Available water capacity is the maximum amount of plant available water a soil can provide. It is an indicator of a soil's ability to retain water and make it sufficiently available for plant use. Available water capacity is the water held in soil between its field capacity and permanent wilting point.

Cation-exchange capacity is a measure of how many cations can be retained on soil particle surfaces. Negative charges on the surfaces of soil particles bind positively-charged atoms or molecules, but allow these to exchange with other positively charged particles in the surrounding soil water.

Magnetic anomaly maps provide insight into the subsurface structure and composition of the Earth's crust. Anomalies trending parallel to the isochrons (lines of equal age) in the oceans reveal the temporal evolution of oceanic crust. Magnetic maps are widely used in the geological sciences and in resource exploration. Furthermore, the global magnetic map is useful in science education to illustrate various aspects of Earth evolution such as plate tectonics and crustal interaction with the deep mantle. Distinct patterns and magnetic signatures can be attributed to the formation (seafloor spreading) and destruction (subduction zones) of oceanic crust, the formation of continental crust by accretion of various terranes to cratonic areas and large scale volcanism (both on continents and oceans).