subapennine, a. (n.) Geol.
(sʌbˈæpənaɪn)
Also -appen(n)ine and with capital initial.
[sub- 12.]
Applied to a series of strata of Pliocene age, such as are characteristic of the formation of the flanks of the Apennines in Italy; belonging to or characteristic of these strata.
| 1822 Edin. Rev. XXXVII. 50 Subappennine alluvial soils. 1833 Lyell Princ. Geol. III. 110 Throughout a great part of Italy, where the marls and sands of the Subapennine hills are elevated to considerable heights. 1851 Richardson Geol. viii. 248 The subapennine beds of Piedmont. 1861 P. P. Carpenter in Rep. Smithsonian Instit. 1860, 159 The Subappenine tertiaries of Piedmont. |
b. n. pl. The geological series bearing this name; a low range of hills skirting the slopes of the Apennines in Italy.
| 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. I. 137 note, The newest tertiary strata of the age of the Subapennines. 1833 Ibid. III. 155 Brocchi, the first Italian geologist who described this newer group in detail, gave it the name of the Subapennines. |