A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground. Trenches are generally defined by being deeper than they are wide (as opposed to a wider gully or ditch), and by being narrow compared to their length (as opposed to a simple hole). This article refers to the landform For other uses see Gully (disambiguation. A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel Water. [1]
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Usage
A number of areas exist in which trenches play a significant role:
Agriculture
Trenches have long been used to carry water to or away from areas. Trenches can be used for draining purposes, leading water away from a swamp or wetland that is to be dried out. Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities A swamp is a Wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water A wetland is an area of Land consisting of Soil that is Saturated with Moisture, such as a Swamp, Marsh, or Bog Likewise they can be used for irrigation purposes, directing water into dry areas. Irrigation is an artificial application of water to the soil usually for assisting in growing crops Both uses generally require a slope for the water to flow down.
Archeology
Archeologists may use the 'trench method', pioneered by Dame Kathleen Kenyon in Israel, for searching and excavating ancient ruins or to dig into strata of sedimented material to get a sideways (layered) view of the deposits - with a hope of being able to place found objects or materials in a chronological order. Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon ( 5 January, 1906 &ndash 24 August, 1978) was an important English Archaeologist of Neolithic For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. This article is about ruins in Architecture; for other meanings see Ruins (disambiguation. In Geology and related fields a stratum (plural strata) is a layer of rock or Soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguishes The advantage of this method is that it destroys only a small part of the site (those areas where the trenches, often arranged in a grid pattern, are located). However, this method also has the disadvantage of only revealing small slices of the whole volume, and modern archeological digs usually employ combination methods. [2]
Geology
Trenches are a natural feature in many landscapes. Some are created by rivers in flow (which may have long since fallen dry), others are features created by geological movement, such as oceanic trenches. "Riverine" redirects here For the use of that term in Maritime geography, see there The oceanic trenches are hemispheric-scale long but narrow topographic depressions of the sea floor The later form is relatively deep, linear and narrow, and is formed by plate subduction. In Geology, a subduction zone is an area on Earth where two tectonic plates meet and move towards one another with one sliding underneath the other [3]
Infrastructure
In the civil engineering field of construction or maintenance of infrastructure, trenches play a major role. Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built They may be created to search for pipes and other infrastructure that is known to be underground in the general area, but whose exact location has been lost ('search trench' or 'search slit'). They are also used to underground easily damaged and obstructive infrastructure or utilities (such as gas mains, water mains or telephone lines). A public utility (usually just utility) is an organization that maintains the Infrastructure for a public service (often also providing a service using A water supply network is a system of engineered Hydrologic and Hydraulic components including the watershed or geographic area that collects A telephone line or telephone circuit (or just line or circuit within the Industry) is a single-user circuit on a Telephone A similar use for higher bulk would be in pipeline transport. Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Finally, trenches may be created as the first step of creating a foundation wall. A foundation is a Structure that transfers loads to the earth
Military usage
While trenches have often been dug as defensive measures, in the pre-firearm eras, they were mainly a type of hindrance for an attacker of a fortified location, such as the moat around a castle (this is technically called a ditch). Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static A firearm is a Tool that projects either single or multiple Projectiles at high velocity through a controlled explosion A moat is deep broad Trench, usually filled with Water, that surrounds a structure installation or town normally to provide it with a preliminary line of A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. A ditch is usually defined as a small to moderate depression created to channel Water.
Only with the advent of accurate firearms, and the tactics that evolved in World War I and the Crimean War, did the use of trenches as positions for the defender of a fortification become common, though the Māori of New Zealand were known to have used it earlier in their Pā fortifications in the late 19th Century. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The Crimean War, also known in Russia as the Eastern War (Восточная война Vostochnaya Vojna) (March 1854–February 1856 was fought This article discusses the Māori people of New Zealand For their language see Māori language, and for other meanings see Māori (disambiguation. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The word pā (pronounced pah refers to a Māori Village, generally one from the 19th century or earlier that was fortified for defence The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The military usage evolved very quickly in the First World War, until whole systems of extensive main trenches, backup trenches (in case the first lines were overrun) and communication trenches had been developed, often stretching dozens of kilometres along a front without interruption, and some kilometres further back from the opponents lines.
Other uses
- Trenches are often used for mass graves, sometimes even dug by prisoners about to be executed (see, for example, the Holocaust novel Night). A mass grave is a grave containing multiple usually unidentified human corpses The Holocaust (from the Greek el ''ὁλόκαυστον'' (el-Latn holókauston holos, "completely" and kaustos, "burnt" also known as
- Sunken trenches may be combined with a wall on one of their sides to form a ha-ha, a type of hidden fence.
See also
References
- ^ Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Volume 8, Page 374 (Code revised as of July 1, 2003, via Compliance Magazine's website)
- ^ Archaeology - Restore! Magazine, Winter 1998
- ^ Ocean trench (glossary from Student Resource Center website, Houghton Mifflin college division)
External links
- Trenching and Excavation (a NIOSH Safety and Health Topic, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Trench Safety Awareness (a NIOSH Publication, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Dictionary
trench
-noun
- A long, narrow ditch or hole dug in the ground, especially in warfare.
- (archaeology) a pit, usually rectangular with smooth sidewalls and floor, excavated during an archaeological investigation.
- (informal) A trench coat.
-verb
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