Interbedding

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The geological process of layering different materials occurs when distinct strata of varying compositions alternate within a formation
2. The occurrence of alternating layers of different rock types or sediments within geological formations is known as this process
3. This geological phenomenon involves the deposition of different strata in layers, creating a distinct arrangement of materials

Etymology: "Interbedding" is a plain compound: the Latin prefix "inter-", meaning "between" or "among", attached to "bed" in the geological sense of a distinct layer of rock or sediment. Put together, it describes layers lying between other layers, and the noun names the process by which such alternating strata form. The "bed" in this word comes from Old English "bedd," a word that once meant a place to sleep or rest, and which passed through Middle English before taking on the stratigraphic sense. Geologists applied the same image of a stratum as a bed, lying flat and stacked upon others, that the everyday word already carried for sleeping surfaces. The prefix "inter-" reached English through Latin, where it was a common preposition and prefix meaning "between," and it appears in many English words such as "intervene" and "interval." Here it gives the word its sense of layers sitting in between one another, with a sequence of different materials lying alternately within a single formation.