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crustal

American

[kruhs-tl] / ˈkrʌs tl /

adjective

of or relating to a crust, as of the earth.

crustal British

/ ˈkrʌstəl /

adjective

of or relating to the earth's crust

"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

Etymology

Origin of crustal

1855–60; < Latin crūst ( a ) shell, crust + -al ¹

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

crustal

This model of heat-driven magma circulation provides a possible explanation for why the Moon has a chemically similar mantle but such dramatically different crustal compositions.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026

Taken together, the evidence indicates that the strongest crustal shortening and collision-related deformation in the Northern Andes had mostly ended before the late Miocene.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 9, 2026

They also tested different crustal compositions and temperature conditions before calculating how much fractured, water permeable crust each impact produced.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026

Graduate student Sean Hutchings used this archive to study known deep earthquakes and identify additional events that had previously been classified as crustal earthquakes.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 3, 2026

At first people called them "crustal blocks" or sometimes "paving stones."

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023