alluvial fan

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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.

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Also called alluvial cone .

Origin of alluvial fan

First recorded in 1870–75

Words nearby alluvial fan

allurement, alluring, allusion, allusive, alluvial, alluvial fan, alluvial mining, alluvial plain, alluvion, alluvium, all very well

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use alluvial fan in a sentence

This combination of rainfall and reduced tree cover also increased opportunities for erosion, which spread sediments into a thick blanket known as an alluvial fan.
How Early Humans Used Fire to Permanently Change the Landscape Millennia Ago|Jessica Thompson|May 21, 2021|Singularity Hub
Half an hour's walk brought us to Vista Alegre, another little clearing on an alluvial fan in the bend of the river.
Inca Land|Hiram Bingham
Undoubtedly this alluvial fan had been highly prized in this country of terribly steep hills.
Inca Land|Hiram Bingham
In their place an extensive delta and alluvial fan have been formed.
The Andes of Southern Peru|Isaiah Bowman

Ancient alluvial fan sequences may also be hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Deserts|A. S. Walker
Steep valleys descend from the higher country to join the main valley and at the mouth of every tributary is an alluvial fan.
The Andes of Southern Peru|Isaiah Bowman

British Dictionary definitions for alluvial fan

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

Scientific definitions for alluvial fan

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.