horst & graben
Jan. 3rd, 2025 07:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prettygoodwordhorst (HAWRST) - (geol.) n., a block of planetary crust bounded by normal faults that is raised relative to the surrounding blocks.
graben (GRAH-buhn) - (geol.) n., a block of planetary crust bounded by normal faults that is lowered relative to the surrounding blocks.
(Have I been mispronouncing graben with a long /AY/ all this time? I have. Ouch.) Horsts and grabens often occur together:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Coined in German in 1883 by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, in his book Das Antlitz der Erde, translated into English as The Face of the Earth in 1905, though the terms themselves were in use by English-speaking geologists by the mid-1890s. In German, Horst means heap/cluster, originally in Middle High German hurst, thicket/grove, while Graben means ditch, from graben, to dig, which if you go back far enough is cognate with English grave.
And that's a week of paired geology terms, chosen to run this week because of the holiday, as I only had four pairs on hand. Back next week with (checks notes) the usual random assortment.
---L.
graben (GRAH-buhn) - (geol.) n., a block of planetary crust bounded by normal faults that is lowered relative to the surrounding blocks.
(Have I been mispronouncing graben with a long /AY/ all this time? I have. Ouch.) Horsts and grabens often occur together:
Thanks, WikiMedia!
Coined in German in 1883 by Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, in his book Das Antlitz der Erde, translated into English as The Face of the Earth in 1905, though the terms themselves were in use by English-speaking geologists by the mid-1890s. In German, Horst means heap/cluster, originally in Middle High German hurst, thicket/grove, while Graben means ditch, from graben, to dig, which if you go back far enough is cognate with English grave.
And that's a week of paired geology terms, chosen to run this week because of the holiday, as I only had four pairs on hand. Back next week with (checks notes) the usual random assortment.
---L.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-03 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-03 06:58 pm (UTC)Heh.
I forgot to mention that I live in the Basin and Range province of western North America, said basins and ranges ultimately formed as grabens and horsts, respectively, formed by pulling on the North American Plate.