   a relict is a surviving remnant of a natural phenomenon. * in biology a relict (or relic) is an organism that at an earlier time was abundant in a large area but now occurs at only one or a few small areas. * in ecology, an ecosystem which originally ranged over a large expanse, but is now narrowly confined, may be termed a relict. * in geology, the term relict refers to structures or minerals from a parent rock that did not undergo metamorphosis when the surrounding rock did, or to rock that survived a destructive geologic process. * in agronomy, a relict crop is a crop which was previously grown extensively, but is now only used in one limited region, or a small number of isolated regions. * in history (as revealed in dna testing), a relict population refers to an ancient people in an area who have been largely supplanted by a later group of migrants and their descendants. * in real estate law, reliction is the gradual recession of water from its usual high-water mark so that the newly uncovered land becomes the property of the adjoining riparian property owner. other uses: *in addition, relict was an ancient term still used in colonial (british) america and england of that era, now archaic, for a widow. it came to be a generic or collective term for widows and widowers. * in historical linguistics, a relict is a word that is a survivor of a form or forms that are otherwise archaic. ==biology== see relict (biology) ==geology== some geologic processes are destructive or transformative of structures or minerals, and when a process is not complete or does not completely destroy certain features, the left-over feature is a relict of what was there before. for example, relict permafrost is an area of ancient permafrost which remains despite a change in climate which would prohibit new permafrost from forming. or it could be a fragment of ancient soil or sediment found in a younger stratum. a relict sediment is an area of ancient sediment which remains unburied despite changes in the surrounding environment. in pedology, the study of soil formation and classification, ancient soil found in the geologic record is called a paleosol, material formed in the distant past on what was then the surface. a relict paleosol is still found on the surface, and yet is known to have been formed under conditions radically different from the present climate and topography.{{cite encyclopedia | last = retallack | first = gregory j. | title = paleosol | encyclopedia = ac
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