The Magnesian escarpment is the most westerly of three prominent
escarpments
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.
Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...
that run north-south in
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
.
[
][
]
All three escarpments are formed by the edges of layers of sedimentary rocks. The easternmost and most prominent escarpment is the
Niagara Escarpment
The Niagara Escarpment is an approximately discontinuous, arc-shaped but generally northward-facing escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States. The escarpment begins south of Lake Ontario and circumscribes the top of the Great Lake ...
formed where younger and harder layers of
dolomite overlay softer sedimentary rocks.
The
Black River Escarpment is capped by another layer of relatively harder rocks, overlay older softer rocks. The rocks of the Magnesian layer overlay rocks of the
Cambrian
The Cambrian ( ) is the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 51.95 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran period 538.8 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Ordov ...
Period, the oldest sedimentary rocks that contain fossils.
See also
*
List of escarpments
A list of escarpments follows below.
Planets Earth
Africa
* Elgeyo Escarpment (Kenyan Rift Valley, Great Rift Valley)
* Great Escarpment, Southern Africa
**Including the Drakensberg and God's Window in Mpumalanga's Eastern Escarpment
* Bandiag ...
References
Landforms of Wisconsin
Escarpments of the United States
{{Wisconsin-geo-stub