Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A geological structure formed when a mass of material of high plasticity and low density, such as salt, gypsum, or magma, pushes upward into overlying strata.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geology An intrusion of a ductile rock into an overburden.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a domed rock formation where a core of rock has moved upward and pierced through the more brittle overlying strata

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, from Greek diapeirein, to push through : dia-, dia- + peirein, to pierce; see per- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek διαπειραίνω (diapeirainō, "to pierce through").

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Examples

  • In a few minutes the diapir itself would mush into the thick cap ice, flow upward through fissures, lenticulae and leads, and bubble slush ice in a fountain a hundred meters high.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • This diapir was about fifteen klicks across and rising rapidly as it approached the surface cap.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • A diapir was nothing more than a blob of warm ice, heated by the vents and gravitational hot zones far below, rising through the Epsom-salt sea toward the ice cap that had once covered 100 percent of Europa and which now, two thousand e-years after the cryobot arbeiter company arrived, still covered more than 98 percent of the moon.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • If it worked right, he would exit the south side of the diapir half a klick before glob impact with the ice and accelerate straight ahead, doing an emergency surface blow just as the tidal wave from the diapir fountain was forced down the lead.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • Mahnmut set his course to the nearest diapir rising to a lead and added five more knots just to be safe, if there was such a thing as safety within tentacle range of a mature kraken.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • Faulting and layer disruption from diapir affects common to salt deposits are minimal, allowing for increased ease and decreased costs of all future exploration and development activities.

    Marketwire - Breaking News Releases 2009

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