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24-510: The impressive abri of Laugerie-Basse, named after the village, is located on the right side of the Vézère valley, about 2 kilometers upstream from Les Eyzies. It was formed at the bottom of a 45 meters high and 500 meters long scarp slope of flat-lying limestones from the Coniacian . The 15-meter-deep Abri is located 15 meters above river level. Taking advantage of the natural conditions,

48-477: A Romance loanword into Primitive Germanic that has its origins in the Latin forms clivus / clevus ("slope" or "hillside"). Given that a cliff does not need to be exactly vertical, there can be ambiguity about whether a given slope is a cliff or not and also about how much of a certain slope to count as a cliff. For example, given a truly vertical rock wall above a very steep slope, one could count just

72-505: A fairly stringent notion of cliff, as the 1,340 m figure refers to a nearly vertical headwall of two stacked pillars; adding in a very steep approach brings the total drop from the East Face precipice to the nearby Dunge Glacier to nearly 2,000 m. The location of the world's highest sea cliffs depends also on the definition of 'cliff' that is used. Guinness World Records states it is Kalaupapa, Hawaii , at 1,010 m high. Another contender

96-530: A more detailed stratigraphic sequence: the original profile is still existing. From it one can conclude that the Magdalenians settled approximately 14,000 years ago directly on the existing bottom of the abri. They lived at the abri until the Magdalenian VI. Then a catastrophic collapse of the roof occurred and the settlement site was partly strewn with some huge slabs of rock and debris. Afterwards

120-649: A spectacular collapse with up to 10 meter high boulders. By now the main abri has been cleaned up completely, whereas the Abri des Marseilles has only been partially explored. Apart from stone artefacts and other tools, all in all approximately 600 art objects from the Magdalenian were recovered in Laugerie-Basse. In Laugerie-Basse Paul Hurault, 8th Marquis de Vibraye discovered in 1864 the " Immodest Venus " ( French : Vénus impudique ) which gave its name to

144-431: Is a shallow cave -like opening at the base of a bluff or cliff . In contrast to solutional caves ( karst ), which are often many miles long or wide, rock shelters are almost always modest in size and extent. Rock shelters form because a rock stratum such as sandstone that is resistant to erosion and weathering has formed a cliff or bluff, but a softer stratum, more subject to erosion and weathering, lies just below

168-494: Is found only in rock shelters in Kentucky and Tennessee. Cliff In geography and geology, a cliff or rock face is an area of rock which has a general angle defined by the vertical, or nearly vertical. Cliffs are formed by the processes of weathering and erosion , with the effect of gravity . Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers. Cliffs are usually composed of rock that

192-558: Is overhanging. This is commonly regarded as being the largest vertical drop on Earth [1] ot:leapyear at 1,250 m (4,100 ft). of Baffin Island , rises 4,300 ft above the flat frozen fjord, although the lower portion of the face breaks from the vertical wall with a series of ledges and buttresses. Other notable cliffs include: Above Sea Above Land Above Sea Above Land Submarine Above Sea Above Land Cliff landforms provide unique habitat niches to

216-422: Is resistant to weathering and erosion. The sedimentary rocks that are 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 , a landslide, or sometimes by rock slides or falling rocks which change the differential erosion of

240-494: Is seldom a significant factor. Many rock shelters are found under waterfalls . Rock shelters are often important archaeologically . Because rock shelters form natural shelters from the weather, prehistoric humans often used them as living-places, and left behind debris, tools, and other artifacts . In mountainous areas the shelters can also be important for mountaineers . Transhumant nomads, people who move with their livestock - often from lower permanent winter residences in

264-486: Is the north face of Mitre Peak , which drops 1,683 m to Milford Sound , New Zealand. These are subject to a less stringent definition, as the average slope of these cliffs at Kaulapapa is about 1.7, corresponding to an angle of 60 degrees, and Mitre Peak is similar. A more vertical drop into the sea can be found at Maujit Qaqarssuasia (also known as the ' Thumbnail ') which is situated in the Torssukátak fjord area at

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288-765: The Sam Ford Fjord , or others in remote areas of Greenland may be higher. The highest cliff in the solar system may be Verona Rupes , an approximately 20 km (12 mi) high fault scarp on Miranda , a moon of Uranus. The following is an incomplete list of cliffs of the world. Above Sea Above Land Several big granite faces in the Arctic region vie for the title of 'highest vertical drop on Earth', but reliable measurements are not always available. The possible contenders include (measurements are approximate): Mount Thor , Baffin Island , Canada; 1,370 m (4,500 ft) total; top 480 m (1600 ft)

