drilling machinery: The first patented rock drill was invented in 1849 by J.J. Couch of Philadelphia. Its drill rod passed through a hollow piston and was thrown like a lance against the rock; caught on the rebound by a gripper, it was again hurled forward by the stroke of the…

Sir Jacob Epstein: …strongest work of the period, The Rock Drill (1913), was modeled in plaster, and its robotlike form reflects his short-lived interest in sleek, abstract design.

glacial landform: Rock drumlins: A feature similar to roches moutonnées, rock drumlins are bedrock knobs or hills completely streamlined, usually with steep stoss sides and gently sloping lee sides. Both roches moutonnées and rock drumlins range in length from several metres to several kilometres and in height…

Georgia: Prehistoric period: The best-known of these is Rock Eagle in central Georgia, a large complex of quartz rocks laid out in the shape of a bird.

rock edicts, narrative histories and announcements carved into cliff rock, onto pillars, and in caves throughout India by King Ashoka (reigned c. 265–238 bce), the most powerful emperor of the Mauryan dynasty and a highly influential promulgator of Indian Buddhism. Ashoka’s first years as king were

gunnel: …species Pholis gunnellus, known as rock gunnel, butterfish (after its slipperiness), or rock eel, is a common European and eastern North American form. It is usually brownish with darker markings and up to about 30 cm (12 inches) long.

elm: Major species: Rock, or cork, elm (U. thomasii) has hard wood and twigs that often develop corky ridges.

pictography: …carved on rocks are called petroglyphs.) A pictograph that stands for an individual idea or meaning may be called an ideogram; if a pictograph stands for an individual word, it is called a logogram (q.v.). Pictographs are also used as memory aids. Various North American Indian tribes used pictographs both…

igneous rock: Fabric: A major part of rock texture is fabric or pattern, which is a function of the form and outline of its constituent grains, their relative sizes, and their mutual relationships in space. Many specific terms have been employed to shorten the description of rock…

rock fan, fan-shaped bedrock surface at the foot of a mountain, often where a stream flows out onto a piedmont slope. It is often covered with a thin veneer of alluvium and may be confused with an alluvial fan. Rock fans are usually quite steep (20° to 26° slope). It has been suggested that they

cliff brake: …brake is sometimes used for rock ferns or rock brakes, about four to seven species constituting the genus Cryptogramma, native to Europe, Asia, and the Americas. They differ from Pellaea species by having fronds that die back each winter and by their fertile leaflets, which are usually narrower than the…

rock festival, a series of musical performances by a variety of artists, which generally take place over a number of days. Some festivals are singular events, while others recur annually in the same location. Occasionally, a festival will focus on a particular genre (e.g., folk, heavy metal, world

Rock festivals had their origin in the jazz festivals held in Newport, Rhode Island, and in Monterey, California, in the 1950s. As the folk music revival spread in the early 1960s, the Newport Festival added a folk component, which gave birth to other folk festivals across the country. When the

Karakoram Range: Glaciation and drainage: Suspended pulverized stone, or rock flour, makes glacial meltwater opaque. Rock flour and eroded material from the mountain channels give the Indus the highest suspended sediment load of any major river. Groundwater accumulates in the rocky talus and contributes to the flow throughout the year.

fold, in geology, undulation or waves in the stratified rocks of Earth’s crust. Stratified rocks were originally formed from sediments that were deposited in flat horizontal sheets, but in a number of places the strata are no longer horizontal but have been warped. Sometimes the warping is so

fulgurite: >Rock fulgurites, the other variety, are thin, glassy crusts on rocks. They generally occur on mountain summits, as at Toluca, Mex., and Mt. Thielsen, Oregon.

corydalis: Major species: Yellow corydalis, or rock fumewort (C. lutea), of southern Europe, is a popular garden perennial with 22-cm- (about 9-inch-) tall sprays of yellow tubular blooms. Fumewort, or bird-in-a-bush (C. solida), is a spring ephemeral found in Eurasia; its flowers range from white to dusty red…

gardening: Rock gardens: Rock gardens are designed to look as if they are a natural part of a rocky hillside or slope. If rocks are added, they are generally laid on their larger edges, as in natural strata. A few large boulders usually look better than…

