syncline & anticline
Dec. 30th, 2024 07:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordTheme week! -- since I've just been traveling through a lot of geology, some paired geology terms.
syncline (SING-klain, SIN-klain) - (geol.) n., a trough of stratified rock in which the beds dip toward each other from the bottom.
anticline (AN-tee-klain) - (geol.) n., an arch of stratified rock in which the layers bend downward away from each other from the crest.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Often enough, though, the top of the anticline gets weathered away, leaving layers exposed in pairs on either side of the former crest. Both of these were coined in the 1860s from the adjectival forms synclinal and anticlinal, which were both coined around 1830 as mathematical terms (apparently specifically in topology) from Ancient Greek roots sún, together / anti-, opposed + klínō, to lean.
---L.
syncline (SING-klain, SIN-klain) - (geol.) n., a trough of stratified rock in which the beds dip toward each other from the bottom.
anticline (AN-tee-klain) - (geol.) n., an arch of stratified rock in which the layers bend downward away from each other from the crest.
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Often enough, though, the top of the anticline gets weathered away, leaving layers exposed in pairs on either side of the former crest. Both of these were coined in the 1860s from the adjectival forms synclinal and anticlinal, which were both coined around 1830 as mathematical terms (apparently specifically in topology) from Ancient Greek roots sún, together / anti-, opposed + klínō, to lean.
---L.
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