AVEN

aven: translation

   1. A hole in the roof of a cave passage that may be either a rather large blind roof pocket or a tributary inlet shaft into the cave system. A feature described as an aven when seen from below may equally be described as shaft when seen from above, and the naming of such a feature commonly depends purely upon the direction of exploration. Many avens close upwards to impenetrable fissures but may still be important hydrological routes; few caves are without them. In parts of France, aven is equivalent to the British term, pothole [9].

   2. (French.) A vertical or highly inclined shaft in limestone, extending upward from a cave passage, generally to the surface; smaller than an abîme. Commonly related to enlarged vertical joints.

   Compare cenote; natural well; pothole.

   3. (British.) A vertical extension from a shaft in a passage or chamber roof that tapers upward rather like a very elongate cone [10].

   Compare dome pit. average interstitial velocity

   See velocity, average interstitial.

Aven: translation

   Nothingness; vanity.

   1) Hosea speaks of the "high places of Aven" (10:8), by which he means Bethel. He also calls it Beth-aven, i.e., "the house of vanity" (4:15), on account of the golden calves Jeroboam had set up there (1 Kings 12:28).

   2) Translated by the LXX. "On" in Ezek. 30:17. The Egyptian Heliopolis or city of On (q.v.).

   3) In Amos 1:5 it denotes the Syrian Heliopolis, the modern Baalbec.

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