Wednesday word: cryoseism

[trellia-chan.livejournal.com]

cryoseism

Noun: Also known as an ice quake or a frost quake, a cryoseism is an earthquake that that is caused when soil or rock saturated with water freezes.  As the water freezes, it expands and puts stress on the saturated soil and its surroundings. The stress builds up until it relieves itself by cracking, resulting in the cryoseism.

Cryoseisms can also occur through abrupt glacial movements.

Thursday word: cyprinoid

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

cyprinoid (SIP-ruh-noid, si-PRAY-noid) - adj., of, pertaining to, or resembling a carp.


Or more precisely, of the family Cyprinidae, which includes carp, loaches, barbs, barbels, and true minnows. But really, it's the carp that matter in anything but the most technical uses. The word can also be used as a noun, for what it's worth, and the best-known cyprinoids are goldfish (a domesticated from the Prussian carp, Carassius gibelio) and koi (a domesticated subspecies of the common carp, Cyprinus carpio). Coined in the 1840s from Latin cyprīnus, carp, from Greek kyprînos, carp.

The lake is warm and contains plenty of cyprinoid fish.

---L.