Product Code Database
A strath is a large valley, typically a river valley that is wide and shallow (as opposed to a glen, which is typically narrower and deep).
In Scottish place-names, Strath- is of Gaelic and Common Brittonic origin. Strath- names have a similar origin to Gaelic srath, meaning "broad-valley", as well as to Cumbric and Pictish cognates ( cf. Welsh language ystrad).
Gaelic srath is derived from Old Irish srath, recorded as having meant "grassland". The modern Scottish Gaelic sense of "broad-valley", paralleling the meaning of Brittonic cognates, developed from substrate influence from Pictish.
It also occurs in the names of five P&O liners, four of which, the RMS Strathaird, the RMS Strathnaver, the SS Stratheden and the SS Strathmore, carried thousands of migrants to Australia between the 1950s and the 1960s. The ships acted as troop carriers during World War II and the fifth ship, the Strathallan, sank in the Mediterranean Sea in 1942 taking troops to the landings in North Africa.
The word is related to Welsh Ystrad, as in Strat Clut, the Old Welsh name for the Kingdom of Strathclyde.
In Keith there is a distillery producing the Strathisla whisky. It is a single malt whisky that is also an ingredient to the blend Chivas Regal.
When a river in a strath valley is rejuvenated by a drop in base level, remnants of the former valley floor may be preserved as .Thornbury 1969, p.196 These may record past climate oscillations or may be a result of river .
If a change in sedimentation rates results in renewed deposition of sediments (aggradation) in a strath valley, the original strath surface may be buried under fresh sediments and become part of the geologic record. For example, at least three such straths are present in the valley of the Rio Grande River near Albuquerque, New Mexico.
|
|
