Adj. Lying or formed at the base of a mountain or mountain range; e.g., a
piedmont terrace or a piedmont pediment.---n. An area, plain, slope,
glacier, or other feature at the base of a mountain; e.g., a foothill or a
bajada. In the United States, the Piedmont is a plateau extending from New
Jersey to Alabama and lying east of the Appalachian Mountains. Etymol:
from Piemonte, a region of NW Italy at the foot of the Alps. AGI
See:bajada
See:piemontite
See:bajada
A small fault scarp at the foot of a mountain range and essentially
parallel to the range. AGI
An iron wedge for piercing stone. Standard, 2
A monoclinic mineral, Ca2 (Al,Mn,Fe)3 (OH)O(Si2 O
7 )(SiO4 ) ; epidote group; less common than epidote; occurs
in a variety of environments: low-grade regional metamorphic rocks,
manganese deposits, and some intermediate to silicic volcanic rocks,
perhaps due to metasomatism. Syn:manganepidote; piedmontite.
CF:withamite
A rectangular or sometimes circular form of column, constructed usually of
concrete, hard brickwork, or masonry, and designed to support heavy
concentrated loads from arches or a bridge superstructure. Hammond
The upper or bearing part of a bridge pier; usually made of concrete or
hard stone; designed to distribute concentrated loads evenly over the area
of the pier. Hammond
Salt plug that rises and penetrates rock formations to shallow depths.
Wheeler, R.R.
See:diapir
See:diapir
A blasting needle. See also:picker
A prospecting method used in soft soil free from stones, in which small
drivepipes are used to secure samples of underlying material or to
determine the thickness of the soil. Lewis
Dam or jetty to influence current. CF:weir
It. A fine-grained Permian sandstone suitable for sawing and finishing.
Hess
Crystallization of a magma under pressure, such as pressure associated
with orogeny. AGI
One of the directions in a crystal in which either tension or compression
will cause the crystal to develop piezoelectric charges. Gaynor
A type of detector that depends upon the piezoelectric effect by which an
electric charge is produced on the faces of a properly cut crystal of
certain materials, particularly quartz and Rochelle salt, when the crystal
is strained. The detector is constructed from a pile of such crystals with
intervening metal foil to collect the charge. An inertia mass is mounted
on the top of the crystal stack that is included in an electronic circuit.
AGI
The property exhibited by some asymmetrical crystalline materials which
when subjected to strain in suitable directions develop electric
polarization proportional to the strain. Inverse piezoelectricity is the
effect in which mechanical strain is produced in certain asymmetrical
crystalline materials when subjected to an external electric field; the
strain is proportional to the electric field. Quartz is an industrially
important example. Hunt
An instrument for measuring pressure head; usually consisting of a small
pipe tapped into the side of a closed or open conduit and flush with the
inside; connected with a pressure gage, mercury, water column, or other
device for indicating head. See also:manometer