Aspect-dependent bedrock weathering, cliff retreat, and cliff morphology in a hyperarid environment

Cliff hangers

The peregrine falcon holds a special place in the minds of environmentalists and conservation biologists. The crash in its population throughout the 1950s and 60s was linked to the rapidly increasing use of agricultural organochlorine pesticides which led to a thinning of the birds’ eggshells and dramatic breeding failure. Since the widespread ban on the use of these chemicals, populations have...

Cliff hanger

The asparagus season has recently ended for northern hemisphere crops. Tradition has it that, at the summer solstice, growers stop cutting spears to allow the plant to grow and produce enough resources to generate spears for the next spring’s crop. The plant is becoming increasingly fashionable and production is increasing to meet demand. But the cultivated asparagus has a wild relative that is...

CLiFF Notes

Sediment dynamics below retreating cliffs

The retreat of cliffs may constitute the dominant erosional response to base‐level fall in arid settings underlain by horizontally‐bedded sedimentary rock. These vertical cliffs typically loom above a relatively straight bedrock slope (‘plinth’) that is mantled with a thin layer of sediment and perched near the angle of repose. In detail, a plinth consists of a system of quasi‐parallel ridges a...

Potential Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat driven by hydrofracturing and ice cliff failure

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Keywords: ice sheet Antarctica sea level subglacial basin ice cliff hydrofracture Geological data indicate that global mean sea level has fluctuated on 10 3 to 10 6 yr time scales during the last ∼25 million years, at times reaching 20 m or more above modern. If correct, this implies substantial variations in the size of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS)....