Escarpment  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as an effect of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas of differing elevations. Usually escarpment is used interchangeably with scarp (from the Italian scarpa, shoe). 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. The surface of the steep slope is called a scarp face.

Significant escarpments

Africa

• Elgeyo escarpment (Great Rift Valley)
• God's Window (South Africa)
• Great Escarpment, Southern Africa
• Bandiagara Escarpment (Mali)
• Zambezi Escarpment (Zambia)

Antarctica

• Usas Escarpment

Asia

• Vindhyan Escarpment (India)
• Tuwaiq (Saudi Arabia)

Australia and New Zealand

• Australia
  • Great Escarpment, Australia
  • Darling Scarp
  • Dorrigo Plateau
  • Illawarra Escarpment
  • Nullarbor Escarpment
• 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 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
• 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
• Malta
  • Victoria Lines
• Wales
  • Black Mountain (range)
  • Black Mountains, Wales
  • Pen y Fan

North America

• Florida Escarpment, Gulf of Mexico
• Sigsbee Escarpment, Gulf of Mexico
• Canada and the United States
  • Pembina Escarpment (Manitoba, North Dakota)
  • Niagara Escarpment (Ontario, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Wisconsin)
  • Eardley Escarpment (Mattawa Fault, Gatineau Park, Quebec)
  • Onondaga (geological formation) (Ontario and New York)
  • Devil's Rock (Lake Temiskaming, Ontario)
• 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)
  • Book Cliffs (Utah-Colorado)
  • Caprock Escarpment (Texas)
  • Catskill Escarpment (New York)
  • Cody Scarp (Florida)
  • Elkhorn Scarp (San Andreas Fault)
  • Helderberg Escarpment (New York)
  • Hell's Half Acre (central Wyoming)
  • 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)
  • 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
• 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)

See also

• Cuesta
• Fall line
• List of scarps on Mercury