Nek Chand: …trash and debris into the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, an assemblage of thousands of sculptures in a forest on the outskirts of Chandigarh, India.

rock glacier, tonguelike body of coarse rock fragments, found in high mountains above the timberline, that moves slowly down a valley. The rock material usually has fallen from the valley walls and may contain large boulders: it resembles the material left at the terminus of a true glacier.

gunnel: …species Pholis gunnellus, known as rock gunnel, butterfish (after its slipperiness), or rock eel, is a common European and eastern North American form. It is usually brownish with darker markings and up to about 30 cm (12 inches) long.

Rock Hill, city, York county, northern South Carolina, U.S., near the Catawba River, 26 miles (42 km) south of Charlotte, North Carolina. Established in 1851 as a depot on the Charlotte and South Carolina Railroad, it was named for a flint hill in the vicinity. During the American Civil War, Rock

grouper: …49 inches) long; and the rock hind (E. adscensionis), an Atlantic food species spotted with orange or red and up to 61 cm (24 inches) long.

hyrax: …bush hyraxes (Heterohyrax) and the rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) are terrestrial animals that live in groups among rocks and are active by day. The tree hyraxes (Dendrohyrax) are arboreal, solitary, and nocturnal. All are primarily vegetarian.

Rock Island, city, seat (1833) of Rock Island county, northwestern Illinois, U.S. It lies on the Mississippi River (bridged to Iowa) at the mouth of the Rock River and opposite the island for which it was named. With Moline and East Moline, Illinois, and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, Rock Island

Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company, U.S. railroad company founded in 1847 as the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company to build a line from Rock Island to La Salle, Ill. By 1866 its lines extended from Chicago to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Management in the late 19th century was

macaque: Species: The Formosan rock macaque (M. cyclopis) is closely related to the rhesus monkey and lives only in Taiwan. Japanese macaques, or snow monkeys (M. fuscata), are larger, more muscular, and shaggy-haired with pink faces and very short furry tails. These monkeys are important figures in myths…

rock: Magnetic properties: The magnetic properties of rocks arise from the magnetic properties of the constituent mineral grains and crystals. Typically, only a small fraction of the rock consists of magnetic minerals. It is this small portion of grains that determines the magnetic properties and magnetization of the rock…

sugar maple, (Acer saccharum), large tree in the soapberry family (Sapindaceae), native to eastern North America and widely grown as an ornamental and shade tree. It is commercially important as a source of maple syrup, maple sugar, and hardwood lumber useful in furniture manufacture and flooring.

Elizabeth Anne Chase Akers Allen: … of Philadelphia the poem entitled “Rock Me to Sleep,” whose opening lines—“Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, / And make me a child again, just for to-night!”—became universally familiar. That poem remained by far her best known, although she published much superior verse, frequently in the Atlantic Monthly.

mining: Underground mining: …field of engineering known as rock mechanics deals with the interaction between rock mass and mine openings.

tunnels and underground excavations: Preserving rock strength: …is the American development of rock moles that cut a smooth surface in the tunnel, thus minimizing rock damage and support needs—here limited to rock bolts connected by steel straps for this sandstone tunnel. In stronger rocks (as the 1970 Chicago sewers in dolomite) mole excavation not only largely eliminated…

granite moss, any of the plants of the order Andreaeales of the subclass Andreaeidae, comprising a single family, Andreaeaceae, which includes the genus Andreaea, with fewer than 100 species, including A. fuegiana, which formerly made up the separate genus of Neuroloma. The reddish brown or

rock, form of popular music that emerged in the 1950s. It is certainly arguable that by the end of the 20th century rock was the world’s dominant form of popular music. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it spread to other English-speaking countries and across Europe in the ’60s, and by

Dan Graham: …evidenced in his video documentary Rock My Religion (1982–84), which focused on rock-and-roll culture—gained him somewhat of a cult following among younger artists.

the Band: …live unit of the magnificent Rock of Ages (1972).

