Definition of Archean

1. Noun. The time from 3,800 million years to 2,500 million years ago; earth's crust formed; unicellular organisms are earliest forms of life.


2. Adjective. Of or relating to the earliest known rocks formed during the Precambrian Eon.
Exact synonyms: Archaean
Category relationships: Geology
Similar to: Early

Definition of Archean

1. archaean [n -CHAEA] - See also: archaean

Lexicographical Neighbors of Archean

Arcady
Arcanobacterium
Arcanobacterium haemolyticum
Arcellidae
Arceuthobium
Arceuthobium pusillum
Archaean
Archaebacteria
Archaeopteryx lithographica
Archaeornithes
Archaeozoic
Archaeozoic aeon
Archaic Latin
Archangel
Archea
Archean (current term)
Archean aeon
Archean eon
Archebacteria
Archenemy
Archeozoic
Archeozoic eon
Archer
Arches
Arches National Park
Archgrounds
Archi
Archibald
Archibald MacLeish
Archibald Percival Wavell

Literary usage of Archean

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Geology by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury (1907)
"While, therefore, the variations in the rock of the Archean complex are great ... So similar are the rocks of the Archean throughout the various areas where ..."

2. A College Text-book of Geology by Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, Rollin D. Salisbury (1909)
"The lower limit of the Archean system is assumed to be inaccessible. ... The term Archean (very old) was originally introduced to displace the older terms ..."

3. The American Geologist: A Monthly Journal of Geology and Allied Sciences by Newton Horace Winchell (1901)
"THE Archean OF THE ALPS. The very able and interesting volume by Duparc and ... of the Archean of every country so fortunate as to have any Archean rocks. ..."

4. Biennial report by North Dakota Geological Survey (1904)
"Archean. — The crystalline rocks of this era, which are chiefly granites, gneisses and schists, constitute the foundation upon which rest the later ..."

5. Research in China by Eliot Blackwelder, Bailey Willis, Rufus Harvey Sargent, Friedrich Hirth (1907)
"CHAPTER L—Archean. The term Archean has been used in Asiatic geology by ... In the literature "Archean" thus covers rocks which range in age from the very ..."

6. An Introduction to Historical Geology: With Special Reference to North America by William John Miller (1916)
"If this be true, and all evidence strongly favors such a view, it is a most remarkable characteristic of the Archean, since no other rock system has such a ..."

7. Elementary Geology by Ralph Stockman Tarr (1897)
"CHAPTER XXII LIFE DURING THE Archean AND PALEOZOIC TIMES Archean Rocks. — In the Archean, conditions existed which cannot now be determined, for the rocks ..."

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