Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Rock composed of sharp-angled fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In geology, a conglomerate in which the fragments, instead of being rounded or water-worn, are angular. The term is most frequently applied to volcanic masses made up of fragments which have become consolidated into rock before becoming rounded by friction against each other or by the action of water.
Wiktionary
- n. A rock composed of angular fragments in a matrix that may be of a similar or a different material.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A rock composed of angular fragments either of the same mineral or of different minerals, etc., united by a cement, and commonly presenting a variety of colors.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a rudaceous rock consisting of sharp fragments embedded in clay or sand
Etymologies
- Italian, of Germanic origin; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“It may also be called a breccia, for it is composed of black fragments, larger or smaller, derived from other rocks, whose angular shape indicates that they have not travelled far from the spots where they occur.”
“A breccia is a rock made up of angular pebbles or fragments of other rocks.”
“Many beds of siliceous gravel are cemented together by a siliceous cement, and are called breccia; as the plumb-pudding stones of”
The Botanic Garden A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: the Economy of Vegetation
“Uranium mining in the geologic formations known as breccia pipes that abound in the area around the Grand Canyon did occur during the 1980s but diminished as the prices dropped.”
“Squeezing through the narrow walls -- some are smooth marble, others multicolored rock fragments called breccia that appear to be cemented together -- the forces that carve and polish Mosaic Canyon with each passing storm are easy to appreciate.”
“In some cases rare stone types, such as breccia corallina, cipollino marina and some as yet unidentified stone types were used.”
“I am afraid that -- what between squeezing and heating -- she would flatten us all out into phosphatic fossils, about an inch thick; and turn Winchester city into a "breccia" which would puzzle geologists a hundred thousand years hence.”
“As the San Francisco Chronicle reports: Steve Squyres, a Cornell astronomer and the rover's chief scientist, said Thursday that the rugged rock is a form of breccia, jumbled fragments of minerals cemented together and apparently thrown up from beneath the planet's surface by some monstrous impact that happened millions - or perhaps billions - of years ago.”
The Huffington Post: James M. Gentile: Innovations In Space Technology Are Still Key
“In between the two parts, a limestone breccia is present, and the Düzen plateau is bordered by sandstone.”
Archaeometrical Study of Craft Activities « Interactive Dig Sagalassos – City in the Clouds
“However, in the excavation layers at Tepe Düzen and in the virgin soil on top of the limestone and limestone breccia bedrock, many special minerals such as grossular (a garnet), tourmaline and magnetite (an iron ore) are found.”
Archaeometrical Study of Craft Activities « Interactive Dig Sagalassos – City in the Clouds
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘breccia’.
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Pet Rocks and Carbon Footprints
Soil samples for stone soup.
palynology, stratigraphy, tse'bit'ai, tse bitai, tse bit ai, bitai, minette, maar, lithosphere, peridotite, gneiss, gabbro and 115 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
artoparts Specifically: volcanic breccia. Jan 29, 2009