Collaborative Research: Frameworks: Internet of Samples: Toward an Interdisciplinary Cyberinfrastructure for Material Samples
Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information
CGI Geoscience Terminology Working Group
Active human occupation site
sampled feature is a site at which there are ongoing human activities
Anthropogenic environment
Sampled feature is produced by or related to human activity past or present.
Any sampled feature
Any thing that can be sampled. Top concept in sampled feature type vocabulary.
Atmosphere
Sampled feature is the Earth's atmosphere
Biological entity
Sampled feature is an organism. Use for samples that represent some species of organism as the proximate sampled feature, not the environment that the organism inhabits.
domain specific vocabulary extensions will be useful to distinguish samples from different phyla/order/class...
Earth environment
Sampled feature is the natural Earth environment
Earth interior
Geologic environments within the solid Earth.
Sampled feature is solid material from within the Earth. Fluids in pore space in earth interior sample 'Subsurface fluid reservoir'
Earth surface
Sampled feature is the interface between solid earth and hydrosphere or atmosphere. Includes samples representing things collected on the surface, in the uppermost part of the material below the surface, or air or water directly at the contact with the Earth surface. Hierarchy presented here is based on assumption that a particular setting may be specified by a combination of a climatic setting with one or more process or geomorphic- or physiographic- defined settings.
Experiment setting
Sampled feature is an experimental set up that produced the sample; the sample is the product of the experiment.
Neuendorf et al 2005,
Extraterrestrial environment
Extraterrestrial setting
Sampled feature is the environment outside of solid earth, hydrosphere, or atmosphere.
Glacier environment
glacier related setting
Earth surface setting with geography defined by spatial relationship to glaciers (e.g. on top of a glacier, next to a glacier, in front of a glacier...). Processes related to moving ice dominate sediment transport and deposition and landform development. Includes subaqueous, shoreline, and terrestrial settings that are impacted by the presence of glaciers. Considered a geographically defined setting in that a glacier is a geographic feature. Includes glacier, ice sheet, ice shelf, iceberg, or rock or water directly under or on top of such ice.
Laboratory or curatorial environment
Sampled feature is a laboratory or other research site, collected with intention of characterizing the environment in which data are collected or other research conducted, that might affect results or safety; e.g. lab blank measurements.
Lake river, or stream bottom
Sampled feature is the interface between the solid Earth interface and a lake or flowing water body.
Lake river or stream bottom
Marine water body
Marine environment
Sampled feature is the marine hydrosphere.
Marine water body bottom
Sea floor
Sampled feature is the interface between the solid Earth and a marine or brackish water body. Includes benthic boundary layer: the bottom layer of water and the uppermost layer of sediment directly influenced by the overlying water.
Site of past human activities
sampled feature is a place where humans have been and left evidence of their activity. Includes prehistoric and paleo hominid sites
Neuendorf et al., 2005
Subaerial surface environment
subaerial setting
Setting at the interface between the solid earth and the atmosphere, includes some shallow subaqueous settings in river channels and playas. Characterized by conditions and processes, such as erosion, that exist or operate in the open air on or immediately adjacent to the land surface
Environment at the surface, immediately above to the top of trees, or immediately below surface (zone of bioturbation). Include soil and recently deposited subaerial sediment at the surface.
Subsurface fluid reservoir
Sampled feature is fluid that resides in fractures, intergranular porosity or other open space in the solid earth.
Terrestrial water body
Sampled feature is terrestrial hydrosphere-- lake, other standing water, or a flowing water body (river, stream..). Include saline water in terrestrial evaporite environments.
Water body
Sampled feature is the Earth's hydrosphere.
A drainage channel along which runoff no longer occurs, as on an alluvial fan
Abandoned river channel
Marine environment in which carbonate sediment does not dissolve before reaching the sea floor and can accumulate.
Above carbonate compensation depth
Bates & Jackson, 1987, Heezen & Laughton, 1963, Reading, 1978, p. 390
Abyssal plain
Near flat areas of ocean floor, slope less than 1:1000, generally receive only distal turbidite and pelagic sediments.
Basin plain
The ocean environment at water depths between 3500 and 6000 metres
Abyssal setting
A plate boundary between continental and oceanic crust that is a zone of active faulting, i.e. a transform fault or subduction zone.
Active continental margin
Ocean highland associated with a divergent continental margin (spreading center). Setting is characterized by active volcanism, locally steep relief, hydrothermal activity, and pelagic sedimentation.
Active ocean ridge
Agricultural site
Site involved in crop cultivation, livestock production, aquaculture, or forestry to produce food or non-food products.
http://www.audubonofflorida.org/main/wetlands/chp3.htm, Reading, 1978
Modern algal flats are found on rock or mud in areas flooded only by the highest tides and are often subject to high evaporation rates. Algal flats survive only when an area is salty enough to eliminate snails and other herbivorous animals that eat algae, yet is not so salty that the algae cannot survive. The most common species of algae found on algal flats are blue-green algae of the genera Scytonema and Schizothrix. These algae can tolerate the daily extremes in temperature and oxygen that typify conditions on the flats. Other plants sometimes found on algal flats include one-celled green algae, flagellates, diatoms, bacteria, and isolated scrubby red and black mangroves, as well as patches of saltwort. Animals include false cerith, cerion snails, fiddler crabs, and great land crabs. Flats with well developed algal mats are restricted for the most part to the Keys, with Sugarloaf and Crane Keys offering prime examples of algal flat habitat. (Audubon, 1991)
Algal flat
Alkalic igneous complex
Intrusive and extrusive igneous rock suites with unusual alkalic or alkaline composition.