312-517: The Azilian, which roughly corresponds to the time segment from 14,000 until 10,000 years BP . The Abri des Marseilles has had a longer settlement period, it had been inhabited during the entire Magdalenian and into the Neolithic which corresponds to the time segment from 17,000 until 7,000 years BP. Abri A rock shelter (also rockhouse , crepuscular cave , bluff shelter , or abri )

336-581: The first stratigraphy of the main abri. Maury then moved on to the hitherto disregarded Abri des Marseilles where he was active until 1920. The stratigraphy in the main abri comprises archaeological material mainly from Magdalenian III and Magdalenian IV. There is also some marginal evidence of the Azilian . In the slope waste in front of the scarp slope remains from the Neolithic and the late Bronze Age were also discovered. The Abri de Marseilles offers

360-482: The formation of sea cliffs along a receding coastline. The British Ordnance Survey distinguishes between around most cliffs (continuous line along the topper edge with projections down the face) and outcrops (continuous lines along lower edge). Cliff comes from the Old English word clif of essentially the same meaning, cognate with Dutch, Low German, and Old Norse klif 'cliff'. These may in turn all be from

384-492: The genre of paleolithic Venus figurines . Shortly after that, around 1867-68, the Woman under the reindeer ( la femme au renne ) was discovered by Abbé Landesque. Many of these early art pieces are now scattered in museums all over the world. Pierced bone rondels picturing chamoises and deer have been discovered from the middle Magdalenian (stage IV). The main abri was inhabited in the middle and upper Magdalenian as well as in

408-526: The houses of Laugerie-Basse were built directly into the rocks so that building a back wall and the back half of the roof was dispensable. The prehistoric site consists of two abris: the main abri and 50 meters upstream the Abri of Marseilles . Between the abris and the Vézère the D 47 runs from Périgueux to Les Eyzies. In 1863 Édouard Lartet and Henry Christy began for the first time with excavations on

432-464: The main abri. At that time a small farm with a barn and a stable was standing on the excavation area. Lartet and Christy were succeeded by the Marquis de Vibraye and his assistant Franchet and shortly thereafter by Massénat. The excavations on the main abri were rather chaotic for the next five decades. Only between 1912 and 1913 Denis Peyrony and Maury were able to proceed more systematically and make

456-482: The people returned to this place, which is clearly evident from traces of settlement on and between the boulders. Thereafter the Abri des Marseilles sank completely into oblivion until the late Neolithic . Around 2000 BC members of the Artenac culture arrived who left an enormous, and in this magnitude inexplicable, ash and charcoal layer that covered the whole abri. Further slides of the roof later occurred bringing about

480-407: The resistant stratum, and thus undercuts the cliff. In arid areas, wind erosion ( Aeolian erosion ) can be an important factor in rockhouse formation. In most humid areas, the most important factor in rockhouse formation is frost spalling , where the softer, more porous rock underneath is pushed off, tiny pieces at a time, by frost expansion from water frozen in the pores. Erosion from moving water

504-442: The rock layers. Most cliffs have some form of scree slope at their base. In arid areas or under high cliffs, they are generally exposed jumbles of fallen rock. In areas of higher moisture, a soil slope may obscure the talus . Many cliffs also feature tributary waterfalls or rock shelters . Sometimes a cliff peters out at the end of a ridge, with mushroom rocks or other types of rock columns remaining. Coastal erosion may lead to

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528-551: The rock wall or the combination. Listings of cliffs are thus inherently uncertain. Some of the largest cliffs on Earth are found underwater. For example, an 8,000 m drop over a 4,250 m span can be found at a ridge sitting inside the Kermadec Trench . According to some sources, the highest cliff in the world, about 1,340 m high, is the east face of Great Trango in the Karakoram mountains of northern Pakistan. This uses

552-464: The valleys to higher summer pastures - frequently build semi-permanent camps, often of rocks. In western Connecticut and eastern New York , many rock shelters are known by the colloquialism "leatherman caves", as they were inhabited by the Leatherman over three decades in the late 19th century. The Cumberland stitchwort ( Minuartia cumberlandensis ) is an endangered species of plant which

576-504: The very tip of South Greenland and drops 1,560 m near-vertically. Considering a truly vertical drop, Mount Thor on Baffin Island in Arctic Canada is often considered the highest at 1370 m (4500 ft) high in total (the top 480 m (1600 ft) is overhanging), and is said to give it the longest vertical drop on Earth at 1,250 m (4,100 ft). However, other cliffs on Baffin Island, such as Polar Sun Spire in

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