alluvial fan
noun Physical Geography.
a fan-shaped alluvial deposit formed by a stream where its velocity is abruptly decreased, as at the mouth of a ravine or at the foot of a mountain.
RELATED CONTENT
Real Fans Only: The Meaning Behind Obsessive FandomWhether you’re a Deadhead, Belieber, or a member of Raider Nation, extreme passion lies at the heart of all fans. Oodles of fan sites, message boards, Tumblr feeds, and those old-fashioned print newsletters help fans share the love. Fans use language to set themselves (as a group) apart from fans of rival teams or other artists. They create catchy nicknames and make references that may …
Nearby words
- alluringly,
- allusion,
- allusive,
- allusively,
- alluvial,
- alluvial mining,
- alluvial plain,
- alluvion,
- alluvium,
- ally
Origin of alluvial fan
First recorded in 1870–75
Also called alluvial cone.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
alluvial fan
alluvial cone
noun
a fan-shaped accumulation of silt, sand, gravel, and boulders deposited by fast-flowing mountain rivers when they reach flatter land
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
alluvial fan
[ ə-lōō′vē-əl ]
A fan-shaped mass of sediment, especially silt, sand, gravel, and boulders, deposited by a river when its flow is suddenly slowed. Alluvial fans typically form where a river pours out from a steep valley through mountains onto a flat plain. Unlike deltas, they are not deposited into a body of standing water.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.