silt

silt

a fine deposit of mud, clay, etc., esp one in a river or lake

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

silt

[silt]

(geology)

A rock fragment or a mineral or detrital particle in the soil having a diameter of 0.002-0.05 millimeter that is, smaller than fine sand and larger than coarse clay.

Sediment carried or deposited by water.

Soil containing at least 80% silt and less than 12% clay.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

silt, inorganic silt, rock flour

A granular material that is nonplastic or very slightly plastic and exhibits little or no strength when air-dried; usually has a grain size between 0.002 mm and 0.05 mm in diameter.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Silt

 

the fine-grained, soft sediment on the bottom of bodies of water, not altered by diagenesis. Between 30 and 50 percent of the particles it contains are less than 0.01 mm in size. Occurring in a fluid state under natural conditions, it assumes the properties of a solid body when dry. On the bottom of seas and continental bodies of water (lakes, rivers, and ponds) there are silts consisting of fine-grained products of rock decomposition (terrigenous, clayey, and lime silts) and silts made up of microscopic shells or the skeletal remains of marine organisms (globigerina, diatomaceous, radiolarian, pteropod silts). Silts that have been enriched by volcanic ash (volcanic mud) form a separate category. Sometimes silts are enriched with organic matter (sapro-pel) whose decay causes hydrogen sulfide contamination or putrefaction (“putrid silt”).

Some silts, including lake, pond, and lagoon silts, are used as fertilizer and for mineral feed supplements for livestock; they are also used in medicine, for pelotherapy.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.