A low, outspread, relatively flat to gently sloping mass of loose rock material, shaped like an open fan or a segment of a cone, deposited by a stream (esp. in a semiarid region) at the place where it issues from a narrow mountain valley upon a plain or broad valley, or where a tributary stream is near or at its junction with the main stream, or wherever a constriction in a valley abruptly ceases or the gradient of the stream suddenly decreases, it is steepest near the mouth of the valley where its apex points upstream, and it slopes gently and convexly outward with gradually decreasing gradient
Alluvial fan
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/,
An assemblage landforms produced by alluvial and fluvial processes (braided streams, terraces, etc.) that form low gradient, regional ramps along the flanks of mountains and extend great distances from their sources (e.g.high Plains of North America). (NRCS GLOSSARY OF LANDFORM AND GEOLOGIC TERMS). A level or gently sloping tract or a slightly undulating land surface produced by extensive deposition of alluvium... Synonym-- wash plain,...river plain, aggraded valley plain,... (Jackson, 1997, p. 17). May include one or more River plain systems.
Alluvial plain
Environment depleted in oxygen, typically subaqueous.
Anoxic environment
based on Neuendorf et al., 2005, Glossary of Geology
Aquifer
A body of porous and permeable Earth Material containing interstitial water that can move through the material.
Arch-natural formation
A landform consting of rock in a curved symmetrical structure that spans an opening and support the weight of the rock above the opening.
Setting characterized by mean annual precipitation of 10 inches (25 cm) or less. (Jackson, 1997, p. 172). Equivalent to SLTT 'Desert setting', but use 'Arid' to emphasize climatic nature of setting definition.
Arid or semi arid environment
Ocean ridge axial valley
A linear depression along the crest of an active ocean ridge spreading center.
Tectonic setting adjacent to a volcanic arc formed above a subduction zone. The back arc setting is on the opposite side of the volcanic arc from the trench at which oceanic crust is consumed in a subduction zone. Back arc setting includes terrane that is affected by plate margin and arc-related processes.
Back arc setting
The landward side of a reef. The term is often used adjectivally to refer to deposits within the restricted lagoon behind a barrier reef, such as the back-reef facies of lagoonal deposits. In some places, as on a platform-edge reef tract, back reef refers to the side of the reef away from the open sea, even though no land may be nearby
Backreef setting
Badlands
A dry terrain where soft sedimentary rock and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded, characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density.
A narrow, elongate sand or gravel ridge rising slightly above the high-tide level and extending generally parallel with the shore, but separated from it by a lagoon (Shepard, 1954, p.1904), estuary, or marsh, it is extended by longshore transport and is rarely more than several kilometers long.
Barrier beach
setting meant to include all the various geographic elements typically associated with a barrier island coastline, including the barrier islands, and geomorphic/geographic elements that are linked by processes associated with the presence of the island (e.g. wash over fans, inlet channel, back barrier lagoon).
Barrier island coastline
A lagoon that is roughly parallel to the coast and is separated from the open ocean by a strip of land or by a barrier reef. Tidal influence is typically restricted and the lagoon is commonly hypersaline.
Barrier lagoon
Basin-physiography
Depression-physiography
landform sunken or depressed below the surrounding area
The ocean environment at water depths between 200 and 3500 metres
Bathyal setting
Based on IMLGS sampled feature harbor or small bay
Bay
An area of water bordered by land on three sides.
The unconsolidated material at the shoreline that covers a gently sloping zone, typically with a concave profile, extending landward from the low-water line to the place where there is a definite change in material or physiographic form (such as a cliff), or to the line of permanent vegetation (usually the effective limit of the highest storm waves), at the shore of a body of water, formed and washed by waves or tides, usually covered by sand or gravel, and lacking a bare rocky surface.
Beach
Marine environment in which water is deep enough that carbonate sediment goes into solution before it can accumulate on the sea floor.
Below carbonate compensation depth setting
Neuendorf et al., Glossary of Geology, 2005
Bight
a concave bend or curvature in a coastline forming a very open bay
A ridgelike or moundlike structure, layered or massive, built by sedentary calcareous organisms, esp. corals, and consisting mostly of their remains, it is wave-resistant and stands topographically above the surrounding contemporaneously deposited sediment.
Biological reef
Jackson, 1997, North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/,
Waterlogged, spongy ground, consisting primarily of mosses, containing acidic, decaying vegetation that may develop into peat.
Bog
A stream that divides into or follows an interlacing or tangled network of several small branching and reuniting shallow channels separated from each other by ephemeral branch islands or channel bars, resembling in plan the strands of a complex braid. Such a stream is generally believed to indicate an inability to carry all of its load, such as an overloaded and aggrading stream flowing in a wide channel on a floodplain
Braided river channel
Butte
an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus or tablelands
Canal
A human manufactured water channel to manage surface water resources for irrigation, transportation, or human consumption.
Neuendorf et al., 2005, Glossary of Geology
Canyon
a deep, relatively narrow, steep-sided valley confined between walls cutting through a plateau or mountainous area
Cape
A mass of land that extends from a coastline into an adjacent body of water
Typically larger than a headland, smaller than a peninsula. The term generally refers to the part of the projecting land mass that extends farthest into the water body. See Neuendorf et al, 2005, Glossary of Geology, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_(geography)
A shoreline setting in which terrigenous input is minor compared to local carbonate sediment production. Constructional biogenic activity is an important element in geomorphic development.
