazard
- Earth-related hazard.
- Groundwater
- Water underground.
- Mineral
- Natural solid with structure.
- Outcrop
- Exposed rock.
- PG
- Professional Geologist.
- Plate tectonics
- Moving Earth plates.
- Sediment
- Loose particles.
- Seismic survey
- Sound waves to map rock.
- Stratigraphy
- Rock layers.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Geoscientist practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Geoscientist training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.