polymict

polymict

English

Etymology

Coined by Finnish geologist Walter Wahl in 1952.

Adjective

polymict (not comparable)

1. (geology, of a breccia) Containing multiple types of rock.
   • 1952, Walter Wahl, “The brecciated stony meteorites and meteorites containing foreign fragments”, in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, volume 2, number 2, DOI:10.1016/0016-7037(52)90002-1, pages 91-117:

     It is pointed out that the breccias among stony meteorites are mainly of two kinds : (a) breccias in which the enclosed fragments are of the same material as the surrounding principal mass of the stone: it is proposed to call this kind of breccias “monomict breccias,” and (b) breccias in which the enclosed fragments are of a foreign material as compared with the surrounding principal mass of the stone: it is proposed to call these breccias “polymict breccias.”

   • 1983, Jeremy S. Delaney et al., “The Nomenclature of Polymict Basaltic Achondrites”, in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, volume 18, number 2, DOI:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1983.tb00581.x:

     The ‘monomict’ meteorites are samples of a single lithology while the polymict meteorites are those containing two or more lithologies.

See also

• polymictic

Noun

polymict (plural polymicts)

1. A breccia containing multiple types of rock.