subˈaerial, a. Chiefly Geol. and Phys. Geog.
[sub- 1 a. Cf. F. subaérien.]
Taking place, existing, operating, or formed in the open air or on the earth's surface, as opposed to subaqueous, submarine, subterranean.
| 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 177 We think that we shall not strain analogy too far if we suppose the same laws to govern the subaqueous and subaërial phenomena. 1841 J. Trimmer Pract. Geol. 172 Many subaërial volcanos have ejected trachyte and basaltic lava. 1852 Dana Crust. i. 5 Insects are essentially sub-aerial species. 1872 W. S. Symonds Rec. Rocks vi. 155 Vast masses of strata have been removed by subaerial denudation. 1880 Dawkins Early Man in Brit. vii. 208 The rarity of sub-aerial refuse-heaps compared with those in caves and under rocks. |
Hence subˈaerially adv.; subˈaerialist, one who holds the view that a certain formation is subaerial; also attrib.
| 1870 Contemp. Rev. XV. 625 It must have accumulated, subaërially, upon the surface of a soil covered by a forest of cryptogamous plants. 1887 Athenæum 24 Sept. 410/3 In 1865 the battle of the ‘Uniformitarians’ and ‘Cataclysmists’, ‘Sub-aërialists’ and ‘Marinists’, was still raging. Ibid., The most extreme..sub-aërialist views. |