regolith Geol.
(ˈrɛgɒlɪθ)
[erron. f. Gr. ῥῆγο-ς rug, blanket + -lith.]
The unconsolidated solid material covering the bedrock of a planet.
| 1897 G. P. Merrill Treat. Rocks v. 299 This entire mantle of unconsolidated material, whatever its nature or origin, it is proposed to call the regolith, from the Greek words ῥῆγος, meaning a blanket, and λιθος, a stone. 1935 Jrnl. Geol. XLIII. 745 ‘Regolith’ was introduced by Merrill to include all unconsolidated surficial material and therefore embraces far more than residual weathered rock. 1949 F. J. Pettijohn Sedimentary Rocks ix. 282 Residual soils (regolith of Merrill, saprolith of Becker, and sathrolith of Sederholm) are the products of weathering formed in situ. 1970 Nature 24 Jan. 321/2 The solid rocks at Tranquillity Base are covered by a 4–6 m thick regolith or dust layer composed of local rock fragments..and spheres or fragments of glass. 1976 J. Kleczek Universe iv. 155 The solid lunar globe is covered by a layer of loose broken rock material called regolith. 1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 16/1 Meteorite debris [on the moon] amounts to only about 2% of the sampled regolith. |
Hence regoˈlithic a.
| 1955 Trans. R. Soc. N.Z. LXXXII. 1015 Under the soil of the upland surface of the Belmont plateau there are arrested streams or sheets..of formerly regolithic debris now forming deposits of head on slopes. 1977 Nature 6 Jan. 38/2 Since the returned sample is of regolithic materials it could also contain basalt fragments. |