Enjoy this smorgasbord of fun, fun-to-say, and funny geologic terms. Be sure to dust off your best French accent for bou-di-najjj, or sausage-shaped features formed by extension in rocks.
Boudinage is the geological term for structures formed by the aforementioned extension, where a rigid tabular body is stretched and deformed amidst less competent surroundings. The competent bed begins to break up, forming sausage-shaped boudins. Watch this 2-minute video to see boudinage forming in an ice cream sandwich.
A cactolith is "a quasi-horizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths, whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin out like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith." This quite tongue-in-cheek definition was described by Charles B Hunt in 1953 in the Henry Mountains in Utah to describe an intrusive feature resembling a cactus. It's a long lith. . .
Crozzle is partially burned coal. {The by-product of burned coal is called clinker.} Some underground coal seams have been burning for centuries.
One of my favorite geologic terms is slickensides which are polished, striated rock surfaces caused by one rock mass sliding over or past another. The word describes well the result of slick features moving past each other in fault zones:
One can almost hear the grinding and sliding of rocks past each other. . .
It's one of the most tactile surfaces in geology:
Have you touched slickensides? Seen a cactolith? Do you have a favorite geologic term? Or do you have a favorite term from your profession?
What's on your lith? ;-)
Steph
Oui, and speaking of French words and mirror planes, may 2016 be filled with much "Joie!"
Boudinage is the geological term for structures formed by the aforementioned extension, where a rigid tabular body is stretched and deformed amidst less competent surroundings. The competent bed begins to break up, forming sausage-shaped boudins. Watch this 2-minute video to see boudinage forming in an ice cream sandwich.
A cactolith is "a quasi-horizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths, whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin out like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith." This quite tongue-in-cheek definition was described by Charles B Hunt in 1953 in the Henry Mountains in Utah to describe an intrusive feature resembling a cactus. It's a long lith. . .
Crozzle is partially burned coal. {The by-product of burned coal is called clinker.} Some underground coal seams have been burning for centuries.
One of my favorite geologic terms is slickensides which are polished, striated rock surfaces caused by one rock mass sliding over or past another. The word describes well the result of slick features moving past each other in fault zones:
One can almost hear the grinding and sliding of rocks past each other. . .
It's one of the most tactile surfaces in geology:
Have you touched slickensides? Seen a cactolith? Do you have a favorite geologic term? Or do you have a favorite term from your profession?
What's on your lith? ;-)
Steph
Oui, and speaking of French words and mirror planes, may 2016 be filled with much "Joie!"
