A mass of rock fragments, clay, and sediment deposited by ancient floodwaters or glaciers.
Latin 'diluvium' from 'diluvere' (to wash away, flood). Originally used in the 1600s-1800s by geologists studying what they thought were biblical flood deposits, now understood as glacial material.
Diluvium was geology's big mystery—scientists genuinely thought these deposits proved the biblical Great Flood actually happened, until they realized glaciers had created them instead!
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