Alcove is the

geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...

and

geological Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other E ...

term for a steep-sided hollow in the side of an exposed rock face or

cliff In geography and geology, a cliff 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 co ...

of a homogeneous rock type, that was water eroded. Alcoves are weathering features common in dissected horizontal strata. Alcoves form where chemical and physical weathering is concentrated along horizontal discontinuities where water and salts concentrate, such as the contact between a sandstone and an underlying shale bed. In the case of layered sandstones, an alcove may later be enlarged by exfoliation of upper layers. This is commonly seen in the sandstone alcoves of the Colorado Plateau, like those in

Navajo Sandstone The Navajo Sandstone is a geological formation in the Glen Canyon Group that is spread across the U.S. states of southern Nevada, northern Arizona, northwest Colorado, and Utah as part of the Colorado Plateau province of the United States.Anonymo ...

. Products of Weathering, Lindley Hanson, Department of Geological Sciences, Salem State College
from salemstate.edu accessed October 21, 2018.

References

Landforms {{topography-stub