Cliff

significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure

A cliff is a vertical or very steep natural wall of rock.

The Trango Towers in Pakistan. Their vertical faces are the world's tallest cliffs. Trango Tower center; Trango Monk center left; Trango II far left; Great Trango right.
The tallest cliff in Europe, in Norway

Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually formed by rock that is resistant to erosion and weathering. Sedimentary rocks most likely to form cliffs include sandstone, limestone, chalk, and dolomite. Igneous rocks such as granite and basalt also often form cliffs. An escarpment (or scarp) is a type of cliff, formed by the movement of a geologic fault, or a landslide. Cliffs are known for forming major geographical features such as waterfalls.

The tallest cliff in the solar system may be Verona Rupes, an approximately 20 km (12 mile) high cliff on Miranda, a moon of the planet Uranus. [1]

The Ordnance Survey distinguishes between cliffs (continuous line along the top edge with projections down the face) and outcrops (continuous lines along lower edge).

Major cliffs

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Above Sea

Above Land

Europe

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Above Sea

Above land

North America

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  • Mount Thor, Baffin Island, Canada; 1,370 m (4,500 ft) total; top 480 m (1,600 ft) is overhanging. This is commonly regarded as being the largest purely vertical drop on Earth at 1,250 m (4,100 ft).
  • The sheer north face of Polar Sun Spire, in the Sam Ford fjord of Baffin Island, has been reported as exceeding Mount Thor's west face in height.[2]
  • Ketil's west face in Tasermiut, Greenland (also known as God's Thumbnail), has been reported as 1,400 – 1,450 m high, but there are arguments.[3][4]

Other notable cliffs include:

South America

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Angel Falls from Raton, Venezuela

Africa

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Above Sea

Oceania

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Above Sea

References

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Footnotes

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  1. "Natural world: the solar system: highest cliffs". Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  2. "Polar Sun Spire". SummitPost.Org. Retrieved 2008-07-31.
  3. "Climbing in Tasermiut". bigwall.dk. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
  4. "The American Alpine Journal 1986" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2008-09-02.