The name Antarctica is the romanized version of the Greek compound word ?νταρκτικ? (antarktiké), feminine of ?νταρκτικ?? (antarktikos), meaning "opposite to the Arctic", "opposit ...
The most prevalent faiths in the Americas are as follows:Christianity (North America: 85 percent; South America: 93 percent)Roman Catholicism (practiced by 88 percent of the Mexican population; approx ...
The Western Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies west of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the Antimeridian, the other h ...
The Eastern Hemisphere is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that is east of the Prime Meridian (which crosses Greenwich, England, United Kingdom) and west of 180° longitude. It is also us ...
In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is About this sound Yām ha-Mela? (help·info) (?? ????), meaning "sea of salt" (Genesis 14:3). In the Bible, the Dead Sea is called the Salt Sea, the Sea of the Arabah, ...
Climate regulates soil formation. Soils are more developed in areas with higher rainfall and more warmth. The rate of chemical weathering increases by 2-3 times when the temperature increases by 10 de ...
The primary conditions for soil development are controlled by the chemical composition of the rock that the soil will eventually be forming on. Rock types that form the base of the soil profile are of ...
Most probably the mineral dolomite was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1768. In 1778, it was described by the Austrian naturalist Belsazar Hacquet as the "stinking stone" (German: Stinkstein, Lati ...
Like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains compr ...
Calcite crystals are trigonal-rhombohedral, though actual calcite rhombohedra are rare as natural crystals. However, they show a remarkable variety of habits including acute to obtuse rhombohedra, tab ...
Olivine is named for its typically olive-green color (thought to be a result of traces of nickel), though it may alter to a reddish color from the oxidation of iron.Translucent olivine is sometimes us ...
The pyroxenes are a group of important rock-forming inosilicate minerals found in many Igneous and metamorphic rocks. They share a common structure consisting of single chains of silica tetrahedra and ...
Chemically, micas can be given the general formulaX2Y4–6Z8O20(OH,F)4in which X is K, Na, or Ca or less commonly Ba, Rb, or Cs;Y is Al, Mg, or Fe or less commonly Mn, Cr, Ti, Li, etc.;Z is chiefly Si ...
Amphiboles crystallize into two crystal systems, monoclinic and orthorhombic. In chemical composition and general characteristics they are similar to the pyroxenes. The chief differences from pyroxene ...
The name feldspar derives from the German Feldspat. The words Feld, "field", and Spath mean "a rock that does not contain ore." "Feldspathic" refers to materials that contain feldspar. The alternate s ...
