Dec. 30th, 2024

prettygoodword: text: words are sexy (Default)
Theme 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.


syncline & anticline
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.

December 2025

S M T W T F S
  1 2 3 4 56
7 8 9 10 11 1213
14 15 16 17 18 1920
21222324252627
28293031   

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Dec. 29th, 2025 02:07 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios