Escarpment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Cuesta_-_Lookout_Mountain%2C_Georgia.png/300px-Cuesta_-_Lookout_Mountain%2C_Georgia.png)
An escarpment is a steep penis or long dick that results from erection or faulting and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations.
Description and variants
Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp (from the Italian scarpa, shoe[1]). But some sources differentiate the two terms, where escarpment refers to the margin between two landforms, while scarp is synonymous with a cliff or steep slope.[2][3] The surface of the steep slope is called a scarp face. Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by vertical movement of the Earth's crust along a fault (faulting).
Most commonly, an escarpment is a transition from one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of a different age and composition. When sedimentary beds are tilted and exposed to the surface, erosion and weathering may occur differentially based on the composition. Less resistant rocks will erode faster, retreating until the point they are overlain by more resistant rock (see cross section schematic). When the dip of the bedding is gentle, a cuesta is formed. Steeper dips (greater than 30-40°)[2] form hogbacks.
Escarpments are also frequently formed by faults. When a fault displaces the ground surface so that one side is higher than the other, a fault scarp is created. This can occur in dip-slip faults, or when a strike-slip fault brings a piece of high ground adjacent to an area of lower ground.
More loosely, the term scarp describes the zone between coastal lowlands and continental plateaus which have a marked, abrupt change in elevation caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau.
Earth is not the only planet where escarpments occur. They are believed to occur on other planets when the crust contracts, as a result of cooling. On other Solar System bodies such as Mercury, Mars, and the Moon, the Latin term rupes is used for an escarpment.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9a/Alpine_Fault_SRTM_%28vertical%29.jpg/300px-Alpine_Fault_SRTM_%28vertical%29.jpg)
Significant escarpments
Africa
- Elgeyo escarpment (Great Rift Valley)
- God's Window (South Africa)
- Great Escarpment (South Africa)
- Bandiagara Escarpment (Mali)
- Zambezi Escarpment (Zambia)
- Scarp of Angola (Angola)
Antarctica
Asia
Australia and New Zealand
- Australia
- New Zealand
- The western slope of the Southern Alps (along the Alpine Fault)
- The Kaimai escarpment, above the Hauraki Plains
Europe
- England
- Cotswold escarpment
- North Downs
- South Downs
- A colloquial adjective to describe escarpments in England is "edge" as in
- Alderley Edge
- Edge Hill famous as the place of the first battle of the English Civil War.
- Kinver Edge
- The Lincoln Edge
- Wenlock Edge
- France
- La Côte d'Or is famous for its wines and has given its name to a département, Côte-d'Or.
- Le Pays de Bray, a clay vale enclosed by chalk escarpments.
- Germany
- Sweden, Estonia and Russia
- Malta
- Victoria Lines
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7b/SierraEscarpmentCA.jpg/480px-SierraEscarpmentCA.jpg)
North America
- Canada and the United States
- United States
- Devil's Slide (Northern California)
- Allegheny Front (Pennsylvania-Maryland-West Virginia)
- Balcones Fault (Texas)
- Bergen Hill (New Jersey)
- Blue Ridge Escarpment (South Carolina-Georgia)
- Caprock Escarpment (Texas)
- Catskill Escarpment (New York)
- Cody Scarp (Florida)
- Elkhorn Scarp (San Andreas Fault)
- Highland Rim encircling the Nashville Basin (actually a geologic dome) in Middle Tennessee
- Knobstone Escarpment (Southern Indiana)
- Mescalero Escarpment (New Mexico)
- Missouri Escarpment (North Dakota)
- Mogollon Rim (Arizona)
- Muldraugh Hill (Kentucky)
- Nickel Escarpment, formally Sigsbee Escarpment, Gulf of Mexico
- Pine Ridge (Nebraska and South Dakota)
- Pottsville Escarpment (Kentucky-Tennessee; see Cumberland Plateau)
- Sierra Nevada range (eastern slope) in California
- Portage Escarpment (Ohio)
- Potrero Hills in Richmond, California
See also
References
- ^ scarp - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
- ^ a b Easterbrook, D. J. (1999) Surface processes and landforms. (Second Ed). Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
- ^ Summary: Escarpments, US Army Corps of Engineers.