Mary J. Blige: Acting career: …roles in such films as Rock of Ages (2012), Betty and Coretta (2013), Black Nativity (2013), and Mudbound (2017). For her work in the latter movie, a drama about racism in 1940s Mississippi, Blige earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress. In addition, “Mighty River,” which she cowrote…

pottery: Reign of the Xuande emperor (1425–35): …Immortality—often referred to as the Rock of Ages pattern. The pattern appears frequently throughout the Ming period and later.

petroleum production: Accumulations from these seeps, called rock oil, were used commercially in the 19th century to make lamp oil by simple distillation. The vast majority of petroleum deposits, however, lie trapped in the pores of natural rock at depths from 150 to 7,600 metres (500 to 25,000 feet) below the surface…

the Who: …’70s and that originated the rock opera. The principal members were Pete Townshend (b. May 19, 1945, London, England), Roger Daltrey (b. March 1, 1944, London), John Entwistle (b. October 9, 1944, London—d. June 27, 2002, Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.), and Keith Moon (b. August 23, 1946, London—d. September 7,…

AC/DC: …album with the band was Rock or Bust (2014), which achieved commercial success. After Rudd’s 2014 arrest on drug and other charges, Chris Slade, who had earlier played with the band, took over as drummer. Two years later Johnson was forced to stop touring because of hearing loss, and he…

Cyril Connolly: His only novel, The Rock Pool, about the headlong decline of a young Englishman in a Riviera art colony, appeared in 1936. His most noted books are his collections of essays, Enemies of Promise (1938), which contains an autobiographical section, and The Condemned Playground (1945); and an assemblage…

ptarmigan: The common ptarmigan (L. mutus) ranges in the British Isles, Europe, and North America, where it is called rock ptarmigan. Also distributed circumpolarly is the willow ptarmigan, or willow grouse (L. lagopus), a more northerly bird of lowlands. On Rocky Mountain tundra south to New Mexico…

python: Old world pythons: …metre, but some pythons of Africa (P. sebae), India (P. molurus), Southeast Asia and Java (P. bivittatus), New Guinea (L. papuanus), and Australia (L. amethistinus) regularly exceed 3 metres (10 feet). Despite their large size, some of these species survive in urban and suburban areas, where their secretive habits and…

pika, (genus Ochotona), small short-legged and virtually tailless egg-shaped mammal found in the mountains of western North America and much of Asia. Despite their small size, body shape, and round ears, pikas are not rodents but the smallest representatives of the lagomorphs, a group otherwise

hyrax, (order Hyracoidea), any of six species of small hoofed mammals (ungulates) native to Africa and extreme southwestern Asia. Hyraxes and pikas are sometimes called conies or rock rabbits, but the terms are misleading, as hyraxes are neither lagomorphs nor exclusively rock dwellers. The term

Rock River, nonnavigable stream in the north-central United States that originates north of Horicon Marsh, near Brandon in Fond du Lac county, eastern Wisconsin, and flows in a generally southwesterly direction to join the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois. The roughly 300-mile (480-km)

rock rose, (Cistus), any of a genus of 18 species of low to medium-sized shrubs, in the rock rose family (Cistaceae), native to the Mediterranean region and long known to horticulture. There are a number of garden hybrids useful in warm areas (mostly including C. ladanifer as one of the parents),

sun rose, any of 80–110 species of low-growing flowering plants making up the genus Helianthemum in the rock rose family (Cistaceae), the flowers of which resemble single roses. They include several sunny garden varieties, which are useful in rock gardens and wild gardens. H. apenninum, H.

