The Acadian Mountains are the ancestral northern Appalachian Mountains, which were compressed further during a later mountain building event.

An active plate boundary exists where two plates of the Earth's crust are colliding, pulling apart, or moving past each other.

The Mesozoic Era is commonly known as the Age of Reptiles, a time dominated both on land and in the sea by large reptiles. "Dinosaur" technically refers to the group of land reptiles with a common ancestor and thus certain anatomical similarities, including long anklebones and erect limbs. At the same time as the dinosaurs, other reptile groups also became important: the pterosaurs, flying reptiles with wingspans up to 15 meters, and plesiosaurs, mosasaurs and ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that were probably similar in size and habitat to toothed whales, dolphins, and large sharks of today. Mammals, evolving from a group known as "mammal-like reptiles" that were a dominant land animal in the Permian and Triassic. Mammals appeared at roughly the same time as the dinosaurs in the mid-Triassic. Mammals, however, occupied only rodent-like niches until the dinosaurs went extinct. All the large reptile groups disappeared at or before the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous.

According to the Virginia Division of Mineral Resources, Americans on average use 9 tons of aggregate per person per year!

The topographic term, Alleghany Plateau, includes part of New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and corresponds with the Inland Basin region.

Perhaps the first occurrence of amber, fossilized tree resin, is from near Savannah, Tennessee from the 1800's. Amber often preserves insects and small organisms that otherwise would less likely be preserved.

Anorthosite is an igneous rock made almost entirely of the mineral feldspar.

Anthracite is as much as 95% carbon. Found in deformed rocks, anthracite is the cleanest burning of the three types of coal, because it has the high amount of pure carbon.

The Appalachian basin formed by the Taconic and Acadian mountain building events as the crust was downwarped as a result of the colliding plates. The basin was then filled with an inland ocean.

The Appalachian Mountains include many (but not all) ranges within the Appalachian/Piedmont region. The term "Appalachian Mountains" denotes the chain of mountains that stretch from north to south parallel to the east coast that were compressed during the last two mountain-building events. The Appalachian Mountains proper include the mountains of New England, and the Precambrian ridges (with the exception of the Green Mountains of Vermont, considered an extension of the Appalachian Mountains). Although the Appalachian Mountains were formed over 250 million years ago, they are still around today. While they do not look as tall and rugged as the Himalyas of India, the Appalachians formed through essentially the same geologic processes. The collision of the Indian and Asian plates that is taking place today is raising the Himalayan Mountains, similar to the collision over 250 million years ago between Africa and North America that created the Appalachian Mountains. The forces of erosion and weathering have worn down the Appalachians over time; periodic uplift of the range, however, has prevented them from completely eroding away.

Asbestos is a very slow conductor of heat, and thus was commonly used as a fireproofing material and electrical insulation. Concerns over the health effects on the lungs of this fibrous mineral have led to its removal from most common uses.

The lithosphere is the outermost layer of the Earth, a rigid crust and upper mantle broken up into many plates. The heat and pressure created by the overlying lithosphere, make the solid rock of the asthenosphere bend and move like metal when heated. The flowing rock in the asthenosphere moves with circular convection currents, rising when hot and falling when cool. The plates of the lithosphere move with the underlying asthenosphere, as much as 18 cm/yr (but normally much less).

Production ended at the oldest continuously operating mines in the United States on December 31, 1981. New Jersey Zinc Company permanently closed the lead and zinc works in southern Wythe County, Virginia, ending a 225-year history that included a vital role in two early chapters in United States history. The Wythe County lead mines were opened in 1756 by Colonel John Chiswell, a British officer who discovered the lead deposits while hiding in a cave near the New River to escape pursuing Indians. The mines were an important source of lead shot ammunition for the Colonial Army during the American Revolution. The workings were expanded from 1775-1781 to meet the growing demand of the Continental army. The mines were also a critical resource for the Confederacy during the Civil War. Essential war mineral resources included salt, iron, niter (saltpeter), and lead to make bullets. Reports suggest that about 3,500,000 pounds of lead were produced at the Wythe County mines during the Civil War, amounting to one-third of the estimated 10,000,000 pounds of lead consumed by the entire Confederacy in the manufacture of 150,000,000 cartridges.

The Avalon Rocks include the microcontinent of Avalon, sediment that was deposited on the ocean bottom around Avalon, other small fragments of continental crust, and volcanic islands that were attached to the Southeast in the late Devonian.

Many geologists believe that North America collided with ancient Europe, also called Baltica in the Precambrian. This continent would have included what is now Northern Europe without Ireland and Scotland.