Carbonate dominated shoreline
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/carbonate-mound: AI generated definition based on: Treatise on Geomorphology (Second Edition), 2022 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128182345001292)
Carbonate mound
a seafloor elevation formed by calcareous framework-building organisms, varying in shapes, sizes, and heights, generally less than 500 meters. These mounds can be circular, arcuate, elongated, or irregular, with heights ranging from a few meters to over 300 meters, and are commonly found in temperate to high latitudes on the continental slope.
carbonate mud-dominated deposits with topographic relief and few or no stromatolites, thrombolites or in place skeletons. Low Relief Carbonate Mud Mounds are typically thin. High Relief Carbonate Mud Mounds are thick, and internal bedding, slumping, stromatactis cavity systems, and steep marginal slopes may be common. Whereas Organic Reefs are biogenic, calcareous, and are created by essentially in place organisms, Carbonate Mud Mounds can be organic and/or inorganic in origin and it can be difficult to distinguish their origins. (Riding, 2002, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-8252(01)00089-7)
Carbonatite complex
Intrusive or extrusive rocks in suite with abundant carbonatite and similar exotic composition rocks
A natural underground open space, it generally has a connection to the surface, is large enough for a person to enter, and extends into darkness. The most common type of cave is formed in limestone by dissolution.
Cave
Channel
A natural passageway or depression of perceptible extent that contains a continuously or periodically flowing fluid
Subaerial channels typically contain flowing water at least intermittently. Submarine channels typically contain sediment-water suspensions in density driven down-slope flow.
Cirque
a steep-walled, half-bowl-like recess in a mountain, formed by the erosive activty of a mountain glacier
Cliff
A high, very steep to vertical rock face.
Could be part of an escarpment, or a local feature in mountainous terrane.
A dune field on low-lying land recently abandoned or built up by the sea, the dunes may ascend a cliff and travel inland.
Coastal dune field
based on Neuendorf et al, 2005, p. 125
A low relief plain bordering a water body extending inland to the nearest elevated land, sloping very gently towards the water body. Distinguished from alluvial plain by presence of relict shoreline-related deposits or morphology.
Coastal plain
Tectonic setting in which two continental crustal plates impact and are sutured together after intervening oceanic crust is entirely consumed at a subduction zone separating the plates. Such collision typically involves major mountain forming events, exemplified by the modern Alpine and Himalayan mountain chains.
Collisional setting
NADM metamorphic rock vocabulary SLTTm1.0, 2004
Zone of metamorphism associated with the contact of an igneous body.
Contact metamorphic zone
Continent
Sampled feature is on or within continental crust.
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/
An area of the continental margin between the shoreline and the continental slope that is topographically more complex than the continental shelf. It is characterized by ridges and basins, some of which are below the depth of the continental shelf. An example is the southern California continental borderland,.... (Jackson, 1997, p. 138)..
Continental borderland
That type of the Earth's crust which underlies the continents and the continental shelves, it is equivalent to the sial and continental sima and ranges in thickness from about 25 km to more than 70 km under mountain ranges, averaging ~40 km. The density of the continental crust averages ~2.8 g/cm3 and is ~2.7 g.cm3 in the upper layer. The velocities of compressional seismic waves through it average ~6.5 km/s and are less than ~7.0 km/sec.
Continental crust
Continental divide
a topographic boundary that separates areas on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the boundary feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is not connected to the open sea.
Continental Margin
Boundary zone between continental crust and oceanic crust.
Continental margin trench
A deep submarine valley associated with subduction of an oceanic plate underneath a continent.
Extended terrane in a zone of continental breakup, may include incipient oceanic crust. Examples include Red Sea, East Africa Rift, Salton Trough
Continental rift
That part of the ocean floor that is between the shoreline and the continental slope (or, when there is no noticeable continental slope, a depth of 200 m). It is characterized by its gentle slope of 0.1 degree (Jackson, 1997, p. 138). Continental shelves have a classic shoreline-shelf-slope profile termed 'clinoform'.
Continental shelf
Continental volcanic arc
a linear chain of volcanos formed above a subduction zone with ocean crust subducting beneath a continent
Crater
A broadly circular depression in the Earth surface, commonly with a raised rim
Typically the result of bolide impact on the surface, or an explosion (volcanic or anthropogenic). Craters can also form by subsidence of ground surface due collapse of some subsurface cavity. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crater)
The outermost layer or shell of the Earth, defined according to various criteria, including seismic velocity, density and composition, that part of the Earth above the Mohorovicic discontinuity, made up of the sial and the sima.
Crustal setting
The abandoned, bow- or horseshoe-shaped channel of a former meander, left when the stream formed a cutoff across a narrow meander neck. Note that these are typically lakes, thus also lacustrine.
Cutoff meander
Reading 1978
Deep ocean basin with steep (average 10 degrees) slope toward land, more gentle slope (average 5 degrees) towards the sea, and abundant seismic activity on landward side of trench. Does not denote water depth, but may be very deep.
Deep sea trench
A narrow zone where deposition in deltas is most active, consisting of a continuous sheet of sand, and occurring within the effective depth of wave erosion (10 m or less). It is the zone separating the prodelta from the delta plain, and it may or may not be steep\
Delta front
The level or nearly level surface composing the landward part of a large or compound delta, strictly, an alluvial plain characterized by repeated channel bifurcation and divergence, multiple distributary channels, and interdistributary flood basins
Delta plain
Environments at the mouth of a river or stream that enters a standing body of water (ocean or lake). The delta forms a triangular or fan-shaped plain of considerable area. Subaerial parts of the delta are crossed by many distributaries of the main river, and commonly extend beyond the general trend of the coast. Subaqueous parts of the delta merge with the adjacent basin floor, and are progressively influenced by non-fluvial processes. Deltas result from the accumulation of sediment supplied by the river in such quantities that it is not removed by tides, waves, and currents. Adapted from the Glossary of Geology definition for delta (Jackson, 1997, p. 167).
Deltaic system
Diatreme or kimberlite
A vertical pipe or funnel like structure or dike containing kimberlite or other gas-rich explosive magma products; include extrusive kimberlite occurrences as well.
