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French to English translations [PRO] Tech/Engineering - Geology / Insurance
French term or phrase:affaissements de terrain
L’ensemble des phénomènes liés à la déformation de l’écorce terrestre, les éruptions volcaniques, les ruissellements de lave, les raz-de-marée s’ils sont consécutifs aux événements précités (tsunamis), les glissements ou ***affaissements de terrain***, la subsidence...
Can anyone with technical knowledge of the above phenomena explain the distinction (if indeed there is one) between the term I am enquiring about and 'subsidence' - because from my research to date they appear to be the same thing. The above text is taken from an insurance policy, so I have to be careful to be VERY specific!!!
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 heures (2011-06-05 18:07:51 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I go along with Bourth: settlement and subsidence should cover it (maybe subsidence due to mining is what is specifically meant by the French "subsidence"?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 heures (2011-06-06 08:21:50 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
They could be trying to differenciate between natural and man-made subsidence? Insurance companies are always looking for an out!
Going with a combination of Kashew and Bourth on this one... which helped to explain things to me at the time. All contributions were helpful and relevant, however. 3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer
...what a wealth of contributions! I am honoured and impressed. To answer Kashew's question, what comes after 'la subsidence' is this:
(effondrement de terrain suite à la baisse de la nappe phréatique) which I understand to be an explanation of 'subsidence'... or, as this is an insurance document, I should say the 'definition' that they intend for that term. However, I am thinking that there must be some sort of distinction between that and affaiblissement for the purposes of this insurance cover, hence my post. So, if subsidence is defined as the collapse of land due to lowering of the phreatic table, then I guess we can at least rule this out for 'affaiblissement'! So, settlement or sinking...tout simplement... might work. Very helpful stuff, gentlemen, thank you very much. I have learned a lot and thank you all for your input.
Yes, settlement and/or sinking would be more appropriate for an insurance policy than either downwarping or slumping. "Soil slippage or settlement, subsidence etc...."
Corroborating Penguin, I find the following definition of a geosyncline: "A downwarping of the Earth's crust, either elongate or basin-like, measured in scores of kilometers, in which sedimentary and volcanic rocks accumulate to thicknesses of thousands of meters".
In contrast with the specific requirements of insurance, where events tend to take place within the lifetime of the insured, "downwarping" may be associated with much longer, geological, timescales. Hence I prefer "soil slump" since this can (and does) occur over years at most, often months, weeks, or even days.
Explanation: Since they refer to déformation de l’écorce terrestre it might be this, though this is more a phenomenon of geological time than insurance time!
For affaissement the Dictionary of Earth Science (Michel & Fairbridge) gives (words in brackets are my additions) "collapse [mines], downthrow [faults], downwarp, sinking, subsidence".
The Penguin Dict of Physical Geography defines downwarping as "A slight downward deformation of the Earth's crust caused by sagging under the weight of an overlying burden, leading to downwarp and in some cases to the beginning of a geosyncline ..." and goes on to elaborate on glacial effects, etc.
However, "sinking" is nicely vague ...
Otherwise "settlement" might do nicely, possibly instead of subsidence, with "subsidence" in the place of affaissement.
xxxBourth Local time: 18:07 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 142
Explanation: I might have suggested slippage if it hadn't already been mentioned. However, "affaisser" also has the meaning of "slump" (in the physical, not financial, sense): see http://frank.mtsu.edu/~cdharris/GEOL100/erosion/slump.htm.
The same word is also used to describe the so-called Abrams slump test for wet concrete.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 hr (2011-06-05 13:12:36 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I should have added that soil "slumping" is not the same as soil "subsidence", but the many refs. to "slumping" and "subsidence" will make the distinction clear.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 hrs (2011-06-05 15:45:19 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Explanation: subsidence is right, but my conclusion from the text (glissements ou affaissements de terrain) is that the writer meant something more serous than mere subsidence (the next item listed), so you might say "caving" or "collapse".
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 hrs (2011-06-05 17:52:07 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I should have made it clear that landslide (and slump) are translational +/- rotational movements, while subsidence is vertical
Guy Bray Local time: 09:07 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 30
7 hrs confidence:
sinking
Explanation: Hello
As 'subsidence' is given in French and 'collapse' is normally fast, I'd like to propose 'sinking' for the slower process suggested by 'affaissement'
SafeTex Local time: 18:07 Native speaker of: English
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 6 heures (2011-06-05 18:07:51 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
I go along with Bourth: settlement and subsidence should cover it (maybe subsidence due to mining is what is specifically meant by the French "subsidence"?
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 21 heures (2011-06-06 08:21:50 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
They could be trying to differenciate between natural and man-made subsidence? Insurance companies are always looking for an out!
kashew France Local time: 18:07 Native speaker of: English PRO pts in category: 31
Grading comment
Going with a combination of Kashew and Bourth on this one... which helped to explain things to me at the time. All contributions were helpful and relevant, however.
The translation workplace 
