Definitions

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

  • noun An indurated duricrust formed when silica is dissolved and resolidifies as a cement.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of silica and concrete

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Examples

  • They are underlain predominantly by Cape shales, and form an undulating plain 150 m to 400 m above sea level with occasional silcrete - and ferricrete-capped hills, remnants of a Tertiary land surface.

    Lowland fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • Fynbos/Renosterveld Mosaic comprises a mosaic of fynbos and renosterveld communities associated largely with shale-derived soils, especially where silcrete/ferricrete material is present in the profile or occur as remnant outcrops.

    Lowland fynbos and renosterveld 2008

  • Much of the region is occupied by sand dunes, with areas of calcrete and silcrete.

    Great Victoria desert 2008

  • The removal of flakes from unheated silcrete produces scar surfaces with a rough, dull texture.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • Africa during the Middle Stone Age by anatomically modern humans and involved the heating of silcrete -- quartz grains cemented by silica -- used to make tools, the university said in a news release.

    Reuters: Top News 2010

  • Pitting and trenching work exposed a thick, pervasive overburden generally comprising fine grained red brown to orange brown silt sand at the top, followed by gravelly silt and ferricrete intercalated with silcrete.

    The Earth Times Online Newspaper 2010

  • They found that unheated chunks could not be pressure flaked, while blocks of heated silcrete yielded points very much like the ones discovered.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • The stone points were made of silcrete, or quartz grains cemented by silica, which needs to be heat-treated before pressure flaking.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • Blombos Cave involved pressure flaking with heat-treated silcrete.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • However, the surfaces of silcrete that was treated with heat have a smooth, glossy appearance.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

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