lherzolitenoun · 1795
Well attestedGeologists model the whole of Earth's upper mantle on a rock named after one small Pyrenean lake.
Jean Claude Delamétherie named lherzolite in the 1790s for Lherz, the old spelling of the Étang de Lers in the Ariège Pyrenees, where the rock is exposed in quantity. The Pyrenean lherzolites are fragments of upper mantle brought up along faults during the collision that built the range. The name is now used worldwide for mantle peridotite of that mineralogy.
Named from the placeRead →