basin

1. any partially enclosed or sheltered area where vessels may be moored or docked

2. the catchment area of a particular river and its tributaries or of a lake or sea

3. a depression in the earth's surface

4. Geology a part of the earth's surface consisting of rock strata that slope down to a common centre

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

basin

A huge crater. Lunar basins are multiringed structures that are several hundred kilometers in diameter and were all produced during the first 750 million years of lunar history by intense meteoritic impact. The youngest basins (Orientale, Imbrium, Crisium, Nectaris, and Serenitatis) may have been excavated during a cataclysmic period around 3900 million years ago. The ejecta blankets of basins are extensive and provide the basis for highland stratigraphy. Basins are so defined by their systems of concentric ring structures, most of which are now in the form of ridges and mountain arcs. Basins on the Moon's nearside were filled with lava at some time up to 3000 million years ago to produce maria: the resulting mare has the same name as the basin (e.g. Mare Imbrium). Several unfilled basins (thassaloids) exist on the farside, the largest of which was revealed as a vast depression by the Apollo 15 laser altimeter. At least 28 basins are now known to exist. See also rille; mascons.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

basin

[′bās·ən]

(civil engineering)

A dock employing floodgates to keep water level constant during tidal variations.

A harbor for small craft.

(design engineering)

An open-top vessel with relatively low sloping sides for holding liquids.

(geology)

A low-lying area, wholly or largely surrounded by higher land, that varies from a small, nearly enclosed valley to an extensive, mountain-rimmed depression.

An entire area drained by a given stream and its tributaries.

An area in which the rock strata are inclined downward from all sides toward the center.

An area in which sediments accumulate.

(metallurgy)

The mouth of a sprue in a gating system of castings into which the molten metal is first poured.

(oceanography)

Deep portion of sea surrounded by shallower regions.

basin

1. A somewhat shallow vessel for holding water (or the like).

2. A shallow tank or natural or artificial depression containing water.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Basin

the accumulation of water flows with no drainage or with slow drainage in natural or artificial depressions in the earth’s surface. Basins are formed when there are en-closed hollows on the surface and when the water flowing into them exceeds the water lost by evaporation and seepage into the soil. Basins can be permanent or temporary, arising only during periods of the year which abound in water. Basins are classified as freshwater or saltwater, depending upon their chemical composition and the amount of salts dissolved in the water. The physical, chemical, and bio-logical processes in basins progress in various ways, depending upon the type of basin. Reservoirs, ponds, and canals are artificial basins.

Basin

negative (hollow) form of relief of the earth’s surface with more or less isometric or slightly elongated outlines. A basin may be closed on all sides or open in one or two directions. On the basis of morphology flat-bottom, bowl-shaped, and other basins are distinguished; by origin basins are divided into tectonic, volcanic (for example, calderas), erosion, glacial (for example, moraine-dammed basins), deflation, and karst. By drainage conditions they are divided into basins through which water flows, basins with outlets, and basins without outlets (in arid regions).

In the geomorphology of the sea floor a distinction is made between basins in the transition zone, which are occupied by geosynclinal seas, and oceanic basins, which are the largest negative forms of relief on the ocean floor.