alluvial fan
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.
Origin of alluvial fan
1- Also called alluvial cone .
Words Nearby alluvial fan
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
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 HubHalf 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 BinghamUndoubtedly this alluvial fan had been highly prized in this country of terribly steep hills.
Inca Land | Hiram BinghamIn their place an extensive delta and alluvial fan have been formed.
The Andes of Southern Peru | Isaiah BowmanAncient 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
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
[ 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.
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