tar pit

An accumulation of natural tar or asphalt at the Earth's surface, especially one that traps animals and preserves their hard parts. Tar pits form when petroleum in subterranean petroleum-bearing rocks oozes up to the surface. As it rises, the petroleum loses its volatile components, forming a thick tar or asphalt deposit.

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But who could forget one of the last times the U.S. stuck its boots in that Central American tar pit?

The Statue of Liberty rusting and slowly sinking into a tar pit?

Isn't that all you get after the mammoth slides into the tar pit?

The azote is there converted into ammonia, of which a considerable quantity is distilled over into the tar-pit.

Windows in the village were not lighted; fire in a tar-pit near the forest was visible from a distance.

April 18, 2024petrichor

[pet-ri-kawr]

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