panfann.
/ˈpanfan/, U.S. /ˈpænˌfæn/ Physical Geography.
An extensive, more or less level surface formed by the coalescence of rock pediments; = pediplain n.
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the world > the earth > land > landscape > level land > [noun] > level place or plain > types of
sand-flat1773
alluvial plain1803
sand-plain1818
sandveld1824
tundra1841
bench-land1845
salt flat1873
panfan1915
panplain1933
pediplain1935
soda plain1946
1915 A. C. Lawson in Univ. Calif. Publ. Geol. 9 33 The surface thus evolved is, in its ideal completion, wholly one of aggradation, a vast alluvial fan surface to which for convenience in discussion I propose to give the name panfan.
1931 Jrnl. Geol. (Chicago) 39 138 As their [sc. pediments'] growth corrodes the mountain mass they eventually coalesce to form smooth graded domes to which Lawson applied the term ‘panfan’..—a name that is etymologically unfortunate because these features are not concerned with alluvial fans at all.
1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. xi. 291 [Lawson] recognized that both peneplains and panfans represent penultimate rather than ultimate stages of degradation.
1974 C. H. Crickmay Work of River viii. 211 Where pediments are sufficiently extensive to be conjoint and broadly continuous, the whole is termed a pediplain or a panfan.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2005; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1915