A divergent stream flowing away from the main stream and not returning to it, as in a delta or on an alluvial plain
Delta distributary channel
The mouth of a delta distributary channel where fluvial discharge moves from confined to unconfined flow conditions
Delta distributary mouth
Drainage basin
Watershed
an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean
watershed is generally synonomous with drainage basin in North American usage, but in some communities might be understood to mean the drainage divide bounding a drainage basin (e.g. http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ENVO_00000292)
Drumlin
a low, smoothly rounded, strongly elongated oval hill formed by the flow of a glacier over non-consolidated sediment, typically older glacial deposits
Drumlins are elongate in the direction of glacier flow; the blunt nose of the hill on the end from which the ice approached.
Ductile shear zone
Tabular or sheetlike and planar or curviplanar zones in which rocks are more highly strained through crystal plastic processes than rocks adjacent to the zone
Dune
a mound or hill of loose, windblown granular material (typically sand), capable of wind-driven movement, while retaining its characteristic shape
Extensive deposits on sand in an area where the supply is abundant. As a characteristic, individual dunes somewhat resemble barchans but are highly irregular in shape and crowded, erg areas of the Sahara are an example.
Dunefield
Contained, embedded, or carried within the body of a glacier or ice sheet, said of meltwater streams, till, drift, moraine
Englacial setting
Sedimentary setting in which wind is the dominant process producing, transporting, and depositing sediment. Typically has low-relief plain or piedmont slope physiography.
Eolian process setting
Marine setting situated within the interior of the continent, rather than at the edge of a continent.
Epicontinental marine setting
Escarpment
a steep slope or long cliff that separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
A delta that has filled, or is in the process of filling, an estuary
Estuarine delta
A lagoon produced by the temporary sealing of a river estuary by a storm barrier. Such lagoons are usually seasonal and exist until the river breaches the barrier, they occur in regions of low or spasmodic rainfall
Estuarine lagoon
Environments at the seaward end or the widened funnel-shaped tidal mouth of a river valley where fresh water comes into contact with seawater and where tidal effects are evident (adapted from Glossary of Geology, Jackson, 1997, p. 217).
Estuary
This vocabulary
Tectonic setting characterized by extension of the upper crust manifested by formation of rift valleys or basin and range physiography, with arrays of low to high angle normal faults. Modern examples include the North Sea, East Africa, and the Basin and Range of the North American Cordillera. Typically applied in continental crustal settings.
Extended terrane
Geologic fault
Fault scarp
FJord
A long and narrow sea inlet with high steeply sloped walled sides. A fjord is a landform created during a period of glaciation.
Fjord
The surface or strip of relatively smooth land adjacent to a river channel, constructed by the present river in its existing regimen and covered with water when the river overflows its banks. It is built of alluvium carried by the river during floods and deposited in the sluggish water beyond the influence of the swiftest current. A river has one floodplain and may have one or more terraces representing abandoned floodplains
Include riparian habitat along a river
Floodplain
Geologic fold
1-GE WP3, Neuendorf et al.(2005), p. 249
Tectonic setting between a subduction-related trench and a volcanic arc
Forearc setting
Foreland basin
an elongate region of potential sediment accommodation that forms on continental crust between a contractional orogenic belt and the adjacent craton, mainly in response to geodynamic processes related to subduction and the resulting peripheral or retroarc fold-thrust belt.
Foreland fold and thrust belt
1-GE WP3, Neuendorf et al.(2005), p. 250
The exterior area of an orogenic belt where deformation occurs without significant metamorphism. Generally the foreland is closer to the continental interior than other portions of the orogenic belt are.
Foreland setting
The seaward side of a reef, the slope covered with deposits of coarse reef talus
Forereef setting
Forest
An area with a high density of trees.
Fracture zone
a tranform fault offsetting an oceanic spreading center
Geologic structure
Geologic unit
Sampled feature is a rock body that has some identifying and unity criteria that constitutes a part of the Earth's crust or mantle.
Geothermal water
Water that has been heated by interaction with hot rock bodies in the subsurface
A desert plain strewn with wind-abraded pebbles, or gibbers, a gravelly desert.
Gibber plain
Areas adjacent to glacial front dominated by sediment and water supplied by glacial melting.
Glacial outwash plain
Settings adjacent to edges of confined glacier.
Glacier lateral setting
NADM SLTTs, 2004
Region of sediment deposition due to melting of glacier ice. ablation and flow till setting.
Glacier terminus
Granitic intrusive igneous complex
Broadly granitic suites of cogentic intrusive rocks ranging from diorite to granite; mostly medium to coarse grained, might include finer grained bodies as well as very coarse-grained pegmatite
The deepest oceanic environment, i.e., over 6000 m in depth. Always in deep sea trench.
Hadal setting
Harbor
A coastal feature useful to humans to bring water craft to shore, onload and offload cargo, and provide protection from storms.
High pressure environment characterized by geothermal gradient significantly lower than standard continental geotherm, enviornment in which blueschist facies metamorphic rocks form. Typically associated with subduction zones.
High-pressure low-temperature earth interior
Hill
an elevation of the Earth surface, of limited extent, having a well defined outline, rounded morphology, and generally considered to be less that 300 m (1000 ft) from base to summit
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/, Hawley, J.W., and Parsons, R.B. 1980. Glossary of selected geomorphic and geologic terms. Mimeo. USDA Soil Conservation Service, West National Technical Center, Portland, OR. 30 p.
Earth surface setting characterized by surface slope angles high enough that gravity alone becomes a significant factor in geomorphic development, as well as base-of-slope areas influenced by hillslope processes. Hillslope activities include creep, sliding, slumping, falling, and other downslope movements caused by slope collapse induced by gravitational influence on earth materials. May be subaerial or subaqueous.
Hillslope
Tectonic setting in the internal part of an orogenic belt, characterized by plastic deformation of rocks accompanied by significant metamorphism, typically involving crystalline basement rocks. Typically denotes the most structurally thickened part of an orogenic belt, between a magmatic arc or collision zone and a more 'external' foreland setting.
