Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A layer of hardpan consisting primarily of clay.
- noun Australian A shallow depression that contains sediments rich in clay and silt, the surface of which has been hardened and dried by the sun.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In geology, a shallow, saucer-like depression with a bottom of clay: a feature of the dry interior of Australia.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun geology A compact
stratum of partiallypermeable material rich inclay
Etymologies
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Examples
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Northern claypan vernal pools occur on the Santa Rosa Plain, and Pacific reedgrass series and Needlegrass grasslands occur on the rolling hills westward to the coast.
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Claypan soils distinguish this region from surrounding regions and support potential natural vegetation of tallgrass prairie, oak-hickory woodland, and claypan prairie where soils are less permeable.
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Well-developed claypan soils on glacial till typify the Claypan Prairie ecoregion.
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Soils can be rocky and thin on steep slopes, with areas of claypan or loess similar to the Black River Hills Border (39j) to the southwest.
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Hardpan or claypan prairie types are common and found where soils have an impermeable or only slightly permeable, silty clayey subsoil below the loamier surface layer.
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Soils are thin and rocky on steeper slopes, with claypan and loess in more level areas.
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I've toiled like hell at tarring pipes in the stinking claypan mud,
A Stiff's Progress 1930
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Sometimes they found a sufficiency in a natural well or claypan; or again they struck for some creek towards the west or north, whose irregular curves were outlined on the plain by the gum-trees growing closely on its banks.
The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900
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The ground was at first hard and even like the bottom of a claypan, but at a mile or so, we came on cracked earthy ground, intersected by numberless small channels running in all directions.
Successful Exploration Through the Interior of Australia William John Wills 1847
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Charles' father, Charlie Senior, who has been grazing Carisbrooke for more than 50 years was a pioneer of outback tourism and has been welcoming visitors to his home since 1968, ferrying them on a shuttle bus through the once dusty red claypan country between Carisbrooke and Winton that is now a sea of green.
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