Malvales: Malvaceae, Cistaceae, and Muntingiaceae: Cistaceae, or the rock rose family, contains 8 genera and 175 species, which are commonly found in temperate or warm temperate areas, especially the Mediterranean region. Among the major genera in the family, Helianthemum (80–110 species) grows from Europe and North Africa to Central Asia…

halite, naturally occurring sodium chloride (NaCl), common or rock salt. Halite occurs on all continents in beds that range from a few metres to more than 300 m (1,000 feet) in thickness. Termed evaporite deposits because they formed by the evaporation of saline water in partially enclosed basins,

Man o’ War: Breeding and early racing career: …Mahubah, was the daughter of Rock Sand, winner of the 1903 British Triple Crown. There were high hopes for the colt.

scorpion: Ecology and habitats: …(“stone-loving”) species such as the South African rock scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes) are found only on rocks. They possess stout spinelike setae that operate in conjunction with highly curved claws to provide the legs with a strong grip on rock surfaces. They can move rapidly along surfaces at any angle, even…

spike moss: Major species: The similar rock selaginella (S. rupestris) of North America has smaller leaves, and its branching stems grow on rocks or in sand. Resurrection fern, or false rose of Jericho, (S. lepidophylla), is so named because as an apparently lifeless ball it unrolls when the wet season begins.…

gastropod: Classification: Murex shells (Muricidae), rock shells (Purpuridae), and coral shells (Coralliophilidae) are common predators, often boring into shells of their prey; rock shells common in cooler waters, others mostly tropical. Superfamily Buccineacea Scavengers that have lost the mechanisms for boring; dove shells (Columbellidae), mud

cave: Sea caves, eolian caves, rock shelters, and talus caves: Rock shelters are produced by bedrock erosion in insoluble rocks. A common setting is where a resistant rock such as a sandstone overlies shale or some other relatively weak rock. Surface weathering or stream action wears away the shale, cutting it back into the hillside.…

soapwort: Major species: A trailing species known as rock soapwort, or tumbling Ted (S. ocymoides), has several cultivated varieties with pink to deep red flower clusters. Pygmy pink (S. pumilio) is a very small alpine specimen sometimes grown in rock gardens.

Rock Springs, city, Sweetwater county, southwestern Wyoming, U.S. The city is located on Bitter Creek, at an elevation of 6,270 feet (1,911 metres) among sagebrush plains and hills, 13 miles (21 km) east of Green River city. Named for a nearby saline spring, it began as a stage stop in 1862; after

Richard Ford: Rock Springs (1987), Women with Men (1997), A Multitude of Sins (2001), and Sorry for Your Trouble (2020) are collections of short stories.

ground squirrel: Nontropical ground squirrels: …of the largest is the rock squirrel (Spermophilus variegatus) of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Weighing 450 to 875 grams, it has a body up to 30 cm long and a somewhat shorter, bushy tail. Members of both these genera have internal cheek pouches, which are used to…

reggae: The musical style that resulted, rock steady, was short-lived but brought fame to such performers as the Heptones and Alton Ellis.

Gwen Stefani: …Return of Saturn (2000) and Rock Steady (2001), the latter of which featured the Grammy Award-winning songs “Hey Baby” and “Underneath It All.” In 2002 Stefani married Gavin Rossdale, the front man for the British alternative rock group Bush; the couple divorced in 2016.

permafrost: Soil flow: These are called rock streams or rubble sheets.

chondrostean: Distribution: The lake sturgeon of North America (A. fulvescens) occurs in the Mississippi River valley, in Lake Huron, and northward into Canada. The white, Oregon, or Sacramento sturgeon (A. transmontanus) inhabits the waters of the Pacific coast of North America from California to

tunnels and underground excavations: Rock bolts: Rock tendons (prestressed cables or bundled rods, providing higher capacity than rock bolts) up to 250 feet long and prestressed to several hundred tons each have succeeded in stabilizing many sliding rock masses in rock chambers, dam abutments, and high rock slopes. A noted example…

the Clash: …Simonon, yielded the hit “Rock the Casbah,” which ironically was later appropriated as an American battle anthem during the Persian Gulf War.

