The preexisting rock from which a metamorphic rock forms.

A term used to describe regions that are strongly affected by movement of Earth's tectonic plates. Earthquakes and volcanoes are common features in these regions. more details...

In karst areas, streams often disappear into the ground usually at a sinkhole.

Overland flow of water in thin sheets

In colder temperate regions, water trapped in fractures and between grains of rocks repeatedly freezes, then thaws during the winter months. In some areas this occurs on a daily basis as water freezes at night, then melts in warmer daytime temperatures. Only in the coldest regions does water remain frozen throughout the winter.

A process that mechanically breaks apart rock caused by expansion of water as it freezes in cracks and crevices.

A term used to describe large crystals embedded in a mass of finer crystals (groundmass) in an igneous rock. See 'porphyritic'.

Plutons of roughly the same age which that intruded several tectonic terranes after the terranes were faulted together. The plutons do not really "sew" the terranes together, but they help record when terranes were assembled.

Slab of rock, generally on the scale of a mountain or more, bounded by two thrust faults.

banded gneiss See gneiss.