rhythmiten.
/ˈrɪðmʌɪt/, U.S. /ˈrɪðmaɪt/ Geology and Physical Geography.
Each of the repeated units in a sedimentary formation exhibiting a rhythmic structure; spec. such a unit (typically a pair of laminae) deposited in a single year; a varve.
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series1799
varve1912
rhythmite1937
1937 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 234 318 A thinly laminated rock (an mm rhythmite, Sander calls it, because its laminae are to be measured in millimeters or fractions thereof).
1946 Prof. Paper U.S. Geol. Surv. No. 212. 30/2 The word ‘rhythmite’, used by Sander for the individual units of rhythmic beds, will be adopted here as a brief term to designate the couplet of distinct sedimentary types of rock, or the graded sequence of sediments, that form a unit bed or lamina in rhythmically bedded deposits.
1976 Nature 18 Mar. 235/1 The rhythmites make up a regular series of plane beds with only occasional discontinuities caused by local penecontemporaneous erosion and minor faulting.
2002 J. Menzies Mod. & Past Glacial Environments 351 It is wiser to use the more general descriptive term rhythmite to describe repetitious bedding rather than the more specific temporal term, varve, unless the deposits are demonstrably annual.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1937