Bill Murray: …competition program American Idol in Rock the Kasbah (2015). Murray lent his distinctive voice to a computer-animated version of the bear Baloo in a 2016 live-action adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. He was later cast in Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die (2019), a wry take on the zombie…

Rock the Vote, nonprofit political advocacy organization dedicated to increasing youth voter turnout in the United States. Rock the Vote conducts voter registration drives, sponsors voter education events, and runs ads encouraging young people to vote. Rock the Vote events and ads usually

rock tripe, lichen of the genus Umbilicaria, sometimes used as emergency food by soldiers or explorers. It contains about one-third more calories than equal amounts of honey, corn flakes, or hominy; however, this lichen cannot seriously be considered as a food crop because of its slow growth rate.

William Saroyan: His novels, such as Rock Wagram (1951) and The Laughing Matter (1953), were inspired by his own experiences of marriage, fatherhood, and divorce.

wallaby: …species of rock wallabies (Petrogale) live among rocks, usually near water. They are prettily coloured in shades of brown and gray and are distinguished by stripes, patches, or other markings. They are extremely agile on rocky terrain. The three species of nail-tailed wallabies (Onychogalea) are named for a horny…

rock wren, New Zealand bird belonging to the family Xenicidae (q.v.); also, a true wren of North America (Salpinctes obsoletus; see

rock wren: …wren of North America (Salpinctes obsoletus; see wren).

Chris Rock is an American comedian whose popular stand-up routine, which often addressed racial matters, led to a successful film career. Rock grew up in the impoverished Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. After dropping out of high school at 17 (he later received a

Chris Rock is an American comedian whose popular stand-up routine, which often addressed racial matters, led to a successful film career. Rock grew up in the impoverished Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York. After dropping out of high school at 17 (he later received a

Nicolas Cage: In The Rock (1996), Con Air (1997), and Face/Off (1997), he appeared opposite such actors as Sean Connery, John Cusack, and John Travolta, respectively. Other notable action films and thrillers include Gone in 60 Seconds (2000), about a group of car thieves attempting a single-night heist…

Alcatraz Island, rocky island in San Francisco Bay, California, U.S. The island occupies an area of 22 acres (9 hectares) and is located 1.5 miles (2 km) offshore. The island had little vegetation and was a seabird habitat when it was explored in 1775 by Lieut. Juan Manuel de Ayala, who named it

Monaco: …town of Monaco, or “the Rock,” a headland jutting into the sea on which the old town is located; La Condamine, the business district on the west of the bay, with its natural harbour; Monte-Carlo, including the gambling casino; and the newer zone of Fontvieille, in which various light…

Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railroad Company, U.S. railroad company founded in 1847 as the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company to build a line from Rock Island to La Salle, Ill. By 1866 its lines extended from Chicago to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Management in the late 19th century was

Dwayne Johnson is an American professional wrestler and actor whose charisma and athleticism made him a success in both fields. Johnson was born into a wrestling family. His maternal grandfather, “High Chief” Peter Maivia, emerged on the professional scene in the 1960s and ’70s. Johnson’s father,

Frank Tashlin: Films of the late 1950s: Rock-a-Bye Baby (1958), Tashlin’s first project with the now-solo Lewis, starred Marilyn Maxwell as an actress who has recently given birth to triplets and been widowed. Lewis played her befuddled babysitter. Lewis and Tashlin teamed again on The Geisha Boy (1958), in which Lewis played…

India: Architecture: …many cave temples hewn from rock (of which those at Ajanta and Ellora are most noteworthy); the Sun Temple at Konarak (Konarka); the vast temple complexes at Bhubaneshwar, Khajuraho, and Kanchipuram (Conjeeveram); such Mughal masterpieces as Humayun’s tomb and the Taj Mahal; and, from the 20th century,

river: River terraces: Rock-cut terraces and depositional terraces can be distinguished by certain properties that reflect their mode of origin. Rock-cut surfaces are usually capped by a uniformly thin layer of alluvium, the total thickness of which is determined by the depth of scour of the river that…

