salients

Noun

salient (plural salients)

1. An outwardly projecting part of a fortification, trench system, or line of defense.
   • On April 26 the First Division had gone into the line in the Montdidier salient on the Picardy battlefront.1919, “General Pershing's Story”, in Americans Defending Democracy: Our Soldiers' Own Stories, World's War Stories, Inc., page 9
2. A protrusion of the administrative borders of a geopolitical entity, such as a subnational entity or a sovereign state into another geopolitical entity, generally of the same administrative level.
3. An overall-convex, protruding section of a sinuous fold and thrust belt, thrust sheet, or a single thrust fault, caused by one or more of: deformation (folding and faulting) of strata and geologic structures during orogenesis, differences in the angle of critical taper during orogenesis, or differing erosional level of the present geomorphological surface.
   • Orogenic arcs are made up by more advanced segments (salients) separated by less advanced zones (recesses) (Miser, 1932). Within salients, the critical taper is lower, the distance among thrust ramps is larger, and there may be more ramps departing from the basal décollement layer with respect to...2018 April 17, Michele Livani, Davide Scrocca, Paola Arecco, Carlo Doglioni, “Structural and Stratigraphic Control on Salient and Recess Development Along a Thrust Belt Front: The Northern Apennines...

   Antonyms:

   recess

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