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Information about Escarpment

In geomorphology, an escarpment is a transition zone between different physiogeographic provinces that involves an elevation differential, often involving high cliffs. Most commonly, an escarpment, also called a scarp (from the Italian scarpa[1]), is a transition from one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of a different age and composition. In such cases, the escarpment usually represents the line of erosional loss of the newer rock over the older (see also Cuesta).

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Schematic cross section of a cuesta, dipslopes facing left, and harder rocklayers in darker colors than softer ones


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Escarpment face of a cuesta, broken by a fault. Cumberland Plateau, Tennessee.
Escarpments are also frequently formed by faults. These are called fault scarps. In some cases land may be lifted to an elevation above the surrounding area by a thrust fault, or the reverse with a normal fault. A strike-slip fault may bring a piece of high ground adjacent to an area of lower ground. The latter is common in California along the San Andreas fault and the many other strike-slip faults in the area.

In England, escarpments are found in a diagonal line across the country from the Yorkshire coast on the North Sea to the Hampshire coast on the English Channel. There the features of an escarpment include the scarp slope (the leading edge); the dip slope, dry valleys, coombes (both found in chalk downland), and clay vales occur on the side away from the scarp.

There are escarpments on other planets besides Earth. They are believed to be created when the crust contracts; as a result of cooling.

More loosely the term is used to describe the zone between coastal lowlands and continental plateau which have a marked change in altitude.

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Map of the Alpine Fault escarpment, beside New Zealand's Southern Alps. About 500 km (300 mi) long.

Significant escarpments

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The Sierra Escarpment in California

See also

References

1. ^ [1]
Geomorphology (from Greek: γη, ge, "earth"; μορφή, morfé, "form"; and λόγος, logos
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elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, often the mean sea level. Elevation, or geometric height, is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height
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cliff or bluff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are categorized as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers.
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Italian}}} 
Official status
Official language of:  European Union
 European Union
 Switzerland
 San Marino
Vatican City
Sovereign Military Order of Malta

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Sedimentary rock is one of the three main rock groups (the others being igneous and metamorphic rock). Rock formed from sediments covers 75-80% of the Earth's land area, and includes common types such as chalk, limestone, dolomite, sandstone, conglomerate and shale.
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Erosion is displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) usually by the agents of currents such as, wind, water, or ice by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case of bioerosion).
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Balanced Rock stands in Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs, CO]] A rock is a naturally occurring aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids. The Earth's lithosphere is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic.
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Cuesta was originaly a Spanish word, now used as a geological term, used to describe the ridges formed by gently tilted hard rock layers. Every cuesta has a steep slope, where the rock layers are exposed on their edges, called an escarpment or, if more severe, a cliff.
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fault or fault line is a planar rock fracture, which shows evidence of relative movement. Large faults within the Earth's crust are the result of shear motion and active fault zones are the causal locations of most earthquakes.
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triangular facet; however, this landform is not limited to fault scarps.

Examples

The Teton Range in Wyoming is an example of an inactive fault scarp. The Hurricane Cliffs, west of Zion National Park in Utah is a prominent example of a fault scarp along an old essentially
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San Andreas Fault is a geological fault that runs a length of roughly 800 miles (1,300 km) through western and southern California in the United States. The fault, a right-lateral strike-slip fault, marks a transform (or sliding) boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North
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Motto
Dieu et mon droit   (French)
"God and my right"
Anthem
No official anthem specific to England — the anthem of the United Kingdom is "God Save the Queen".
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Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England, and the largest historic county in Great Britain. Although Yorkshire is a historic county, with no current official standing (except as part of the name of the English region of Yorkshire and the Humber), the name is
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The North Sea is marginal, epeiric sea of the Atlantic Ocean on the European continental shelf between Norway and Denmark in the east, Scotland and England in the west, and Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and France in the south.
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    Hampshire, sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, (abbr. Hants), or the County of Southampton, is a county on the south coast of England.
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    English Channel (French: La Manche, "the sleeve") is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates the island of Great Britain from northern France and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic.
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    A dip slope is a geological formation often created by erosion of tilted strata. It is seen in large ridges that have one side that is steep and irregular (an escarpment) and the other side, the dip slope, that is generally planar and tilting at a continuous angle.
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    A dry valley is a valley found in either Karst (limestone) or chalk terrain that no longer has a surface flow of water. There are many examples of the latter along the North and South Downs in southern England.
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    A coombe is a short, deep, generally bowl-shaped valley or hollow, see cirque.

    Coombe may refer to one of these places in England:
    • Coombe, Buckinghamshire
    • Coombe, Bude, Cornwall
    • Coombe, Camborne, Cornwall
    • Coombe, Liskeard, Cornwall

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    Chalk (IPA: /ˈtʃɔːk/) is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite.
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    A downland is an area of open chalk hills. This term is especially used to describe the chalk countryside in southern England. Areas of downland are often referred to as Downs.
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    EARTH was a short-lived Japanese vocal trio which released 6 singles and 1 album between 2000 and 2001. Their greatest hit, their debut single "time after time", peaked at #13 in the Oricon singles chart.
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    crust is the outermost layer of a planet.

    The crust of the Earth is composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks. The crust is underlain by the mantle.
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    Contraction may refer to:
    • Contraction (childbirth), a contraction during childbirth
    • Contraction (grammar), a new word formed from two or more individual words, see also abbreviation and acronym

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    plateau, also called a high plateau or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat rural area.

    Genesis

    A plateau is a large and highland area of fairly level land separated from surrounding land by steep slopes (as in the Tibet),
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    God’s Window Escarpment is a popular vantage point along the Blyde River Canyon, in South Africa.

    At God’s Window on the Escarpment, majestic cliffs plunge over 700 meters to the Lowveld and the game reserves which have made the area one of Africa’s prime
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    State Party  Mali
    Type Mixed
    Criteria v, vii
    Reference 516
    Region Africa

    Inscription History
    Inscription 1989  (13th Session)
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    Motto
    "Un peuple, un but, une foi"
    "One people, one goal, one faith"
    Anthem
    Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali
    "For Africa and for you, Mali"
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