Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Cactolith
"A cactolith is a quasihorizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith."
This term and its associated definition were created by Charles B. Hunt , a USGS researcher, in his paper "Geology and geography of the Henry Mountains region, Utah" (1953). Whilst he was in fact describing an actual geological feature - a laccolith which he saw as resembling a cactus [1] - he was also, tongue-in-cheek, commenting on what he saw as an absurd number of "-lith" words in the field of Geology.
Last updated: 05-18-2005 06:08:31
10-26-2009 08:16:03
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The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details