yardang

yar•dang (YAHR-dahng)  n

Definition:
a keel-shaped crest or ridge of rock, formed by the action of the wind, usually parallel to the prevailing wind direction

Origin:
earlier jardang,  term introduced by Sven Hedin (1904); perhaps a compound with Uigur yar  "cliff, precipice", or a cognate Turkic word

Sentence Examples:
• As climate changes or streams are diverted, yardang landscapes may be flooded. - Geomorphology of desert environments, A. J. Parsons, Athol D. Abrahams

• Because many of the martian yardangs seem to be structurally controlled, structural influence must be carefully evaluated if yardang orientations are used to interpret wind directions on Mars. - Geological Survey professional paper, 1978

• There is little real diagnostic evidence on the yardang slopes themselves that they are wind eroded, since between the more intense winds that perform most of the removal there are probably periods in which rainfall or dew destroys the evidence. - Geomorphology in deserts, Ronald U. Cooke, Andrew Warren

Wikipedia:

A yardang is a streamlined hill carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion, dust and sand, and deflation. Yardangs are elongate features typically three or more times longer than they are wide, and when viewed from above, resemble the hull of a boat. Facing the wind is a steep, blunt face that gradually gets lower and narrower toward the lee end. Yardangs are formed by wind erosion, typically of an originally flat surface formed from areas of harder and softer material. The soft material is eroded and removed by the wind, and the harder material remains. The resulting patter of yardangs is therefore a combination of the original rock distribution, and the fluid mechanics of the air flow and resulting pattern of erosion.

Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

weald

(weeld)  n

Definition:
wooded or uncultivated country; woodland


The Weald:
a region of SE England, in Kent, Surrey, and East and West Sussex between the North Downs and the South Downs: formerly forested


Origin:
before 1150; Middle English weeld, O.E. (W.Saxon) weald "forest, woodland," specifically the forest between the North and South Downs in Sussex, Kent, and Surrey; a W.Saxon variant of Anglian wald; perhaps connected to wild

Related:
Synonyms: woodland

Sentence Examples:
• How different is the pursuit of the pheasant with the aid of spaniels in the thick covers of the weald, or tracking him with a single setter among some of the wilder portions of the forest range!—intently observing your dog and anticipating the wily artifices of some old cock, with spurs as long as a dragon's, who will sometimes lead you for a mile through bog, brake, fern, and heather, before the sudden drop of your staunch companion, and a rigidity in all his limbs, satisfy you that you have at last compelled the bird to squat under that wide holly-bush, from whence you kick him up, and feel some little exultation as you bring him down with a snap-shot, having only caught a glimpse of him through the evergreen boughs, as he endeavoured to escape by a rapid flight at the opposite side of the tree. - Highways & Byways in Sussex, E.V. Lucas

• One's gaze looked forth from it upon the endless middle distances of the oak-clad Weald, with the uncertain blue line of the South Downs in the background. Ridge behind ridge, the long, low hills of paludina limestone stood out in successive tiers, each thrown up against its neighbor by the misty haze that broods eternally over the wooded valley; till, roaming across them all, the eye rested at last on the rearing scarp of Chanctonbury Ring, faintly pencilled on the furthest skyline. - The Woman Who Did, Grant Allen

• Wide-branched oaks were intermingled with beeches and copsewood of various descriptions so closely in some places as to intercept the sunshine. In others the trees receded from each other, forming wide vistas that gave glimpses of other recesses of sylvan solitude. Down the long sunlit glades the gold belted bees sounded their humming horns through every flowery town of the weald. - In Doublet and Hose, Lucy Foster Madison

Sources: Dictionary.com, Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

quaquaversal

qua•qua•ver•sal (kwey-kwuh-VUR-suhl)  adj

Definition:
sloping downward from the center in all directions,  like a dome

quaquaversally adverb

Origin:
1720–30; from Latin quaqua "in every direction" + versus "towards" literally, "wheresoever turned, turned everywhere" + -al

Related:
Related Words: versus, anniversary, universe, introvert, extroversion, versatile, revert, tergiversation, transverse, avert, obverse, pervert, invert, subvert, divert, controversy, convert, malversation, adverse, conversation, universal

Sentence Examples:
• You just got this quaquaversal acreage ranging out everywhere. Dog don't like to squat on such a terrain. -Work shirts for madmen, George Singleton

• It has been shown that the dips observed in at least three localities are quaquaversal and the expression of dome structure. Nowhere in the area does the strike and dip of the beds conform to an anticlinal or synclinal structure. The dips seem everywhere to be quaquaversal, and it is believed that all of the tilted Niagara beds of northern Indiana represent small domes similar to those at Huntington and Wabash. -Indiana. Dept. of Geology and Natural Resources, 1904

• Where such a quaquaversal structure stands alone it is simply called a dome. A knowledge of these domes is essential to intelligent prospecting as they make oil territory "spotted." -Practical oil geology, Dorsey Hager


Sources: Dictionary.com

Word-E: A Word-A-Day

escarpment

e•scarp•ment (ih-SKAHRP-muhnt)  n

Definition:
1. a steep slope or long cliff that results from erosion or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations
2. a steep slope in front of a fortification

Origin:
1802, from Fr. escarpment, from escarper "make into a steep slope," from escarpe "slope," from It. scarpa

Related:
Synonyms: slope, cliff, hill, ledge, ridge, bluff, precipice
Related Words: scarp, escarp

Sentence Examples:
• How good it was! There, within his sight, was the great escarpment of rock known as the Devil's Ledge, and away to the east was the black spot in the combe known as the Cave of Mary. Still farther away, towards the south, was the great cattle-pasture, where, as he looked, a thousand cattle roamed. -No Defense, Gilbert Parker

• I dived close to the cliffs and skirted them for several miles without finding the least indication of a suitable landing-place; and then I swung back at a lower level, looking for a clearing close to the bottom of the mighty escarpment; but I could find none of sufficient area to insure safety. I was flying pretty low by this time, not only looking for landing places but watching the myriad life beneath me. -The People that Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs

• At each end of the Cotswold range, as seen from Evesham, stands, sentinel like, an isolated elevation, and in early times, as present remains testify, both these were occupied as fortified posts. To the east is Meon Hill, and to the south-west stands Bredon, the nearest and most prominent of the group. In the south-east the position of Broadway is decisively marked by its pseudo-Norman tower, and due south the level outline ended by an abrupt escarpment to the eastward is Cleeve Cloud, carrying the range on towards Cheltenham and Bristol. -Evesham, Edmund H. New

The Storyline
Whatever it was, she couldn't fight the feeling that she about to thrown of a steep escarpment.

Sources: Free Dictionary, Online Etymology

Word-E: A Word-A-Day