Strath
{{Short description|Large valley}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:The River Spey - geograph.org.uk - 2412314.jpg flowing through Strathspey]]
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).{{cite book|author=T. A. Gibson|title=Etymological Geography: Being a Classified List of Terms of Most Frequent Occurrence, Entering, as Prefixes or Postfixes, into the Composition of Geographical Names|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_m8owm163yr8C|access-date=21 March 2013|year=1835|publisher=Oliver & Boyd|page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_m8owm163yr8C/page/n33 23]}}
Word and etymology
An anglicisation of the Gaelic word {{lang|gd|srath}}, it is one of many that have been absorbed into the English and Scots languages. It is commonly used in rural Scotland to describe a wide valley, even by non-Gaelic speakers.
In Scottish place-names, Strath- is of Gaelic and Brittonic origin.{{cite web |last1=James |first1=Alan G |title=The Brittonic Language in the Old North - A Guide to the Place-Name Evidence |url=https://spns.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Alan_James_Brittonic_Language_in_the_Old_North_BLITON_Volume_II_Dictionary_2020_Edition.pdf |website=Scottish Place Name Society |access-date=14 June 2020}} Strath- names have a similar origin to Gaelic {{lang|gd|srath}}, meaning "broad-valley", as well as to Cumbric and Pictish cognates (cf. Welsh {{lang|cy|ystrad}}).
Gaelic {{lang|gd|srath}} is derived from Old Irish {{lang|sga|srath}}, recorded as having meant "grassland".{{cite book |last1=Hall |first1=Mark A |last2=Driscoll |first2=Stephen T |last3=Geddess |first3=Jane |title=Pictish Progress: New Studies on Northern Britain in the Early Middle Ages |date=11 November 2010 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004188013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6d55DwAAQBAJ&vq |access-date=30 June 2019}} The modern Scottish Gaelic sense of "broad-valley", paralleling the meaning of Brittonic cognates, developed from substrate influence from Pictish.
Toponymy
It occurs in numerous place names within Scotland including Strathmore, Strathspey and Strathclyde. Abroad, many places with Scottish heritage also use the prefix, including Strath-Taieri in New Zealand; Strathalbyn in South Australia, Strathfield, a suburb of Sydney, Australia; Strathewen, Victoria, Australia; Strathpine, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia; and various places in Canada: Strathmore, Alberta; Strathcona; Strathroy, Ontario; and Strathburn, Ontario.
It also occurs in the names of five P&O liners, four of which, the Strathaird, the Strathnaver, the Stratheden and the 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.{{Cite web
|url = http://www.thestrathallan.com/strathallan.htm
|title = The Strathallan Story
|access-date = 2007-12-20
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071009152523/http://www.thestrathallan.com/strathallan.htm
|archive-date = 2007-10-09
}}
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.
In geology
In geology, a strath is a bedrock surface within a river valley that marks a base level of erosion by the river. This may underlie a contemporary strath valley floor, corresponding to the present base level, but it may also correspond to a former base level now preserved in the geologic record.{{cite book |last1=Thornbury |first1=William D. |title=Principles of geomorphology |date=1969 |publisher=CBS Publishers |location=New Delhi |isbn=8123908113 |pages=111, 196 |edition=2d}}
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 strath terraces.Thornbury 1969, p.196 These may record past climate oscillations{{cite journal |last1=Pan |first1=Baotian |last2=Burbank |first2=Douglas |last3=Wang |first3=Yixiang |last4=Wu |first4=Guangjian |last5=Li |first5=Jijun |last6=Guan |first6=Qingyu |title=A 900 k.y. record of strath terrace formation during glacial-interglacial transitions in northwest China |journal=Geology |date=2003 |volume=31 |issue=11 |pages=957 |doi=10.1130/G19685.1}}{{cite journal |last1=Fuller |first1=Theodore K. |last2=Perg |first2=Lesley A. |last3=Willenbring |first3=Jane K. |last4=Lepper |first4=Kenneth |title=Field evidence for climate-driven changes in sediment supply leading to strath terrace formation |journal=Geology |date=May 2009 |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=467–470 |doi=10.1130/G25487A.1}} or may be a result of river meandering.{{cite journal |last1=Finnegan |first1=Noah J. |last2=Dietrich |first2=William E. |title=Episodic bedrock strath terrace formation due to meander migration and cutoff |journal=Geology |date=February 2011 |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=143–146 |doi=10.1130/G31716.1}}
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.{{cite journal |last1=Connell |first1=Sean D. |last2=Love |first2=David W. |year=2001 |title=Stratigraphy of middle and upper Pleistocene fluvial deposits of the Rio Grand (post-Santa Fe Group) and the geomorphic development of the Rio Grande Valley, Northern Albuquerque Basin, Central New Mexico |journal=New Mexico Burea of Geology and Mineral Resources Open File Reports |volume=454B |pages=167–178 |url=https://geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/openfile/downloads/400-499/454/papers/OFR454B_pdf/J-Connell_QuaternaryTerrace.pdf |access-date=31 July 2020}}