Hinterland tectonic setting
Setting in a zone of high heat flow from the mantle. Typically identified in intraplate settings, but hot spot may also interact with active plate margins (Iceland...). Includes surface manifestations like volcanic center, but also includes crust and mantle manifestations as well.
Hot spot
Cleland, D.T., Avers, P.E., McNab, W.H., Jensen, M.E., Bailey, R.G., King, T., Russell, W.E. 1997. National Hierarchical Framework of Ecological Units, in Boyce, M. S., Haney, A., ed., Ecosystem Management Applications for Sustainable Forest and WildlifeResources: Yale University Press, New Haven, CT. pp. 181-200.
Setting with seasonal climate having hot to cold or humid to arid seasons.
Humid temperate climatic setting
Setting with hot humid climate influenced by equatorial air masses, no winter season.
Humid tropical climatic setting
Hummock
a rounded or conical very low hill rising slightly from the adjacent surface
Various kinds of hummocks are reported, e.g. formed in ice, on landslides, in peat bogs, in permafrost. (see Neuendorf et al., 2005, Glossary of Geology, or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hummock)
Igneous environment close to the Earth's surface, characterized by more rapid cooling than plutonic setting to produce generally fine-grained intrusive igneous rock that is commonly associated with co-magmatic volcanic rocks.
Hypabyssal setting
Igneous system
Features associated with the generatation, movement, intrusion, extrusion, or crystallization of magma.
Impact structure
Inactive spreading center
Aseismic ocean ridge
Setting on oceanic crust formed at a spreading center that has been abandoned.
definition based on gsmlee:continental_shelf_setting definition
Insular shelf
That part of the ocean floor that is between the shoreline of an island and the shelf-slope boundary (or, when there is no noticeable shelf-slope boundary, a depth of 200 m). It is characterized by its gentle slope of 0.1 degree (Jackson, 1997, p. 138).
A pronounced indentation of the delta front between advancing stream distributaries, occupied by shallow water, and either open to the sea or partly enclosed by minor distributaries
Interdistributary bay
Intermittent stream channel
Arroyo
Dry gulch
Dry valley
Wadi
Wash
a watercourse that temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain.
Pertaining to the benthic ocean environment or depth zone between high water and low water, also, pertaining to the organisms of that environment
Intertidal setting
Intraoceanic trench
A deep submarine valley associated with a subduction zone between oceanic tectonic plates
Tectonically stable setting far from any active plate margins.
Intraplate tectonic setting
Intrusive igneous complex
Features related to igneous activity wholly within the Earth, characterized by slow cooling to produce generally medium to coarse-grained intrusive igneous rocks.
Island
Island arc
A volcanic arc related to an intraoceanic subduction zone, consisting of a chain of islands formed by volcanos above a subduction zone.
Isthmus
narrow strip of land connecting two large land areas otherwise separated by bodies of water.
Karst
A landform that formed by dissolution of soluble rock like limestone or gypsum, characterized by sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage
The low, nearly flat, alluvial tract of land at or near the mouth of a river, commonly forming a triangular or fan-shaped plain of considerable area, crossed by many distributaries of the main river, perhaps extending beyond the general trend of the lake shore, resulting from the accumulation of sediment supplied by the river in such quantities that it is not removed by waves or currents. Most deltas are partly subaerial and partly below water.
Lacustrine delta
Setting associated with a lake. Always overlaps with terrestrial, may overlap with subaerial, subaqueous, or shoreline.
Lacustrine setting
generalize from Jackson 1997 and North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/
A shallow stretch of salt or brackish water, partly or completely separated from a sea or lake by an offshore reef, barrier island, sand or spit (Jackson, 1997). Water is shallow, tidal and wave-produced effects on sediments, strong light reaches sediment..
Lagoonal setting
Lake
Pond
A body of water on the Earth's surface, localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land.
Fresh water lake
Natural lakes or human impounded fresh water resevoirs.
Saline lake
Landslide
a mass of rock, debris, or earth that has moved down a slope under the influence of gravity
Lava flow
Settings characterized by very low surface slope and proximity to shoreline. Generally within peritidal setting, but characterized by low surface gradients and generally low-energy sedimentary processes.
Low energy shoreline setting
Setting characterized by temperatures significantly higher that those associated with normal continental geothermal gradient.
Low pressure high temperature setting
Neuendorf, K.K.E., Mehl, J.P. & Jackson, J.A. (eds), 2005. Glossary of geology, 5th Edition. American Geological Institute, Alexandria, 779 p., Berggren, W.A. & Miller, K.G., 1989. Cenozoic bathyal and abyssal calcareous benthic foraminiferal zonation. Micropalaeontology 35, 308-320
The ocean environment at depths between 1000 and 3500 metres
Lower bathyal setting
Continental crustal setting characterized by upper amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism, insitu melting, residual anhydrous metamorphic rocks, and ductile flow of rock bodies.
Lower continental crust
Readingh.G. & Collinson, J.D., 1996. Clastic coasts. 154-231 in Readingh.G. (ed.), Sedimentary Environments: Processses, Facies and Stratigraphy, third edition. Blackwell Science, Oxford
The part of a delta plain which is penetrated by saline water and is subject to tidal processes
Lower delta plain
That part of the mantle that lies below a depth of about 660 km. With increasing depth, density increases from ~4.4 g/cm3-to ~5.6 g/cm3, and velocity of compressional seismic waves increases from ~10.7 km/s to ~13.7 km/s (Dziewonski and Anderson, 1981).
Lower mantle
Setting characterized by dominantly intrusive mafic rocks, with sheeted dike complexes in upper part and gabbroic to ultramafic intrusive or metamorphic rocks in lower part.
