basement complex

noun

Geology.

1. the undifferentiated assemblage of rock basementrock underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.

Word History and Origins

Origin of basement complex¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

By 2:30 p.m., police ordered a full evacuation to secure rooms outside the Capitol, prompting an underground race through the basement complex.

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I failed to uncover either critical Republican senator during numerous strolls through the winding basement complex that I took throughout the day, but found Collins’ spokeswoman and asked if her boss would be coming through too.

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Williams wants to put in a basement complex which will come perilously close to Tower House.

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In certain localities, for example, the Cambrian rocks rest unconformably on a surface of metamorphic and igneous rocks—that is, the Basement Complex was raised above sea-level, eroded and subsequently depressed before the Cambrian sediments were laid upon it.

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In general, this has been found to be true, as is suggested by the fact that to the pre-Cambrian metamorphosed terranes, as previously stated, the name Basement Complex has been applied.

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