outwash

American  

[out-wosh, -wawsh] / ˈaʊtˌwɒʃ, -ˌwɔʃ /

noun

Geology.

1. the material, chiefly sand or gravel, deposited by meltwater streams in front of a glacier.

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outwash British  

/ ˈaʊtˌwɒʃ /

noun

1. a mass of gravel, sand, etc, carried and deposited by the water derived from melting glaciers

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Etymology

Origin of outwash

First recorded in 1890–95; out- + wash

Example Sentences

Morgan were busy in New York planning a 200-mile railroad to the mine from the Gulf of Alaska, Barrett staked a homestead across the glacier’s flat outwash plain.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 8, 2022

The main reason for this was something called outwash.

From BBC • Mar. 16, 2022

The sediments that became moldavites represent a time when sea level was low, and sand, gravel and clay were being distributed in vast outwash fans where mountain streams emptied onto the plains.

From Scientific American • Aug. 9, 2019

Depending on its velocity, this water is able to move sediments of various sizes and most of that material is washed out of the lower end of the glacier and deposited as outwash sediments.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2015

Rainier, along the glacial outwash train of Nisqualli Glacier, to the moraine and outwash apron of the Vashon Glacier and thence to the Olympics.

From Comments on the Taxonomy and Geographic Distribution of Some North American Rodents by Hall, E. Raymond (Eugene Raymond)