Escarpment

An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as

a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively
level areas having different elevations. The terms scarp
and scarp face are often used interchangeably with
escarpment.

Some sources differentiate the two terms, with

escarpment referring to the margin between two
landforms, and scarp referring to a cliff or a steep
slope.[1][2] In this usage an escarpment is a ridge which
has a gentle slope on one side and a steep scarp on the
other side.

More loosely, the term scarp also describes a zone

between a coastal lowland and a continental plateau
which shows a marked, abrupt change in elevation[3]
caused by coastal erosion at the base of the plateau.
Escarpment face of a cuesta, broken by a fault,
overlooking Trenton, Cloudland Canyon State
Park, and Lookout Mountain, in Georgia (USA)

Contents
Formation and description
Erosion
Significant escarpments
Africa
Antarctica
Asia
Australia and New Zealand
Europe
North America
South America
See also
References

Formation and description

Scarps are generally formed by one of two processes: either by differential erosion of sedimentary rocks, or by
movement of the Earth's crust at a geologic fault. The first is the more common type: the escarpment is a
transition from one series of sedimentary rocks to another series of a different age and composition.
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.
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 Schematic cross section of a cuesta, dip slopes facing left, and harder
term rupes is used for an rocklayers in darker colors than softer ones
escarpment.

Erosion
When sedimentary beds are tilted and exposed to the surface, erosion and
weathering may occur. Escarpments erode gradually and over geological time. The
mélange tendencies of escarpments results in varying contacts between a multitude
of rock types. These different rock types weather at different speeds, according to
Goldich dissolution series so different stages of deformation can often be seen in
the layers where the escarpments have been exposed to the elements.

Significant escarpments

Africa
Elgeyo escarpment (Great Rift Valley)
Great Escarpment, Southern Africa
Including the Drakensberg and God's Window in Mpumalanga's
Eastern Escarpment
Bandiagara Escarpment (Mali)
Zambezi Escarpment (Zambia)
East coast, Madagascar Shaded and colored
image from the
Shuttle Radar
Antarctica Topography Mission—
shows an elevation
Usas Escarpment model of New
Zealand's Alpine Fault
running about 500 km
Asia (300 mi) long. The
escarpment is flanked
Vindhya Range (India) by a chain of hills
Alam-Kuh (Iran) squeezed between the
Western Ghats (India) fault and the
mountains of New
Tuwaiq (Saudi Arabia)
Zealand's Southern
Wulian Feng (China) Alps. Northeast is
towards the top.

Australia and New Zealand

Australia
 Great Escarpment, Australia
Darling Scarp
Dorrigo Plateau
Illawarra Escarpment
Lake George Escarpment
Nullarbor Escarpment
New Zealand
The western slope of the Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana (along the Alpine Fault)
The Kaimai escarpment, above the Hauraki Plains
The Paekakariki escarpment between Paekakariki and Pukerua Bay (with State Highway
One and the North Island Main Trunk).

Europe
England
Cotswold escarpment
Chiltern escarpment
North Downs
South Downs
A common placename denominating an escarpment 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
Stanage Edge
Wenlock Edge
Scotland
Quiraing, Trotternish, Isle of Skye
Wales
Eglwyseg Escarpment, Llangollen, North Wales (and most impressive example in the UK).
Black Mountain (range)
Black Mountains, Wales
Pen y Fan
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.
Sweden, Estonia and Russia
Baltic Klint
Gotland–Saaremaa Klint
South Småland-Sub-Cambrian escarpment[4]
Malta
Victoria Lines
North America
Florida Escarpment,
Gulf of Mexico
Sigsbee Escarpment,
Gulf of Mexico
The Sierra Escarpment in California
Canada and the
United States
Manitoba Escarpment
(Manitoba, Saskatchewan)
Pembina Escarpment
(Manitoba, North Dakota)
Niagara Escarpment ((east to
west) New York, Ontario,
Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Illinois)
Eardley Escarpment
(Mattawa Fault, Gatineau
Park, Quebec)
Onondaga (geological
formation) (Ontario and New
York)
Devil's Rock (Lake
Temiskaming, Ontario)
Scarborough Bluffs (Toronto,
Ontario) At the Florida Escarpment, seen in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the
United States sea bed drops precipitously from less than 300 to 3,000 m (1,000 to
10,000 ft) over a short distance.
Blue Ridge Escarpment
(North Carolina–Virginia)
Balcones Fault (Texas)
Bergen Hill (New Jersey)
Black River Escarpment (Wisconsin)
Book Cliffs (Colorado–Utah)
Caprock Escarpment (Texas)
Catskill Escarpment (New York)
The Chinese Wall (Montana)
Cody Scarp (Florida)
Devil's Slide (California)
Helderberg Escarpment (New York)
Hell's Half Acre (Wyoming)
Knobstone Escarpment (Indiana)
Lewiston Hill (Idaho-Washington)
Magnesian Escarpment (Wisconsin)
Mescalero Ridge (New Mexico)
Missouri Escarpment (North Dakota)
 Mogollon Rim (Arizona)
Muldraugh Hill (Kentucky)
Pine Ridge (Nebraska–South Dakota)
Portage Escarpment (Ohio)
Potrero Hills in (California)
Pottsville Escarpment (Kentucky–Tennessee)
The Rimrocks (Montana)
Sierra Nevada eastern slope (California)
The Caribbean
Bahamas Escarpment (Bahamas)

South America
Brazil
Great Escarpment, Brazil
Serra do Mar (São Paulo)
Serra da Mantiqueira (São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro)
Chile

West Andean Escarpment[5]

See also
Cuesta – Hill or ridge with a gentle slope on one side and a steep slope on the other
Fall line
List of geological features on Mercury
Rupes

References
1. Easterbrook, Don J. (1999). Surface Processes and Landforms. Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-
860958-0.
2. Summary: Escarpments (http://www.tec.army.mil/research/products/desert_guide/lsmsheet/lses
car.htm), US Army Corps of Engineers.
3. "Scarps and Terraces" (https://www.radford.edu/jtso/GeologyofVirginia/CoastalPlain/CPPhysio-
16.html). Physiography. Radford University. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
4. Lidmar-Bergström, Karna (1988). "Denudation surfaces of a shield area in southern Sweden".
Geografiska Annaler. 70 A (4): 337–350. doi:10.2307/521267 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F5212
67). JSTOR 521267 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/521267).
5. Wörner, Gerhard; Uhlig, Dieter; Kohler, Ingrid; Seyfried, Hartmut (15 February 2002). "Evolution
of the West Andean Escarpment at 18°S (N. Chile) during the last 25 Ma: uplift, erosion and
collapse through time" (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0040-1951%2801%2900212-8).
Tectonophysics. 345 (1): 183–198. doi:10.1016/S0040-1951(01)00212-8 (https://doi.org/10.101
6%2FS0040-1951%2801%2900212-8).

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