Lower oceanic crust
Mafic to ultramafic intrusive igenous complex
sampled feature is a geologic unit consisting if intrusive ultramafic or mafic igneous rocks, e.g. peridotite, harzburgite, gabbro...
The zone of the Earth below the crust and above the core, which is divided into the upper mantle and the lower mantle, with a transition zone separating them.
Mantle
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/, based on Jackson 1997, Neuendorf et al. 2005
Setting characterized by arid to semi-arid conditions on restricted coastal plains mostly above normal high tide level, with evaporite-saline mineral, tidal-flood, and eolian deposits. Boundaries with intertidal setting and non-tidal terrestrial setting are gradational. (Jackson, 1997, p. 561).
Marginal marine sabkha
Marginal shelf
A shallow submerged plateau separated from continental landmasses, on which high biological carbonate production rates produce enough sediment to maintain the platform surface near sea level. Grades into atoll as area becomes smaller and ringing coral reefs become more prominent part of the setting.
Marine carbonate platform
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, 2001, p. 1894.
Setting characterized by location under the surface of the sea.
Marine setting
Produced by a mature stream swinging from side to side as it flows across its floodplain or shifts its course laterally toward the convex side of an original curve
Meandering river channel
Melange
A body of rock characterized by a lack of continuous bedding and the inclusion of fragments of rock of all sizes, contained in a fine-grained deformed matrix. The melange typically consists of a jumble of large blocks of varied lithology.
Mesa
an isolated, flat-topped elevation, bounded on all sides by steep escarpments, standing distinctly above a surrounding plain.
Mesas characteristically consist of flat-lying soft sedimentary rocks capped by a more resistant layer or layers of harder rock, e.g. shales overlain by sandstones. The resistant layer acts as a caprock that forms the flat summit of a mesa. Mesas are larger than buttes.
Berggren, W.A. & Miller, K.G., 1989. Cenozoic bathyal and abyssal calcareous benthic foraminiferal zonation. Micropalaeontology 35, 308-320
The ocean environment at water depths between 600 and 1000 metres
Middle bathyal setting
Continental crustal setting characterized by greenschist to upper amphibolite facies metamorphism, plutonic igneous rocks, and ductile deformation.
Middle continental crust
Mineralized system
Sampled feature is a part of the Earth that has been enriched in elements of economic interest
Subclasses for mineral deposit time would be an extension vocabulary.
Mining site
Moraine
A mound, hill, ridge or other elevated feature that is an accumulation of debris transported by a glacier
based on Neuendorf et al., 2005, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain
Mountain
a portion of the Earth's surface that is sufficiently elevated above the surrounding surface to be a distinct feature. Generally has steep sides. Differentiate from a plateau in having a limited summit area; higher than a hill, typically rising at least 300 metres (980 ft) above the surrounding surface.
Mountain range
A region characterized by a succession of mountains or narrowly spaced mountain ridges, closely related in position, formation, and age
Mountain stream valley
Gulch
V-shaped valley formed by erosion in mountainous terran. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed with a steep gradient and is usually larger in size than a gully.
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/, Jackson, 1997
A relatively level area of fine grained material (e.g. silt) along a shore (as in a sheltered estuary or chenier-plain) or around an island, alternately covered and uncovered by the tide or covered by shallow water, and barren of vegetation. Includes most tidal flats, but lacks denotation of tidal influence.
Mud flat
The ocean environment at depths between low-tide level and 200 metres, or between low-tide level and approximately the edge of the continental shelf
Neritic setting
That type of the Earth's crust which underlies the ocean basins. The oceanic crust is 5-10 km thick, it has a density of 2.9 g/cm3, and compressional seismic-wave velocities travelling through it at 4-7.2 km/sec. Setting in crust produced by submarine volcanism at a mid ocean ridge.
Ocean crust
Broad category for subaqueous marine settings characterized by significant relief above adjacent sea floor.
Ocean highland
Region of elevated ocean crust that commonly rises to within 2-3 km of the surface above an abyssal sea floor that lies several km deeper. Climate and water depths are such that a marine carbonate platform does not develop.
Ocean plateau
Ocean ridge crest
Ocean ridge flank
Ophiolite
A rock body interpreted to represent exhumed ocean crust.
Outcrop
Sampled feature is an exposure of rock or sediment at the Earth's surface
Include natural outcrops and human-made outcrops like road cuts.
Boundary of continental crust into oceanic crust of an oceanic basin that is not a subduction zone or transform fault system. Generally is rifted margin formed when ocean basin was initially formed.
Passive continental margin
North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/, NRCS, 2001
A gently sloping erosional surface developed at the foot of a receding hill or mountain slope. The surface may be essentially bare, exposing earth material that extends beneath adjacent uplands, or it may be thinly mantled with alluvium and colluvium, ultimately in transit from upland front to basin or valley lowland. In hill-foot slope terrain the mantle is designated \pedisediment.\ The term has been used in several geomorphic contexts: Pediments may be classed with respect to (a) landscape positions, for example, intermontane-basin piedmont or valley-border footslope surfaces (respectively, apron and terrace pediments (Cooke and Warren, 1973)), (b) type of material eroded, bedrock or regolith, or (c) combinations of the above. Compare - Piedmont slope..
Pediment
Physiographic feature
A feature that is defined by the morphology of the Earth surface
Hawley and Parsons, 1980+F98
Location on gentle slope at the foot of a mountain, generally used in terms of intermontane-basin terrain. Main components include: (a) An erosional surface on bedrock adjacent to the receding mountain front (pediment, rock pediment), (b) A constructional surface comprising individual alluvial fans and interfan valleys, also near the mountain front, and (c) A distal complex of coalescent fans (bajada), and alluvial slopes without fan form. Piedmont slopes grade to basin-floor depressions with alluvial and temporary lake plains or to surfaces associated with through drainage.
