Outcrop

An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient

superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth.[1]

Contents
Features
Study
Examples
See also
References
External links
View of a bedrock outcrop
near San Carlos Water,
Features Falkland Islands

Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in
most places the bedrock or superficial deposits are covered by a mantle of soil and vegetation and cannot be
seen or examined closely. However, in places where the overlying cover is removed through erosion or
tectonic uplift, the rock may be exposed, or crop out. Such exposure will happen most frequently in areas
where erosion is rapid and exceeds the weathering rate such as on steep hillsides, mountain ridges and tops,
river banks, and tectonically active areas. In Finland, glacial erosion during the last glacial maximum (ca.
11000 BC), followed by scouring by sea waves, followed by isostatic uplift has produced many smooth
coastal and littoral outcrops.

Bedrock and superficial deposits may also be exposed at the Earth's surface due to human excavations such
as quarrying and building of transport routes.

Study
Outcrops allow direct observation and sampling of the bedrock in situ for geologic analysis and creating
geologic maps. In situ measurements are critical for proper analysis of geological history and outcrops are
therefore extremely important for understanding the geologic time scale of earth history. Some of the types
of information that cannot be obtained except from bedrock outcrops or by precise drilling and coring
operations, are structural geology features orientations (e.g. bedding planes, fold axes, foliation),
depositional features orientations (e.g. paleo-current directions, grading, facies changes), paleomagnetic
orientations. Outcrops are also very important for understanding fossil assemblages, and paleo-environment,
and evolution as they provide a record of relative changes within geologic strata.

Accurate description, mapping, and sampling for laboratory analysis of outcrops made possible all of the
geologic sciences and the development of fundamental geologic laws such as the law of superposition, the
principle of original horizontality, principle of lateral continuity, and the principle of faunal succession.
Examples
On Ordnance Survey maps in Great Britain, cliffs are distinguished from outcrops: cliffs have a continuous
line along the top edge with lines protruding down; outcrops have a continuous line around each area of bare
rock. An outcrop example in California is the Vasquez Rocks, familiar from location shooting use in many
films, composed of uplifted sandstone.[2][3] Yana is another example of outcrops, located in Uttara Kannada
district in Karnataka, India.

Serrote Branco outcrop in A typical shore outcrop scoured by

Caicó, Brazil ancient glaciers in Espoo, Finland.

Granite outcrops at Outcrop near Outcrop of the Roubidoux

Silesian Stones Mountain Yana, India Formation in the Ozarks of
in southwestern Poland southern Missouri

Outcrop in the Vasquez

Rocks Natural Area Park of
southern California

See also
Digital outcrop model
 Geological formation
Geologic time scale
List of rock formations

References
1. Howell, J. V., 1960, Glossary of Geology and Related Sciences. Washington, DC: American
Geological Institute, pp. 207-208
2. "oxy.edu. Vazquez Rocks. access date:5/22/2010" (https://web.archive.org/web/201106082232
33/http://employees.oxy.edu/jerry//vazquez.htm). Archived from the original (http://employees.o
xy.edu/jerry//vazquez.htm) on 2011-06-08. Retrieved 2010-05-24.
3. parks.lacounty.gov. Vazquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center. access date:5/22/2010 (h
ttp://parks.lacounty.gov/Parkinfo.asp?URL=cms1_033383.asp&Title=Vasquez%20%20Rocks%
20Natural%20Area%20and%20Center)

External links
Media related to Outcrops at Wikimedia Commons

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Outcrop&oldid=962654292"

This page was last edited on 15 June 2020, at 08:44 (UTC).

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