Encyclopedia

silt

Also found in: Dictionary, Wikipedia.
(redirected from silty)

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 It might be outdated or ideologically biased.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.
Mentioned in
References in periodicals archive
medium to coarse silty sand, medium dense (the depth of the layer is up to 25 m from the surface);
Below the 18.50 m depth, 8 meter thick of soft to firm silty clay and firm silty clay layer was found.
For the last test I took each rifle and dunked it up to the buffer tube retainer in a drum full of scummy, silty pond water out of the nearby drainage pond.
(2006) modelled the resuspension of silty sediments in the north-eastern part of Lake Peipsi s.s.
As seen, the highest fuel consumption was recorded for conventional tillage (81.83 l [ha.sup.-1]) on Pohorski dvor with the silty clay loam soil followed by the conventional tillage on silty loam in Sestrze (68.38 l [ha.sup.-1]).
Horizon Depth (cm) Texture Eden A 0 to 3 Silty clay loam A2 3 to 15 Silty clay loam Bt1 15 to 25 Silty clay Bt2 25 to 56 Silty clay Bt3 56 to 84 Flaggy silty clay Bt3 84 to 94 Flaggy silty clay 2Bt4 94 to 102 Clay loam 3BC 102 to 122 Flaggy silty clay Fine-silty family A 1 to 25 Silt loam Btl 25 to 46 Silt clay loam Btl 46 to 58 Silty clay loam Bt2 58 to 71 Silty clay loam Bt3 71 to 81 Silt loam 2Bt4 81 to 99 Silty clay loam 2Bt4 99 to 116 Silty clay loam 3Bt5 116 to 158 Clay 3Bt5 158 to 178 Clay 3BC 178 to 191 Silty clay loam Switzerland Ap 0 to 10 Silt loam BE 10 to 22 Silt loam Bt1 22 to 49 Silty clay loam 2Bt2 49 to 61 Silty clay 2Bt3 61 to 87 Clay 2Bt4 87 to 94 Flaggy silty clay 2BC 94 to 119 Very flaggy clay
(2000); from studies of buried soils in loess in Russia (Gubin, 1994) and the Yukon Territory (Sanborn et al., in press); and from studies of the frozen silty deposits of the region, which consist largely of buried soil material (Pewe, 1975; Tomirdiaro, 1980; Tomirdiaro and Chernenkiy, 1987; Fraser and Burn, 1997; Kotler and Burn, 2000; Schirrmeister et al., 2002; Gubin et al., 2003).
Tomes and others (2000) investigated how the likelihood of fractures varied depending on the relative amounts of clay, silt, and sand in unconsolidated materials and concluded that fractures were more likely to occur in glacial tills with loam, clay loam, silt loam, silty loam, silty clay, or clay textures.
The current banks in Corbridge were built in the early 1950s of silty, sandy soil which is not as strong as the materials used in modern flood alleviation work.
The silty limey mudstones or limestones of the Undifferentiated Chouteau/ McCraney seem to contain more whole Graptolites, which may represent the environment from which the Graptolites lived.
The Song-Shan formation is composed of alternating layers of silty clays and silty sands, and is the formation where most of the engineering facilities situated.
Copyright © 2003-2025 Farlex, Inc Disclaimer
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.