Piedmont slope
Plain
a relatively flat area of the Earth surface characterized by very low relief with no prominent irregularities.
the surface might have a gentle regional slope
Tectonic setting at the boundary between two tectonic plates.
Plate margin
Tectonic setting where new oceanic crust is being or has been formed at a divergent plate boundary.
Plate spreading center
Plateau
An extensive, relatively flat area of the Earth's surface that is significantly elevated above the adjacent region.
Typically the surface has more relief than a plain. Plateaus are commonly bounded on at least one side by an escarpement or steep slope. Might be dissected by canyons or deep valleys, but most of the area is at the summit elevation.
Based on Hawley and Parsons, 1980
The usually dry and nearly level plain that occupies the lowest parts of closed depressions, such as those occurring on intermontane basin floors. Temporary flooding occurs primarily in response to precipitation-runoff events.
Playa
Pluton
Sampled feature is a discrete body of broadly cogenetic intrusive igeous rock; might be homogeneous or zoned in various ways.
Setting with climate dominated by temperatures below the freezing temperature of water. Includes polar deserts because precipitation is generally scant at high latitude. Climate controlled by arctic air masses, cold dry environment with short summer.
Polar climatic setting
Prairie
pampas
savanna
steppe
temperate grassland
a region of relatively level to rolling grassland, generally treeless
The part of a delta that is below the effective depth of wave erosion, lying beyond the delta front, and sloping gently down to the floor of the basin into which the delta is advancing and where clastic river sediment ceases to be a significant part of the basin-floor deposits, it is entirely below the water level
Prodelta setting
Immediately in front of or just beyond the outer limits of a glacier or ice sheet, generally at or near its lower end, said of lakes, streams, deposits, and other features produced by or derived from the glacier ice
Proglacial setting
Quarry
A stony platform of reef rock, landward of the reef crest at or above the low tide level, occasionally with patches of living coral and associated organisms, and commonly strewn with coral fragments and coral sand. It may include shallow pools, irregular gullies, low islands of sand or rubble (often vegetated, esp. by palms), and scattered colonies of the more hardy species of coral
Reef flat
Metamorphism not obviously localized along contacts of igneous bodies, includes burial metamorphism and ocean ridge metamorphism
Regional metamorphic setting
Ridge
A long, narrow, elevated landform separated from the surrounding terrain by slopes.
Rift zone
A regional extended terrane in a zone of plate or plate-fragment divergence
Includes extended terranes at ocean spreading centers, and intracontinental rifts.
Seafloor rise, continental
Seafloor rise, insular
The bed where a natural body of surface water flows or may flow, a natural passageway or depression of perceptible extent containing continuously or periodically flowing water, or forming a connecting link between two bodies of water, a watercourse
River channel
River or stream
A body of fresh water flowing in a channel to the sea, a lake, or another such flowing body of water.
Fluvial setting
Geologic setting dominated by a river system in any climatic setting. Includes active channels, abandoned channels, levees, oxbow lakes, flood plain. May be part of an alluvial plain that includes terraces composed of abandoned river plain deposits.
River system
Shoreline with significant relief and abundant rock outcrop.
Rocky coast
A sand-covered plain dominated by aeolian processes.
Sand plain
Setting that consists of a conical mountain on the ocean floor (guyot). Typically characterized by active volcanism, pelagic sedimentation. If the mountain is high enough to reach the photic zone, carbonate production may result in reef building to produce a carbonate platform or atoll setting.
Include guyot and seamount province
Seamount
Sedimentary basin
A region that accumulates sedimentary (and possibly subordinate interbedded volcanic) rocks, typically bounded by geologic structures.
SESAR sampled feature extension
Terms to categorize sampled features in more detail. This vocabulary extends the iSamples Sampled Feature Type vocabulary with concepts from the GeoSciML event environment vocabulary, and adds several additional concepts.
2024-08-26 SMR generate to account for sampled features in SESAR
2024-10-03 SMR add terms to cover data in SESAR legacy data, map to IMLGS sampled feature, and SESAR physiographic features vocabulary (https://www.geosamples.org/vocabularies/physiographic-feature). Continue to refine structure of vocabulary, add and update definitions, mapping to ENVO terms.
based on Neuendorf et al, 2005
Coast
Geologic settings characterized by location adjacent to the ocean or a lake. A zone of indefinite width (may be many kilometers), bordering a body of water that extends from the water line inland to the first major change in landform features. Includes settings that may be subaerial, intermittently subaqueous, or shallow subaqueous, but are intrinsically associated with the interface between land areas and water bodies.
Shoreline
Seafloor slope, continental
Seafloor slope, insular
based on NADM SLTTs, 2004
The part of a subaqueous basin that is between a bordering shelf setting, which separate the basin from an adjacent landmass, and a very low-relief basin plain setting.
Slope rise setting
Soil profile
Sampled feature is a section through the soil accumulation at the Earth's surface.
based on Jackson 1997, p. 626
A prograded shore built seaward by waves and currents, and continuous for some distance along the coast. It is characterized by subparallel beach ridges and swales, in places with associated dunes.
Strandplain
Stratigraphic section
Sampled feature is a sequence of sedimentary (and possibly volcanic) layers deposited in a sequence in a particular region.
Subaerial canyon
A canyon that is open to the Earth's atmosphere
Subaerial escarpment
An escarpment that is on the land surface, open to the atmosphere.
Subaqueous bar
based on North American Geologic-map Data Model Science Language Technical Team, 2004, Sedimentary materials:science language for their classification, description, and interpretation in digital geologic-map databases, Version 1.0 (12/18/2004): U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2004-1451 appendix C, 595 p., accessed at http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2004/1451/sltt/appendixC/,
Setting situated in or under permanent, standing water. Used for marine and lacustrine settings, but not for fluvial settings.
