onlap

Meanings

nounonlap (plural onlaps)

geographyThe phenomenon of successively younger rock strata extending progressively further across an erosion surface cut in older rocks.
Displacement on F3 was followed by continued accumulation and onlap of the fine-grained sands of unit 3 on the footwall and development of soil Qb2.
2001 December 14, Senthil Kumar et al., “Earthquake Recurrence and Rupture Dynamics of Himalayan Frontal Thrust, India”, in Science, volume 294, number 5550, →DOI, pages 2328–2331
Synonyms: overlap

verbonlap (third-person singular simple present onlaps, present participle onlapping, simple past and past participle onlapped)

present singular third person onlaps · participle present onlapping · participle past onlapped · past onlapped

geographyTo form an onlap.
Elsewhere, many of the youngest volcanic plains units onlap tesserae at crustal plateau boundaries.
1998 March 6, Roger J. Phillips, Vicki L. Hansen, “Geological Evolution of Venus: Rises, Plains, Plumes, and Plateaus”, in Science, volume 279, number 5356, →DOI, pages 1492–1497

nounThe phenomenon of successively younger rock strata extending progressively further across an erosion surface cut in older rocks.

Similar

Opposite

offlap

From on + lap.

Cite this entry

APA

onlap. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onlap

MLA

“onlap.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onlap. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “onlap,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/onlap.

Source: onlap on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.