GEOPHYSICS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does geophysics mean? 

• GEOPHYSICS (noun)
  The noun GEOPHYSICS has 1 sense:

1. geology that uses physical principles to study properties of the earth

  Familiarity information: GEOPHYSICS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GEOPHYSICS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Geology that uses physical principles to study properties of the earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

geophysical science; geophysics

Hypernyms ("geophysics" is a kind of...):

geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "geophysics"):

geomorphology; morphology (the branch of geology that studies the characteristics and configuration and evolution of rocks and land forms)

hydrology (the branch of geology that studies water on the earth and in the atmosphere: its distribution and uses and conservation)

seismology (the branch of geology that studies earthquakes)

volcanology; vulcanology (the branch of geology that studies volcanoes)

magnetics; magnetism (the branch of science that studies magnetism)

geodesy (the branch of geology that studies the shape of the earth and the determination of the exact position of geographical points)

Derivation:

geophysical (of or concerned with geophysics)

geophysicist (a geologist who uses physical principles to study the properties of the earth)

 Context examples 

This finding is the outcome of various research techniques conducted by experts from different fields including archaeology, sedimentology, geophysics, and hydrogeology.

(Researchers demonstrate that Sierra Nevada is home to the oldest underground water recharge system in Europe, University of Granada)

A unit of magnetic flux density equal to 10(E-9) tesla (one nanotesla) or 10(E-5) oersted, traditionally used in geophysics for measurement of changes in the Earth's magnetic field.

(Gamma, NCI Thesaurus)

It has been a bedrock tenet of geophysics that Earth's liquid outer core has always been the source of the dynamo that generates its magnetic field.

(Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field, National Science Foundation)

“These electrostatic forces increase frictional thresholds,” said Josh Mendez Harper, a Georgia Tech geophysics and electrical engineering doctoral student who is the paper’s lead author.

('Electric Sands' Cover Titan, VOA News)