stratigraphy

noun stra·tig·ra·phy \ strə-ˈti-grə-fē \

|Updated on: 12 Jul 2018

Definition of stratigraphy

1 : geology that deals with the origin, composition, distribution, and succession of strata

2 : the arrangement of strata

Recent Examples of stratigraphy from the Web

The city’s geological stratigraphy has been repeatedly convulsed, metamorphosed under spectacular pressures.

— greg woolf, WSJ, "‘Rome: A History in Seven Sackings’ Review: The City That Survived," 29 June 2018
Since Charles Darwin’s time, paleontology—especially the study of the marine invertebrates that make up most of the record—involved descriptive tasks such as classifying or correlating fossils with layers of the Earth (known as stratigraphy).

— david sepkoski, The Atlantic, "19th-Century Paleontology Was at the Forefront of Big Data," 14 Feb. 2018
And the stratigraphy at the site is unclear, raising questions about whether the artifacts are as old as the soil they were embedded in.

— andrew lawler, Science | AAAS, "Neandertals, Stone Age people may have voyaged the Mediterranean," 24 Apr. 2018
Their technique could allow other art historians to study the stratigraphy of paintings in the same way that seismologists study the structure of underground rock formations.

— kenneth chang, New York Times, "In Picasso’s Blue Period, Scanners Find Secrets He Painted Over," 20 Feb. 2018
Based on their location within the stratigraphy, Green believes that these bones date to the medieval period.

— brigit katz, Smithsonian, "A Tiny Church Sits On Britain’s Oldest Site of Continuous Worship," 30 May 2017
Wheeler mentions a couple specialties by name — stratigraphy and geomorphology.

— brian romans, WIRED, "Source-to-Sink: The future of sedimentary geology?," 28 May 2008

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'stratigraphy.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.