Chasma

Quick meaning: Chasma is a noun meaning (astronomy, obsolete, rare) An aurora.

Meaning

(astronomy, obsolete, rare) An aurora.

More Meanings

1. (astronomy, geology) A long, narrow, steep-sided depression on a planet (often other than Earth), a moon, or another body in the Solar System.
2. Obsolete form of chasm.

Example Sentences

Thus Cornelius Gemma, Professor of Medicine in Louvain, mentions them [the aurora borealis] under the name of chasma, as appearing in Brabant on the 13th February and 28th September, 1575.

The near circular trough of the Artemis chasma [on Venus] has a diameter of 2100 km. The concentric features outside the chasma are attributed to normal faulting associated with lithospheric flexure similar to that occurring seaward of subduction zones on the Earth.

Venus shows clear signs of past tectonic activity in the highland regions. The deformational (tectonic) features showing^([sic – meaning show]) the results of both compressional and extensional forces. Rifting of the crust has occurred to produce relatively shallow chasmas and abundant faulting in the Aphrodite Terra and Beta Regio highlands […]

Assuming a subglacial or subaqueous setting for the ILDs [interior layered deposits], a simple tectonic control (and associated rupture of a confined aquifer) alone seems an unlikely trigger for ILD volcanism, or we should also observe ILDs in the linear chasmata, for which a tectonic setting is most likely and in which ILDs are absent. We suggest that the method of formation of the elliptical chasmata and the ILDs may be genetically related.

Word Forms

• chasmas
• chasmata

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include abra, slot, bergshrund, syneclise, cloud, sinkage.

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