Crossword clues for subsidence
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subsidence \Sub*sid"ence\, Subsidency \Sub*sid"en*cy\, n. [L. subsidens, -entis, p. pr. of subsidere. See Subside.] The act or process of subsiding.
The subdual or subsidence of the more violent passions.
--Bp.
Warburton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1650s, "a settling to the bottom," from Latin subsidentia "a settling down," from subsidens, from subsidere (see subside (v.)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The process of becoming less active or severe 2 A sinking of something to a lower level, especially of part of the surface of the Earth due to underground excavation or seismic activity or groundwater depletion
WordNet
Wikipedia
Subsidence is the motion of a surface (usually, the Earth's surface) as it shifts downward relative to a datum such as sea-level. The opposite of subsidence is uplift, which results in an increase in elevation. Ground subsidence is of concern to geologists, geotechnical engineers and surveyors.
Subsidence in the Earth's atmosphere is most commonly caused by low temperatures: as air cools, it becomes denser and moves towards the ground, just as warm air becomes less dense and moves upwards. Cool subsiding air is subject to adiabatic warming which tends to cause the evaporation of any clouds that might be present. Subsidence generally causes high barometric pressure as more air moves into the same space: the polar highs are areas of almost constant subsidence, as are the horse latitudes, and these areas of subsidence are the sources of much of the world's prevailing wind. Subsidence also causes many smaller-scale weather phenomena, such as morning fog. An extreme form of subsidence is a downburst, which can result in damage similar to that produced by a tornado. A milder form of subsidence is referred to as downdraft.
Category:Atmosphere Category:Basic meteorological concepts and phenomena
Usage examples of "subsidence".
He leaned in the doorway among several other males to await the subsidence of her heaving.
Jarad took a seat also, the physical signs of a truce reflected in the mutual subsidence of their power.
Nevertheless, it was a passable imitation, though bearing a closer kinship to the subsidence formations of the Martian Tithonius Lacus than to the hydrologically formed Grand Canyon of Arizona.
In Manila, as well as in the towns of the provinces mentioned, the earthquake did incalculable harm to buildings, besides causing subsidences, fissures, lateral displacements and similar effects, especially in the alluvial lands along the banks of the Rivers Pasig, the Great and Little Pampanga, and the Agno.
The coloured map appended to my volume on Coral Reefs, led me to conclude that the great oceans are still mainly areas of subsidence, the great archipelagoes still areas of oscillations of level, and the continents areas of elevation.
Further along, the corridor was pinched together by the shock wave of the explosion and its roof scraped the floor like a coalmine gallery squashed flat by subsidence.
I am convinced that all our ancient formations, which are rich in fossils, have thus been formed during subsidence.
Consequently formations rich in fossils and sufficiently thick and extensive to resist subsequent degradation, may have been formed over wide spaces during periods of subsidence, but only where the supply of sediment was sufficient to keep the sea shallow and to embed and preserve the remains before they had time to decay.
In our archipelago, I believe that fossiliferous formations could be formed of sufficient thickness to last to an age, as distant in futurity as the secondary formations lie in the past, only during periods of subsidence.
And navvies knew how to set up rails on pontoons, if necessary, which could cross marshland, shifting streams, subsidence, anything you cared to think of.
First came several luxurious and languorous kisses, then a sighing subsidence into each other's arms on the bed, freed from clothing and care.
Everybody who has observed the working of emotions in persons of various temperaments knows well enough that they have periods of incubation, which differ with the individual, and with the particular cause and degree of excitement, yet evidently go through a strictly self-limited series of evolutions, at the end of which, their result --an act of violence, a paroxysm of tears, a gradual subsidence into repose, or whatever it may be--declares itself, like the last stage of an attack of fever and ague.
It is, also, probable that each great period of subsidence would be interrupted by oscillations of level, and that slight climatal changes would intervene during such lengthy periods.
It may be asked, whether I can offer any direct evidence of the subsidence of barrier-reefs or atolls.
In these coral formations, where the land and water seem struggling for mastery, it must be ever difficult to decide between the effects of a change in the set of the tides and of a slight subsidence: that many of these reefs and atolls are subject to changes of some kind is certain.