Canyon
A canyon (Spanish: cañón; archaic British English spelling: cañon) or gorge is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales. Rivers have a natural tendency to cut through underlying surfaces, eventually wearing away rock layers as sediments are removed downstream. A river bed will gradually reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water into which the river drains. The processes of weathering and erosion will form canyons when the river’s headwaters and estuary are at significantly different elevations, particularly through regions where softer rock layers are intermingled with harder layers more resistant to weathering.
A canyon may also refer to a rift between two mountain peaks, such as those in ranges including the Rocky Mountains, the Alps, the Himalayas or the Andes. Usually a river or stream and erosion carve out such splits between mountains. Examples of mountain-type canyons are Provo Canyon in Utah or Yosemite Valley in California’s Sierra Nevada. Canyons within mountains, or gorges that have an opening on only one side, are called box canyons. Slot canyons are very narrow canyons that often have smooth walls.
Steep-sided valleys in the seabed of the continental slope are referred to as submarine canyons. Unlike canyons on land, submarine canyons are thought to be formed by turbidity currents and landslides.
Canyon (noun)
A valley, especially a long, narrow, steep valley, cut in rock by a river.
Gorge (noun)
The front aspect of the neck; the outside of the throat.
Gorge (noun)
The inside of the throat; the esophagus, the gullet; the crop or gizzard of a hawk.
Gorge (noun)
Food that has been vomited out.
Gorge (noun)
A choking or filling of a channel or passage by an obstruction; the obstruction itself.
“an ice gorge in a river”
Gorge (noun)
A concave moulding; a cavetto.
Gorge (noun)
The entrance to an outwork, such as a bastion.
Gorge (noun)
A primitive device used instead of a hook to catch fish, consisting of an object that is easy to swallow but difficult to eject or loosen, such as a piece of bone or stone pointed at each end and attached in the middle to a line.
Gorge (noun)
A sides, particularly one with a running through it; a ravine.
“canyon”
Gorge (noun)
The groove of a pulley.
Gorge (noun)
An gorging.
Gorge (verb)
To gorge or quantities. on
“They gorged themselves on chocolate and cake.”
Gorge (verb)
To swallow, especially with greediness, or in large mouthfuls or quantities.
Gorge (verb)
To fill up to the throat; to glut, to satiate.
“sate|stuff”
Gorge (verb)
To causing an obstruction.
“engorge”
Gorge (adjective)
Gorgeous.
“Oh, look at him: isn’t he gorge?”
Canyon (noun)
a deep gorge, typically one with a river flowing through it, as found in North America
“the Grand Canyon”
Gorge (noun)
a narrow valley between hills or mountains, typically with steep rocky walls and a stream running through it.
Gorge (noun)
the throat.
Gorge (noun)
the contents of the stomach.
Gorge (noun)
a narrow rear entrance to a bastion, outwork, or other fortification.
Gorge (noun)
a mass of ice obstructing a narrow passage, especially a river.