Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A dark mud that is rich in organic nutrients and oxygen and has accumulated at the bottom of a marsh or lake.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Swedish gyttja, mud, ooze; see gheu- in Indo-European roots.]
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Examples
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Upcore from a depth of ~325 cm,the sediment changes abruptly from an organic-rich gyttja 10–15 wt.% organic carbon to an inorganic silt containing abundant very small fragments of plant macrofossils.
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Two radiocarbon dates from this material yielded nearly identical ages of ~15,620 (+230;à⣃’”¬’¢350) and 15,490 (+200;à⣃’”¬’¢560) cal yr B.P., which are more than 1000 yr older than radiocarbon dates from the gyttja either above or below this interval.
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