ripple mark
- noun
- /ˈrɪpəl mɑrk/
- Specialized
:
marca de ondulación
- Geologists study the ripple marks in sediments to understand ancient water movement.
Examples
-
Rocks as old as 3.2 billion years exhibit mud cracks, ripple marks, and microfossil algae.
Academic text (2006) -
The beach was dotted with ripple marks created by the gentle waves lapping at the shore.
-
It has footprints left by dinosaurs and ripple marks formed by waters that flowed past tens of millions of years ago.
Fiction book (1995) -
After the storm, the sand was filled with ripple marks, evidence of the strong currents that had passed.
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from combining 'ripple' (a small wave or disturbance) with 'mark' (a visible impression or trace); together they describe an impression or small ridge left by ripples on sand or sediment. This noun–noun composition follows regular, cross-linguistically common compounding patterns and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
Ripple mark is the name for the small ridges you see on sand or mud when water or wind makes little waves. The word ripple points to the tiny wave and mark to the shape left behind, so the term means 'a small ridge formed on sand by moving water or wind'.