Word Finder - basins

definition

A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall

synonyms

• sink

definition

A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food

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A depression, natural or artificial, containing water

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An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin

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A rock formation scooped out by water erosion

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To create a concavity or depression in.

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To serve as or become a basin.

definition

To shelter or enclose in a basin.

The harbour had two large basins, now almost choked with sand.

The basins of the Parana and Paraguay are separated by low mountain ranges extending north from the sierras of Paraguay.

Towards the end of the period, however, during the deposition of the Portlandian beds, the sea again retreated, and in the early part of the Cretaceous period was limited (in France) to the catchment basins of the Sane and Rhnein the Paris basin the contemporaneous deposits were chiefly estuarine and were confined to the northern and eastern rim.

The dockyard, chiefly used for naval repairs, covers about 60 acres, and consists of three basins and large docks, the depth of water in the basins ranging down to 26 ft.

These saline basins extend down to the lower terraces of Cordoba, Mendoza and La Pampa.

The climate is healthy in the uplands, though subject to violent changes; in the valleys fever is very prevalent, especially in the basins of the Boyana, the lower Drin and the Simen.

The elevated plateaus between these ranges are semiarid and inhospitable, and are covered with extensive saline basins, which become lagoons in the wet season and morasses or dry saltpans in the dry season.

The basin of the Garonne occupies south-western France with the exception of the tracts covered by the secondary basins of the Adour, the Aude, the Hrault, the Orb and other smaller rivers, and the lowlying plain of the Landes, which is watered by numerous coast rivers, notably by the Leyre.

The rivers of the province belong to the basins of the Indian Ocean and the Java Sea respectively, the water-parting being formed by the western and eastern ends respectively of the northern and southern lines of mountain peaks.

The communication between the Atlantic and Arctic basins being cut off, as already described, at a depth of about 300 fathoms, the temperatures in the Norwegian Sea below that level are essentially Arctic, usually below the freezing-point of fresh water, except where the distribution is modified by the surface circulation.

Before that time there was no basin or wet-dock, though the river Medway to some extent answered the same purpose, but a portion of the adjoining salt-marshes was then taken in, and three basins have been constructed, communicating with each other by means of large locks, so that ships can pass from the bend of the Medway at Gillingham to that at Upnor.

The Aegean itself is naturally divided by the island-chains and the ridges from which they rise into a series of basins or troughs, the deepest of which is that in the north, extending from the coast of Thessaly to the Gulf of Saros, and demarcated southward by the Northern Sporades, Lemnos, Imbros and the peninsula of Gallipoli.

The furrows are the great ocean basins, and these would still persist even if the land surface were enlarged to the 1400 fathoms contour.

Differences in land forms do not exert great influence on the distribution of living creatures directly, but indirectly such land forms as mountain ranges and internal drainage basins are very potent through their action on soil and climate.

Taking their origin from a series of lacustrine basins scattered over the plateaus and differing slightly in elevation, the Russian rivers describe immense curves before reaching the sea, and flow with a very gentle gradient, while numerous large tributaries collect their waters from over vast areas.

A great variety of monographs dealing with separate rivers and basins are available; e.g.

Rivers.The greater part of the surface of France is divided between four principal and several secondary basins.

All these affluents are on the right, and with the exception of the Arige, which descends from the eastern Pyrcnees, rise in the mountaitis of Auvergne and the southern Cvennes, their sources often lying close to those of the rivers of the Loire and Rhone basins.

The rivers freeze rapidly; towards November 10th all the streams of the White Sea basin are ice-bound, and so remain for an average of 167 days; those of the Baltic, Black Sea and Caspian basins freeze later, but about December the 10th nearly all the rivers of the country are highways for sledges.

In the basins of the southern rivers they formed semi-independent military communities.

The Great Basin is not, as its name implies, a topographic cup. Its surface is of varied character, with many independent closed basins draining into lakes or "playas," none of which, however, has outlet to the sea.

Most of the small closed basins, however, contain "playas," or alkali mud flats, that are overflowed when the tributary streams are supplied with storm water.

In the Pleistocene period many large lakes were formed within the Great Basin; especially, by the fusion of small catchment basins, two great confluent bodies of water - Lake Lahontan (in the Nevada basin) and Lake Bonneville (in the Utah basin).

In the upper parts of the valleys a number of lakes occur, occupying hollows and rock basins in the agglomerates and ashes, fed by springs, and feeding many of the streams that drain the mountain slopes.

