Dictionary

namakier en · NOUN

Etymology

Blend of Persian نمک (namak, “salt”) + glacier. First use appears c. 1970. See cite below.

Meanings

1. Synonym of salt glacier.
   • Hence the namakier consists of a stack of overlapping tongues. 1987, Munn & Company (contributor), Scientific American - Volume 257, page 79:
   • From Farsi for "mountain of salt," a namakier is perhaps more accurately described as a glacier of salt that can flow over the land surface as fast as inches per year, rivaling its icy counterparts for speed. 2022, Marcia Bjornerud, Geopedia - A Brief Compendium of Geologic Curiosities, page 95:
   • Most salt extrusions rising on high ground are asymmetric and feed only one namakier. 1998, Andrew C. Scott, Derek John Blundell (editors), Lyell - The Past is the Key to the Present, page 320:
   • Small ephemeral features, including shallow caves, are typical of the salt glacier surface, but in an active namakier the salt is flowing too fast to preserve them. 2006, John K. Warren, Evaporites: Sediments, Resources and Hydrocarbons, page 471:
   • Namakiers represent large, recumbent sheath folds underlain and flanked by rigid bedrock and overlain by air. 1970, University of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology (contributor), Report of Investigations - Issues 142-146, page 18:

Forms

Synonyms

salt glacier