Introduction

Geologic terms provide a common language for communicating geoscience concepts. Because introductory geoscience students can learn only a limited number of these terms, questions arise about which terms are essential to learn and if there is agreement between geoscientists on these terms.

Students are frequently exposed to terms through their textbooks, and previous studies have examined vocabulary in texts, although not college-level geology textbooks. In a high school earth science textbook, Groves (1995) found a rate of 4.45 scientific terms per page. Zechmeister and Zechmeister (2000) compared ten college-level introductory psychology textbooks and counted 2,505 unique terms in the glossaries, with <3% of terms common to all ten glossaries.

Manuscript received 25 Nov. 2014; accepted 17 Mar. 2015

doi: 10.1130/GSATG236GW.1