Escarpment,

Escarpment, a long line of cliff, formed by the outcrop of a relatively hard stratum of rock interbedded amongst more yielding strata, the dip or inclination of which is generally gentle. This structure is the result of denudation—the hard rock projects simply because it has yielded less readily to the agents of erosion. In a country composed of an alternation of such relatively hard and soft rocks, dipping in one and the same direction, we usually meet with a succession of escarpments, with their steep faces all turned towards the direction to which the strata rise, while the ground falls away with a gentle slope in the direction of the dip or inclination of the beds.