Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Separable into parts or having removable sections.
  • adjective Geology Made up of fragments of preexisting rock; fragmental.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In petrography, sedimentary rocks composed of fragments of older rocks.
  • Relating to what may be taken to pieces.
  • Breaking up into fragments or separate portions; dividing into parts; causing or undergoing disruption or dissolution: as, clastic action; the clastic pole of an ovum; a clastic cell.
  • In geology, fragmental: as, clastic rocks; clastic structure.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to what may be taken apart.
  • adjective (Min.) Fragmental; made up of brok� fragments.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective made up of parts that are easily removable.
  • adjective geology made from fragments of pre-existing rocks.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective capable of being taken apart
  • adjective of or belonging to or being a rock composed of fragments of older rocks (e.g., conglomerates or sandstone)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Greek klastos, broken; see clast.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κλαστός (klastos, "broken in pieces"), from κλάειν (klaein, "to break") +‎ -ic

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Examples

  • I still don't understand how that happened other than to think that somehow they didn' pay enough attention to the conference chair Andrew Miall - a noted clastic sedimentologist and maybe somebody the CSPG thought would be friendlier to their policy statement.

    It's always the third goddamn reviewer that screws us over EliRabett 2010

  • Belize shelf - carbonate sediments, clastic sediments, and ecology.

    Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, Belize 2009

  • The surface geology of this ecoregion consists of clastic sedimentary rocks and recent alluvium.

    Northern New Guinea lowland rain and freshwater swamp forests 2008

  • On shore, 5 m sand dunes and alluvial sands and gravels overlie relatively recent sedimentary, Tertiary clastic and PreCambrian crystalline rocks.

    Islands and Protected Areas of the Gulf of California, Mexico 2008

  • The caves that have been created are some of the largest found anywhere in the world, and are superb examples of tropical river caves with flood incuts, extensive clastic sediment deposits and ellipticle tubes linking different cave levels.

    Gunung Mulu National Park, Malaysia 2008

  • This quaternary plain was formed by the post-orogenic clastic depositing of sediment, derived from adjacent tectonic uplifts deposited in the basin of the lower Magdalena River that formed a platform of peat intercalated with sand and clay beds.

    Magdalena-Santa Marta mangroves 2008

  • Similarly, geomorphology varies from a low-gradient slope along the alluvial coastal plain, composed primarily of unconsolidated sediments to steeper gradients of acidic rocks of igneous origin and clastic sediments as one moves up into the mountains.

    Sonoran-Sinaloan transition subtropical dry forest 2007

  • The transition back to clastic sediment deposition between 5550 14C yr B.P. and 3950 14C yr B.P marks the end of this warming period and the beginning of a neoglacial interval.

    Loso: Varves in Alaska « Climate Audit 2007

  • A small peak in clastic sedimentation was followed by a larger peak in glacigenic sedimentation, and presumably of ice extent, late in the Neoglacial interval Leonard and Reasoner, 1999.

    Loso: Varves in Alaska « Climate Audit 2007

  • The Cobalt Plain in the northeast section of the Ontario portion is composed of flat-lying clastic sediments with ridges and hills formed by gabbro sills or granitic rock inliers.

    Eastern forest-boreal transition 2007

Comments

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  • JM is unraveling some clastic elastic but that's not as much of a stretch as it seems.

    February 14, 2011