breccia

[brech-ee-uh, bresh-]

noun

Petrology.

1. rock composed of angular fragments of older rocks melded together.

breccia

/ ˈbrɛtʃɪə /

noun

1. a rock consisting of angular fragments embedded in a finer matrix, formed by erosion, impact, volcanic activity, etc

breccia

1. A rock composed of angular fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix. Breccias form from explosive volcanic ejections, the compaction of talus, or plate tectonic processes. Breccias are different from conglomerates in that the fragments they contain are angular instead of rounded.

Other Word Forms

• brecciated adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of breccia¹

1765–75; < Italian < Germanic; compare Old High German brecha breaking

Word History and Origins

Origin of breccia¹

C18: from Italian, from Old High German brecha a fragment; see _breach

Example Sentences

Most of the ejected material is called breccia - angular rocks cemented by clay.

Read more on BBC

Findings suggest it formed from chunks of other rocks cemented together - like broken pieces from multiple jigsaws mashed together - in what is known as breccia.

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Instead, the pair found breccias — mash-ups of different types of older rock, melted and fused together in the violence of titanic meteorite strikes.

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The Pinnacles’ high peaks are mostly volcanic breccia, which is more vulnerable to crumbling, a different sort of challenge.

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The most habitable meteorite samples analyzed appeared to be made of a rock type called regolith breccia.

Read more on Scientific American