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padlock sheave

a. The bucket sheave on a dipper or hoe shovel. Nichols, 1
b. A sheave set connecting inner and outer boom lines. Nichols, 1

page

a. A small wooden wedge used in securing the timbering for excavations.
Hammond
b. In brickmaking, a track carrying the pallets bearing newly molded
bricks. Standard, 2

pagodite

Ordinary massive pinite in its amorphous compact texture and other
physical characters, but containing more silica. The Chinese carve the
soft stone into miniature pagodas and images. See also:agalmatolite;
lardite; pinite. CTD

Pahrump

A provincial series of the Precambrian in California.

paint

a. A term used in the western United States for an earthy, pulverulent
variety of cinnabar.
b. A film of molybdenite in fractures and veinlets.

paint gold

A very thin coating of gold on minerals.

painting

The painting of the mine roof with a coal-tar paint that seals the bottom
strata of the roof to prevent air from entering the crevices of the roof.
Kentucky

paint mill

A machine for grinding mineral paints. Fay

paint rock

A soft, incompetent, fine-grained mass of quartz, pyrolusite, and kaolin
with subangular fragments of chert, hematite, and goethite.
Woodruff

paint-rock ore

See:natural ore

pair

A party of co-workers; a gang. Also spelled pare. Webster 2nd; Fay

pair production

The transformation of a high-energy gamma ray into a pair of particles (an
electron and a positron) during its passage through matter. Lyman

palagonite

Devitrified basaltic glass.

palasome

The host rock or mineral in a replacement deposit.

pale brick

Brick that is underfired. Fay

paleo-

a. A combining form denoting great age or remoteness in regard to time
(Paleozoic), or involving ancient conditions (paleoclimate). Sometimes
given as pale- (palevent). Also spelled: palaeo; palaio-. AGI
b. A prefix indicating pre-Tertiary origin, and generally altered
character, of a rock to the name of which it is added, such as
paleopicrite; by some the prefix has been applied to pre-Carboniferous
rocks or features, such as the PaleoAtlantic Ocean. AGI

paleobotany

The study of plants of past geological ages through the investigation of
fossils. CF:paleontology; palynology.

paleoclimatology

The branch of science that treats of climatological conditions during the
history of the Earth.

paleocurrent

A current, generally of water, that influenced sedimentation or other
processes or conditions in the geologic past.

paleoecology

The science of the relationship between ancient organisms and their
environments. AGI

paleogeography

a. The study and description of the physical geography of the geologic
past, such as the historical reconstruction of the pattern of the Earth's
surface or of a given area at a particular time in the geologic past, or
the study of the successive changes of surface relief during geologic
time.
b. The study of the relative positions of land masses as part of tectonic
reconstructions of Earth history.