Unconformity definition

ŭnkən-fôrmĭ-tē
unconformities
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Frequency:
(geology) A surface between successive strata representing a missing interval in the geologic record of time, and produced either by an interruption in deposition or by the erosion of depositionally continuous strata followed by renewed deposition.
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Lack of conformity; nonconformity.
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A break in the continuity of rock strata in contact, separating younger from older rocks and usually resulting from erosion of the surface of the older bed before the younger bed was laid down.
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(geology) A gap in time in rock strata, where erosion occurs while deposition slows or stops.
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A lack of conformity; inconsistency; incongruity.
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The surface of contact between such strata.
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A surface between successive strata representing a missing interval in the geologic record of time, produced either by an interruption in deposition or by the erosion of depositionally continuous strata followed by renewed deposition. An unconformity is a type of discontinuity.
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(nonstandard) A lack of conformity.
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Origin of unconformity

Unconformity Sentence Examples

  • A great unconformity separates the Table Mountain and Ecca series.

  • Its distribution is very different from that of the Upper Cretaceous, and there is a great and widespread unconformity between them.

  • From the Permian to the Lias the sequence in the central Himalaya shows no sign of a break, nor has any unconformity been proved between the Liassic beds and the overlying Spiti shales, which contain fossils of Middle and Upper Jurassic age.

  • On the Pacific coast the marine Eocene lies west of the Sierras, and between it and the Cretaceous there is a general, and often a great, unconformity.

  • No certain representative of the Dingle Beds has been traced elsewhere throughout the south of Ireland, where the Old Red Sandstone succeeds the uptilted Silurian strata with striking unconformity.

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Words near unconformity in the Dictionary