Subaqueous setting
Tectonic setting at which a tectonic plate, usually oceanic, is moving down into the mantle beneath another overriding plate.
Subduction zone
Formed or accumulated in or by the bottom parts of a glacier or ice sheet, said of meltwater streams, till, moraine, etc.
Subglacial setting
Submarine bank
a part of the seabed that is shallow compared to its surrounding area.
Submarine canyon
A canyon that is cut in the ocean floor.
split IMLGS submarine canyon or channel into separate concepts
Submarine channel
Submarine escarpment
Large fan-shaped cones of sediment on the ocean floor, generally associated with submarine canyons that provide sediment supply to build the fan..
Submarine fan
Submarine ridge
A ridge on the ocean floor
Most submarine ridges are associated with active or abandoned spreading centers at divergent margins between ocean plates.
Submarine vent
Carried upon, deposited from, or pertaining to the top surface of a glacier or ice sheet, said of meltwater streams, till, drift, etc. (Jackson, 1997, p. 639). Dreimanis (1988, p. 39) recommendation that \supraglacial\ supersede \superglacial\ is followed.
Supraglacial setting
Pertaining to the shore area marginal to the littoral zone, just above high-tide level
Supratidal setting
Neuendorf et al 2005, Soil Science Society of America, 1997.
A water-saturated, periodically wet or continually flooded area with the surface not deeply submerged, essentially without the formation of peat. Marshes are characterized by sedges, cattails, rushes, or other aquatic and grasslike vegetation. Swamps are characterized by tree and brush vegetation.
Swamp or marsh
Tectonically defined setting
Setting defined by relationships to tectonic plates on or in the Earth.
Terrace
a long, narrow, relatively flat surface, bounded on one side by a descending slope and on the other by an ascending slope, defining a bench like feature in the Earth surface.
Terraces normally occur along the margin and above the water level of a water body, marking a previous water-level. Common along rivers, intermittent drainages in alluvial fans, and along coast lines.
Setting characterized by absence of direct marine influence. Most of the subaerial settings are also terrestrial, but e.g. lacustrine settings, while terrestrial, are not subaerial.
Terrestrial setting
Thrust sheet
A body of rock bounded at its base by a thrust fault, and bounded above by the Earth surface or a different thrust fault.
A major channel followed by the tidal currents, extending from offshore into a tidal marsh or a tidal flat.
Tidal channel
An extensive, nearly horizontal, barren tract of land that is alternately covered and uncovered by the tide, and consisting of unconsolidated sediment (mostly mud and sand). It may form the top surface of a deltaic deposit.
Tidal flat
A marsh bordering a coast (as in a shallow lagoon or sheltered bay), formed of mud and of the resistant mat of roots of salt-tolerant plants, and regularly inundated during high tides, a marshy tidal flat.
Tidal marsh
Setting subject to tidal processes
Tidal setting
Plate boundary at which the adjacent plates are moving laterally relative to each other.
Transform plate boundary
Crust formed in the transition zone between continental and oceanic crust, during the history of continental rifting that culminates in the formation of a new ocean.
Transitional crust
Plate triple junction
a setting characterized by interaction of three tectonic plates.
Setting characterized by pressures characteristic of upper mantle, but indicated by mineral assemblage in crustal composition rocks.
Ultra high pressure crustal setting
Underground working
Human made underground tunnel or other space. Include natural caves utilized for human occupation
The ocean environment at water depths between 200 and 600 metres
upper bathyal setting
Continental crustal setting dominated by non metamorphosed to low greenschist facies metamorphic rocks, and brittle deformation.
Upper continental crust
The part of a delta plain essentially unaffected by basinal processes. They do not differ substantially from alluvial environments except that areas of swamp, marsh and lakes are usually more widespread and channels may bifurcate downstream
Upper delta plain
That part of the mantle which lies above a depth of about 660 km and has a density of 3.4 g/cm3 to 4.0 g/cm3 with increasing depth. Similarly, P-wave velocity increases from about 8 to 11 km/sec with depth and S wave velocity increases from about 4.5 to 6 km/sec with depth. It is presumed to be peridotitic in composition. It includes the subcrustal lithosphere the asthenosphere and the transition zone,
Upper mantle
Oceanic crustal setting dominated by extrusive rocks, abyssal oceanic sediment, with increasing mafic intrusive rock in lower part.
Upper ocean crust
Urban setting
a densely populated area with many human-made structures; a human settlement with a high population density and an infrastructure of built environment
Valley
a relatively flat area bounded by hills or mountains
Typically elongated, with a river or stream draing the area. Formed by river or glacier erosion, or by faulting.
1-GE WP3, Neuendorf et al.(2005), p. 710
A generally curvillinear belt of volcanoes above a subduction zone.
Volcanic arc
Volcanic complex
A geologic unit consisting of extrusive igneous rocks, with associated pyroclastic rocks, tuffite, and subvolcanic instrusive rocks.
Volcanic island
Island formed by volcanic eruptions. Might have shoreline biogenic reefs.
Essentially a seamount that emerges above sea (or lake...) level
Volcanic setting
Features related to the eruption of lava near, at, or above the earth surface. Might include atmospheric products of volcanic eruption, in terrestrial, lacustrine, or marine environments, related hypabyssal intrusions or hydrothermal systems.
Volcano
A physiographic feature formed by eruption of magma from one or a small set of vents or fissures; typically thought to be associated with a single magmatic system
Setting characterized by gentle surface slope, and at least intermittent presence of standing water, which may be fresh, brackish, or saline. Wetland may be terrestrial setting or shoreline setting.
Wetland
Xenolith
small rock body contained within an igneous host rock body.