downfaultedadj.
/ˈdaʊnfɔːltᵻd/, /ˈdaʊnfɒltᵻd/, U.S. /ˈdaʊnˌfɔltəd/, /ˈdaʊnˌfɑltəd/ Geology.
Of a landform, area, etc.: lowered by faulting (faulting n. 2).
ΚΠ
1894 Mem. Internat. Congr. Anthropol. 1893 64 The object was neither in mixed talus nor in one of those down-faulted areas such as I saw over a ‘puit’ at Abbeville, where the whole bank had moved downward, but preserved its stratification.
1952 G. H. Dury Map Interpr. iii. 24 Bredon Hill is actually down-faulted, but this cannot be seen from the map.
1991 Land Subsidence (Proc. 4th Internat. Symp. Land Subsidence) iv. 251 The basins formed by the downfaulted blocks have been partially filled with material eroded from the higher surrounding mountain ranges.
2005 Geography 90 286 The hill owes its origins to Pleistocene faulting, with Dianchi lake lying on the downfaulted block.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
adj.1894