A. Geologic Hazard Areas.

   1. "Avalanche" means a mass of snow or ice and other material which may become incorporated therein as such mass moves rapidly down a mountain slope.

   2. "Expansive soils and rocks" means any mineral, clay, rock or other type of geologic deposit having the property of absorbing water with an accompanying swelling to several times the original volume thereof such as, for example, that type of bentonite having such properties.

   3. "Geologic hazard" means a geologic phenomena, which is so adverse to past, current or foreseeable construction or land use as to constitute a significant hazard to public health and safety or to property. The term includes, but is not limited to: avalanches, landslides, rock falls, mudflows, unstable or potentially unstable slopes, seismic effects, radioactivity and ground subsidence.

   4. "Geologic hazard area" means an area which contains or is directly affected by a geologic hazard.

   5. "Initial control area" means an area suspected, but not finally determined, to be a natural hazard area or a mineral resource area.

   6. "Ground subsidence" means a process characterized by the downward displacement of surface material caused by natural phenomena such as removal or underground fluids, natural consolidation or dissolution of underground minerals, or man-made phenomena such as underground mining.

   7. "Landslide" means a mass movement where there is a distinct surface of rupture, or zone of weakness, which separates the slide material from more stable underlying material.

   8. "Mudflow" means a flowing mass of predominately fine-grained earth material possessing a high degree of fluid during movement.

   9. "Nonconforming use" means any structure, development or land use in existence as of the date of the adoption of these regulations, and not permitted under the terms and provisions of these regulations.

   10. "Radioactivity" means a condition related to various types of radiation emitted by natural radioactive minerals that occur in natural deposits or rocks, soils and water.

   11. "Rock fall" means the rapid free-falling, bounding, sliding or rolling of large masses of rock or individual rocks.

   12. "Seismic effects" means direct and indirect effects caused by a natural earthquake or a man-made phenomenon.

   13. "Unstable or potentially unstable slope" means an area susceptible to a landslide, a mudflow, a rock fall, or accelerated creep of slope-forming materials.

   B. Wildfire Hazard Area.

   1. "Wildfire" means an uncontrolled fire burning in vegetation, structures or other improvements.

   2. "Wildfire behavior" means the predictable action of a wildfire under given conditions of fuels, weather and topography.

   3. "Wildfire hazard" means a wildfire phenomenon which is so adverse to past, current, or foreseeable construction or land use as to constitute a significant hazard to public health and safety or to property.

   C. Floodplain Hazard Areas. Repealed on March 27, 1986.

   D. Mineral Resource Areas.

   1. "Commercial mineral deposit" means a natural mineral deposit for which extraction by an extractor is or will be commercially feasible and regarding which it can be demonstrated by geologic, mineralogic, or other scientific data that such deposit has significant economic or strategic value to the area, state or nation.

   2. "Mineral" means an inanimate constituent of the earth in either solid, liquid or gaseous state which, when extracted from the earth, is usable in its natural form or is capable of conversion into usable form as a metal, a metallic compound, a chemical, an energy source, a raw material for manufacturing, or construction material. This definition does not include surface or ground water subject to appropriation for domestic, agricultural, or industrial purposes, nor does it include geothermal resources.

   3. "Mineral resource area" means an area in which minerals are located in sufficient concentration in veins, deposits, bodies, beds, seams, fields, pools or otherwise, as to be capable of economic recovery. The term includes, but is not limited to, any significant mining activity in the past, there is significant mining activity in the present, mining development is planned or in progress, or mineral rights are held by mineral patent or valid mining claims with the intention of mining. The term also includes an area of oil and gas or geothermal resource development if such area has been identified by the State Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for designation.

   4. "Mining" means the process of removing or extracting minerals and building stone from naturally occurring veins, deposits, bodies, beds, seams, fields, pools or other concentrations in the earth’s crust. This term also includes the preliminary treatment building stone.

   5. "Open mining" means the mining of natural mineral deposits by removing any amount of overburden lying above such deposits, and mining directly from the deposits thereby exposed. The term includes, but is not limited to, such practices as open cut mining, open pit mining, strip mining, quarrying and dredging.

   6. "Reclamation" means the rehabilitation of affected land by means of replanting, soil stabilization, water resource protection, and other measures appropriate to the subsequent beneficial use of such mined and reclaimed lands.