English

Alternative forms

• Japetus

Proper noun

Iapetus

1. (Greek mythology) A Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia, and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius.
2. (astronomy) The third largest moon of Saturn
3. (geology) An ancient ocean which existed between 600 and 400 million years ago.
   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 184:

     So, in the early Ordovician, Iapetus was wide enough to have one side in high latitudes and the other in the tropics: a massive ocean, indeed.

Synonyms

• (ocean): Proto-Atlantic, Proto-Atlantic Ocean

Derived terms

• Iapetian

Translations

References

1. ↑ Wells, John (14 April 2010), “Iapetus and tonotopy”, in John Wells's phonetic blog, retrieved 21 April 2010