Plunging cliffs, so called by Davis (1928, pp.151–154, 247, 272-274), are sea cliffs drowned at the base by rapid rise of sea level, which may be due in some cases to sinking of the land, but in most cases are the result of postglacial transgression. While this was generally not rapid enough to drown cliffs of soft materials, which would undergo erosion contemporaneously, hard-rock cliffs have commonly become plunging.
Davis included in this category examples in which the cliffs had been reduced in steepness by subaerial processes prior to drowning (Tutuila and Tahiti Islands, in the tropical Pacific). Subsequently to drowning, such cliffs, though initially plunging, have been notched by marine erosion. When, however, unmodified cliffs on rocks so hard that the cliffs are nearly vertical are drowned, the plunging cliffs are immune from attack by the sea at the new level, at any rate under certain conditions.
“It is clear that the persistence or survival of plunging cliffs in the shore...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cotton, C. A., 1951, Sea cliffs of Banks Peninsula and Wellington, N.Z. Geographer, 7, 103–120.
Cotton, C. A., 1952, Cyclic resection of headlands by marine erosion, Geol. Mag., 89, 221–225.
Cotton, C. A., 1967, “Plunging Cliffs and Pleistocene Coastal Cliffing in the Southern Hemisphere, in Mélange Tulippe, Liège.
Daly, R. A., 1927, The geology of St. Helena Island, Proc. Am. Acad. Arts Sci., 62, 31–92.
Davis W. M., 1928, The Coral Reef Problem, New York, American Geographical Society, 596pp.
Fleming, C. A., 1965, Two-storied cliffs of the Auckland Islands, Trans. Roy. Soc. New Zealand Geol., 3(11), 171–174.
Guilcher, A., 1948, Le relief de la Bretagne meridionale, La Roche-sur-Yon, Henri Potier, 682pp.
Guilcher, A., 1954, Morphologie littorale et sousmarine, Paris, Presses Universitaire de France; English ed., 1958, Coastal and Submarine Morphology, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 274pp.
Hinds, N. E. A., 1930, The geology of Kauai and Niihau, Bernice P. Bishop Mus. Bull., 71, 103pp.
Johnson, W. D., 1925, The New England—Acadian Shoreline, New York, John Wiley & Sons, 608pp.
Cross-references
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1968 Reinhold Book Corporation
About this entry
Cite this entry
Cotton, C.A. (1968). Plunging cliffs . In: Geomorphology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_293
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31060-6_293
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-0-442-00939-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31060-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive