Concept in Definition ABC

The word mantle has very different meanings and in this post we will present the most significant: as a garment, as expression, as a word proper to geology and as a common term to refer to the night sky.

Dress and common expression in language

A cloak is a garment designed to combat the cold. It is a piece of wide cloth that covers the torso and has been traditionally used by the nobility (su quality it depended on the type of fabric and the lining used). Some cloaks receive another name (the Spanish mantilla or the famous Manila shawl). On the other hand, in some cases this garment has a meaning symbolic (the color of the Virgin's mantle changes depending on each tradition popular).

The concept of cloak as clothing serves as an explanatory element to refer to something that offers an image as if it were a mantle (for example, the flower mantles that are used to decorate certain figures religious buildings or the blankets of smoke that cover the sky of some cities).

A term proper to geology

The Earth has three distinct layers. In the center is the nucleus. On the outside is the Earth crust. Between both layers, there is an intermediate one: the terrestrial mantle. It is a rocky region with an elevated temperature. From the point of view of geology, the earth's mantle is known from the data provided by seismographs.

In the field of geology there is also the so-called water table, also known as an aquifer. It must be remembered that part of the water in rain it seeps into the subsoil and creates pockets of water in the internal structure of the Earth, known as the water table or water table.

If we place ourselves in the context of forests and ecosystems, there is the forest mantle, the surface layer of the forest land, which plays a vital role in the maintenance of the habitat.

The world of stars

The image that represents all the stars, the moon and the set of planets and stars that make up the universe is known as the stellar mantle. Mantle of stars or stellar is a poetic concept to refer to an astronomical reality. If someone observes the stars at night he is looking at an image in which the dark sky contrasts with the brightness of the stars and in this situation I could affirm that it is under a cloak of stars.

Photos: iStock - Astalor / theeradaj