Aegean civilizations: The Shaft Grave Period on the mainland (c. 1600–1450): …family tomb, however, was a rock-cut chamber with a dromos leading down to the entrance. The entrance was blocked with stones and the passage filled with earth after each burial. The rock-cut tomb may have been developed in Messenia during the 16th century under Cretan influence, like the tholos tomb.…

earthfill dam, dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides. A facing of crushed stone prevents erosion by wind or rain, and an ample spillway, usually of

rock-forming mineral, any mineral that forms igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks and that typically, or solely, forms as an intimate part of rock-making processes. In contrast are those minerals that have a limited mode of occurrence or are formed by more unusual processes, such as the ores

Canada: The Canadian Shield: …surface into a type of rock-knob, or grained, landscape, with the hollows between the knobs or the troughs between the ridges occupied by enormous numbers of lakes. In other areas the glaciers deposited till or moraine on the surface and in still others left gigantic fields of erratics (boulders and…

rockabilly, early form of rock music originated by white performers in the American South, popular from the mid-1950s to 1960, with a revival in the late 1970s. Record reviewers coined the term rockabilly—literally, rock and roll played by hillbillies—to describe the intense, rhythm-driven musical

Rockall, isolated granite rock in the North Atlantic Ocean 220 miles (354 km) west of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Rockall is about 100 yards (91 metres) in circumference and stands some 70 feet (21 metres) above sea level. It was formally annexed by the United Kingdom in 1955 and incorporated as

rockaway, a light, low, four-wheeled, horse-drawn carriage popular in the United States after its introduction at Rockaway, N.J., in 1830. It had a driver’s seat built into the body, with the top projecting forward to protect the driver from inclement weather. The main body was of the coupé type

crowberry: Species: Purple crowberry, or rockberry (E. eamesii), is found in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, and red crowberry (E. rubrum) is native to Chile, Argentina, and the Falkland Islands.

Anthony F.C. Wallace: His most important work, Rockdale: The Growth of an American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution (1978), is a psychoanthropological history of the Industrial Revolution. Wallace studied the cultural aspects of the cognitive process, especially when it involves the transfer of information during periods of technological expansion. In other…

Mundelein, village, Lake county, northeastern Illinois, U.S. A suburb of Chicago, it lies 35 miles (55 km) north-northwest of downtown. Before settlement the area was inhabited by Potawatomi Indians. The village was founded in 1835 and was successively known as Mechanics Grove, for the English

Rockefeller Center, a 22-acre (9-hectare) multipurpose complex of 19 commercial and entertainment buildings located between 48th and 51st streets and between Fifth and Sixth avenues in the heart of Manhattan in New York City. The center is one of the city’s most-visited tourist attractions, and it

Rockefeller family, prominent American family whose philanthropy and influence over several generations helped shape the modern United States. Their impact on such fields as business, banking, politics, health care, education, conservation, and the arts could still be felt in the 21st century. The

Rockefeller Foundation, U.S. philanthropic organization. It was endowed by John D. Rockefeller of the famed Rockefeller family and chartered in 1913 to alleviate human suffering worldwide. Rockefeller was assisted in its management by his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Among its many activities, the

Rockefeller University, private coeducational institution in New York, New York, U.S., devoted to research and graduate education in the biomedical sciences. It was founded by industrialist John D. Rockefeller of the famed Rockefeller family in 1901 as a medical-research centre, and in 1954 the

Richard E. Byrd: Antarctic expeditions: …of high mountains, named the Rockefeller Mountains, was discovered, and a large tract of hitherto unknown territory beyond them was named Marie Byrd Land, after Byrd’s wife. On November 29, 1929, Byrd, as navigator, and three companions made the first flight over the South Pole, flying from Little America to…

Rockefeller University, private coeducational institution in New York, New York, U.S., devoted to research and graduate education in the biomedical sciences. It was founded by industrialist John D. Rockefeller of the famed Rockefeller family in 1901 as a medical-research centre, and in 1954 the

John D. Rockefeller, Jr.: In 1901 Rockefeller married Abby Greene Aldrich (1874–1948), daughter of U.S. Senator Nelson W. Aldrich. As an art collector, she was instrumental in the founding of the Museum of Modern Art. They had six children—a daughter, Abby (1903–76), and five sons: John D. III, Nelson A., Laurance S., Winthrop,…