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ripple mark

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ripple mark

One of a series of small marine, lake, or riverine features, consisting of repeating wavelike forms with symmetric slopes, sharp peaks, and rounded troughs. Ripple marks are formed in sandy bottoms by oscillation waves, in which only the wave form advances rapidly, the actual water-particle motion consisting of almost closed vertical orbits. The presence of the bottom restricts the lowermost orbits into nearly flat ellipses, and the bottom water moves back and forth rhythmically. If the maximum horizontal velocity of this motion is capable of moving the grains composing the bed, ripple marks develop. See also wave.

ripple mark [′rip·əl ‚märk]
(geology)
A surface pattern on incoherent sedimentary material, especially loose sand, consisting of alternating ridges and hollows formed by wind or water action.
One of the ridges on a ripple-marked surface.
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Ripple marks on the sandstone indicate the creature was struggling to swim against a current.
Dinosaurs 'were able to swim' by Daily Record (Glasgow, Scotland)
Most of us admit that our very best pictures of rocks were achieved by surreptitiously pointing our cameras over his shoulder when he had carefully selected the right angle to catch the shadows on a mountain range or on a row of ripple marks.
Beauty in the Rocks The Photography of David M. Baird by Neale, E.R. Ward / Geoscience Canada
Fossilised ripple marks in sand formed by water currents are preserved at Black Pastures Quarry, near Chollerford, where even the casts created by burrowing worms 325 million years ago can be seen.
Rocks reveal the Wall is about more than Hadrian by The Journal (Newcastle, England)
 
 
 
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