adit

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
(ăd'ĭt) pronunciation
n.
An almost horizontal entrance to a mine.

[Latin aditus, access, from past participle of adīre, to approach : ad-, ad- + īre, to go.]


A tunnel driven horizontally into a hillside for the purpose of mining. Such shafts were common in the early development, for example, of the South Wales coalfield.


[MC]

An early style of mining in which a tunnel is driven into a hillside in order to follow or intercept seams of useful stone or veins of ore. Generally, adits are dug at a slight angle so that water naturally drains out of the tunnel.

adit (ăd'ĭt), in mining, underground passage excavated nearly horizontally, with one end open to the earth's surface, usually used to service a mine. The adit end is the furthermost end from the surface, i.e., the location where miners work. The adit collar is the area where an adit opens to the surface and must be reinforced against any surface weakness.


Top


a nearly horizontal shaft to the surface in a mine
Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'adit'

Top
Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to adit, see:
  • Mining - adit: almost horizontal passageway into mine


Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

Mentioned in

air adit (mining engineering)
axe factory (in archaeology)