| 释义 |
desiccation|dɛsɪˈkeɪʃən|
[ad. L. dēsiccātiōn-em, n. of action from dēsiccāre: see desiccate v.]
The action of making quite dry; depriving or freeing of moisture; dried up condition.
1477Norton Ord. Alch. vii. in Ashm. (1652) 104 Another Fier is Fire of Disiccation. 1541R. Copland Guydon's Formularye T iv b, Composed woundes apostemate with venym requyreth stronge desiccacyon. 1684T. Burnet Th. Earth ii. 26 A great drought and dessication of the earth. 1805W. Saunders Min. Waters 352 To finish the desiccation of the residue over a water bath. 1836Macgillivray tr. Humboldt's Trav. iii. 44 Mummies, reduced to an extraordinary degree of desiccation. 1865Livingstone Zambesi iv. 91 The general desiccation which Africa has undergone.
b. attrib., as desiccation-crack, in Geol., a crack produced in a bed of clay in the process of drying, and subsequently filled by a new deposit of soft matter.
1865Page Geol. Terms 173 Appearances..known as desiccation cracks..not to be confounded with ‘joints’, ‘cleavage’ and similar phenomena. 1880A. R. Wallace Isl. Life vi. 85 Irregular desiccation marks, like the cracks at the bottom of a sun-dried muddy pool. 1882Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iv. i. 485 These desiccation-cracks or sun-cracks..prove that the surface of rock on which they lie was exposed to the air and dried before the next layer of water-borne sediment was deposited upon it. |