Definitions for varvevɑrv
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word varve
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
a pair of thin contrasting layers of lake-bed sediment, representing a year's cycle of sedimentation.
Origin of varve:
1920–25; < Sw varv a round, (complete) turn
An annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock.
A varve is an annual layer of sediment or sedimentary rock. The word 'varve' is derived from the Swedish word varv whose meanings and connotations include 'revolution', 'in layers', and 'circle'. The term first appeared as Hvarfig lera on the first map produced by the Geological Survey of Sweden in 1862. Initially, varve was used to describe the separate components of annual layers in glacial lake sediments, but at the 1910 Geological Congress, the Swedish geologist Gerard De Geer proposed a new formal definition where varve described the whole of any annual sedimentary layer. More recently introduced terms such as 'annually laminated' are synonymous with varve. Of the many rhythmites found in the geological record, varves are one of the most important and illuminating to studies of past climate change. Varves are amongst the smallest-scale events recognised in stratigraphy. Varves form only in fresh or brackish water, because the high levels of salt in normal sea water coagulates the clay into coarse grains. Indeed, clay flocculation occurs at high ionic strength due to the collapse of the clay electrical double layer which decreases the electrostatic repulsion between negatively charged clay particles.
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