petrology

American  

[pi-trol-uh-jee] / pɪˈtrɒl ə dʒi /

noun

1. the scientific study of rocks, including petrography and petrogenesis.

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petrology British  

/ ˌpɛtrəˈlɒdʒɪkəl, pɛˈtrɒlədʒɪ /

noun

1.  petrol.  the study of the composition, origin, structure, and formation of rocks

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petrology Scientific  

/ pə-trŏl′ə-jē /

1. The scientific study of the origin, composition, and structure of rocks.

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Other Word Forms

• petrologic adjective
• petrological adjective
• petrologically adverb
• petrologist noun

Etymology

Origin of petrology

First recorded in 1805–15; petro- ¹ + -logy

Example Sentences

“It's like our moonshot. It's going to transform a lot of things,” says Yan Lavallée, a professor of magmatic petrology and volcanology at the Ludwigs-Maximillian University in Munich, and who heads KMT’s science committee.

From BBC • Oct. 17, 2024

“But the petrology is interesting and special regardless,” she says.

From Science Magazine • May 25, 2023

The mining, the petrology, the archaeology — the artistically gifted, straight-F student, trying to live up to his brilliant, academic, domineering father.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 21, 2022

I was meant to focus on sedimentary petrology, working out the origin of sediments in 1-metre cores from the Antarctic ice shelf.

From Nature • Jan. 25, 2012

Geology: nothing about geomorphology or stratigraphy or even petrology.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes