overburden
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Verb[edit]
overburden (third-person singular simple present overburdens, present participle overburdening, simple past and past participle overburdened)
Translations[edit]
to overload or overtax
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Noun[edit]
overburden (plural overburdens)
- (geology) The rock and subsoil that lies above a mineral deposit such as a coal seam.
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 163:
- Such rocks have been changed by baking in a terrestrial pressure-cooker. Then they have been disinterred: kilometres of overburden must have been removed.
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 163:
- (archaeology) A sterile stratum that lies above the stratum being investigated