If a system or organization is overburdened, it has too many people or things to deal with and so does not function properly. The city's hospitals are overburdened by casualties. an overburdened air traffic control system
heavily burdened with work or cares; "bowed down with troubles"; "found himself loaded down with responsibilities"; "overburdened social workers"; "weighed down with cares"
If you are overburdened with something such as work or problems, you have more of it than you can cope with. The Chief Inspector disliked being overburdened with insignificant detail. overburdened teachers
In mining, usually used to indicate worthless rocks or material covering a valuable vein; in placering, the non-gold bearing sand above bedrock where gold is concentrated
is the backfill that was used to fill the waste sites at Hanford The overburden is excavated and sampled to determine if it is contaminated Clean overburden soil is used again as backfill Contaminated overburden soil is disposed at the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility The Remedial Design Report/Remedial Action Work Plan defines the shallow zone as 15 feet below the surface MTCA sets the sampling location for soil cleanup at 15 feet below the surface (Diagram) (BHI 1999) See also shallow zone and deep zone
Geologic material of any nature, consolidated or unconsolidated, that overlies a deposit of useful materials As used by the Yucca Mountain Project, this is geologic material overlying the repository block
Layers of earth and rock covering a coal seam In surface mining operations, overburden is removed using large equipment and is either used to backfill areas previously mined or is hauled to external dumping areas
Rock which contains either no gold or gold in quantities that cannot be economically extracted Because such rock either lies on top of ore or is mixed in with the ore, overburden must be mined in advance of or at the same time as the ore is mined
The layer of fragmental and unconsolidated material including loose soil, silt, sand and gravel overlying bedrock, which has been either transported from elsewhere or formed in place
the surface soil that must be moved away to get at coal seams and mineral deposits burden with too much work or responsibility load with excessive weight