graben Geol.
(ˈgrɑːbən)
Pl. grabens, graben (after G. pl. gräben).
[a. G. graben ditch, introduced in its Geol. sense by E. Suess (Antlitz d. Erde (1883) I. i. iii. 166).]
A depression in the earth's surface bounded by faults; a rift valley.
| 1896 J. W. Gregory Great Rift Valley xii. 220 This left a great open Rift Valley (or, to use Prof. Suess's term, a ‘Graben’). 1910 Encycl. Brit. X. 598/1 Crust⁓blocks resembling ‘graben’ and ‘horsts’. 1913 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. XXIV. 201 The broad valley, or graben, of the middle Rhine is inclosed by maturely dissected scarps. 1968 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Geomorphol. 485/1 The association of volcanism with grabens is well known. 1970 Nature 18 Apr. 247/1 The whole region is a large graben which has been filled with up to 3 km of evaporites. |