Cactolith

A cactolith is a type of igneous intrusion, a "quasi-horizontal chonolith composed of anastomosing ductoliths, whose distal ends curl like a harpolith, thin out like a sphenolith, or bulge discordantly like an akmolith or ethmolith"; i.e. a laccolith which looks like a cactus.

The term was coined by Charles B. Hunt, a USGS researcher, in his paper "Geology and geography of the Henry Mountains region, Utah" (1953).[1][2] He was in fact describing an actual geological feature that resembled a cactus, but said later that the deliberately-absurd term was "intended to call attention satirically to the absurd nomenclature geologists were developing by applying new names to the infinite variety of shapes intrusions can form".[3]

References

  1. Hunt, C. B., et al, 1953. USGS Prof. Paper 228, p. 151 (quoted in the Glossary of Geology, Bates and Jackson, 1980)
  2. Jabberokey, West Australian Geologist, Number 475 — February/March 09 Archived 2012-03-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. "From the President - December 2019". Houston Geological Society. December 2, 2019.


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