A peculiar feature is presented by the level upland basins which furnish abundant pasturage during the summer months; the more remarkable are the Omalo in the White Mountains (about 4000 ft.) drained by subterranean outlets (KaTa(30Opa), Nida (Eis T7)v "IBav) in Psiloriti (between 5000 and 6000 ft.), and the Lassithi plain (about 3000 ft.), a more extensive area, on which are several villages.

These aguadQS were huge basins, paved and cemented, with underground cisterns, also lined with stone and cement, which may have been used for the protection of water against heat when the principal supply had become exhausted.

On the western frontier a northern extension of the great central chain of Goyaz forms the water-parting between the drainage basins of the Sao Francisco and Tocantins, and is known at different points as the Serra do Paranan, Serra de Sao Domingos and Serra das Divisoes.

The depression westward of the Caspian and Aral basins, and the original connexion of these seas, have also come under the close investigation of Russian scientists, with the result that the theory of an ancient connexion between the Oxus and the Caspian has been displaced by the more recent hypothesis of an extension of the Caspian Sea eastwards into Trans-Caspian territory within the postPleiocene age.

This line of heights separates the basins of the Chorokh and the Rion (Black Sea) from those of the Aras and the Kura (Caspian Sea).

The lakes of Albano and Nemi were probably formed by volcanic explosions at the margin of the great crater; though a view has also been expressed that the basins are the result of subsidence.

Interesting relationships between the Ethiopian and Oriental, the Neotropical and West African, the Patagonian and New Zealand faunas suggest great changes in the distribution of land and water, and throw doubt on the doctrine of the permanence of continental areas and oceanic basins.

It is deeper and more fertile, however, in the basins of the Great Miami and Little Miami rivers, where there is a liberal mixture of decomposed limestone and where extensive areas with a clay subsoil are covered with alluvial deposits.

This improvement was projected to include the damming of the Charles river, and the creation of a great freshwater basin, with drive-ways of reclaimed land along the shores, and other adornments, somewhat after the model of the Alster basins at Hamburg.

The elongated hilly island of Olkhon, and the peninsula of Svyatoi Nos, which forms its continuation on the opposite eastern shore, divide the lake into two basins.

The southern boundary of both basins is a low chain which leaves the Euphrates near the mouth of the Sajur tributary, and runs west towards Mt Amanus, to which it is linked by a sill whereon stood the ancient fortified palace of Samal (Sinjerli; see Hittites).

The harbour, which embraces two tidal basins and six docks aggregating 832 acres, in addition to timber docks of S7 acres, covers altogether 350 acres.

Wagner, to the inexperience of the cartographers who first combined the charts of the separate basins of the Mediterranean so as to produce a chart of the whole.

These pouch harbours are probably " drowned " drainage basins.

There is a gutter round the level space of the stadium, with basins at intervals for the use of spectators or competitors, and a post at every hundred feet of the course, thus dividing it into six portions.

Glacial action determined the direction and character of the rivers, made numerous swamps, and, by scouring out rock basins, damming rivers and leaving morainal hollows, determined the character and formation of the lakes, of which Minnesota has upwards of io,000, a number probably exceeding that of any other state in the Union.

The general characteristics of the lakes in the north differ from those of the south, the former being generally deep, with ragged rocky shores formed by glacial scouring which caused rock basins, the latter being mostly shallow.

The British troops were directed towards Lisbon and Cadiz, in order to secure these harbours, to prevent the subjugation of Andalusia, and to operate up the basins of the Guadiana, Tagus and Douro into Spain.

In anticipation of this event a gigantic system of docks, basins and quays was constructed, at a total cost of some £7,000,000 (of which the imperial treasury contributed 2,000,000), between the confluence of the Alster and the railway bridge (1868-1873), an entire quarter of the town inhabited by some 24,000 people being cleared away to make room for these accessories of a great port.

At the quay point between these two basins there are vast state granaries.

The new Kuhwarderbasin, on the left bank of the river, as well as two other large dock basins (now leased to the Hamburg-American Company), raise the number of basins to twelve in all.

This wide area is naturally subdivided into West Siberia (basins of the Ob and the Irtysh) and East Siberia (the remainder of the region).

Coal occurs in many Jurassic fresh-water;basins, namely, on the outskirts of the Altai, in south Yeniseisk, about Irkutsk, in the Nerchinsk district, at many places in the Maritime province, and on the island of Sakhalin.

But there are several points at which its division from other river basins is only marked by a very low parting.

As the division between the basins of the Loire and the Garonne to the west and those of the Saone and Rhone to the east, the Cevennes send many affluents to those rivers.

From the roadstead, entrance is by a channel into the outer harbour, which communicates with seven floating basins about 115 acres in area and is accessible to the largest vessels.