Geology

Roles: stratum, erosion, sediment, tectonic-plate, fault-line, river-channel, meander, oxbow, bedrock, weathering

The study of Earth’s physical structure, substances, history, and the processes that shape them. As a source domain, geology provides metaphors for deep time, gradual transformation, hidden structural forces, and the distinction between surface features and underlying dynamics. Geological processes operate on timescales that dwarf human perception, making the frame structurally productive for reasoning about slow change that becomes visible only in retrospect: erosion, sedimentation, tectonic drift. The frame also encodes the insight that landscapes are shaped more by what is removed than by what is added.

As Source Frame (4)

• Organizational Memory Is Archaeological Layers → organizational-behavior
• Oxbow Lake → creative-process
• Quicksand → psychotherapy
• The Promontory → philosophy, ethics-and-morality