Rotes Kliff

The Rotes Kliff is a around 30-metre high line of

sea cliff Seacliff or Sea Cliff or Sea Cliffe may refer to: ;Places ''Australia'' *Seacliff, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide *Seacliff Park, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide *Sea Cliff Bridge, in Illawarra, New South Wales ''New Zealand'' *Seacli ...

s between the villages of

Wenningstedt Wenningstedt-Braderup (Söl'ring: Woningstair-Brääderep, da, Venningsted-Brarup) is a municipality and seaside resort on the island of Sylt in the district of Nordfriesland, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located north of the town of ...

and Kampen on the German

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

island of

Sylt Sylt (; da, Sild; Sylt North Frisian, Söl'ring North Frisian: ) is an island in northern Germany, part of Nordfriesland district, Schleswig-Holstein, and well known for the distinctive shape of its shoreline. It belongs to the North Frisian ...

. It is located on the west side of the

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

facing the open sea, beginning in the south at the car park of "Risgap" in Wenningstedt and ending in the north at ''Haus Kliffende'' on the Kampen West Heath. For centuries these striking cliffs have acted as an unmistakable recognition mark of the island for ships. Nowhere on the German and Dutch North Sea shores is there such a striking

cliffed coast A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal areas in whic ...

. About 120,000 years ago,

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

s of the

Saale glaciation The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period (german: Saale-Kaltzeit), Saale complex (''Saale-Komplex'') or Saale glacial stage (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszei ...

deposited thick, unsorted

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

debris in the region of the present-day island of Sylt. As a result of rising

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

s in the post-glacial period, these formed an

abrasion coast A cliffed coast, also called an abrasion coast, is a form of coast where the action of marine waves has formed steep cliffs that may or may not be precipitous. It contrasts with a flat or alluvial coast. Formation In coastal areas in whic ...

line. The rusty-red

glacial till image:Geschiebemergel.JPG, Closeup of glacial till. Note that the larger grains (pebbles and gravel) in the till are completely surrounded by the matrix of finer material (silt and sand), and this characteristic, known as ''matrix support'', is d ...

, which gives the cliffs their name, is caused by colouration arising from the

oxidation Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

of ferrous elements. Even in the 19th century,

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

s suspected there was a geological connexion between Sylt and

Heligoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

, whose

s have a similar coloration but are considerably older and have a different genesis. The rocks that break off the Rotes Kliff - such as

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

rhomb porphyry Porphyry ( ) is a textural term for an igneous rock consisting of coarse-grained crystals such as feldspar or quartz dispersed in a fine-grained silicate-rich, generally aphanitic matrix or groundmass. The larger crystals are called phenocr ...

Rapakivi granite Rapakivi granite is a hornblende-biotite granite containing large round crystals of orthoclase each with a rim of oligoclase (a variety of plagioclase). The name has come to be used most frequently as a textural term where it implies plagioclase r ...

- still enable an accurate determination of their origin to be made. The Rotes Kliff has always been at great risk from

storm surge A storm surge, storm flood, tidal surge, or storm tide is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low-pressure weather systems, such as cyclones. It is measured as the rise in water level above the n ...

s and

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...

. Since the end of the 1970s,

coastal defence Coastal management is defence against flooding and erosion, and techniques that stop erosion to claim lands. Protection against rising sea levels in the 21st century is crucial, as sea level rise accelerates due to climate change. Changes in s ...

measures have been taken, however, in the shape of extensive

sand replenishment Beach nourishment (also referred to as beach renourishment, beach replenishment, or sand replenishment) describes a process by which sediment, usually sand, lost through longshore drift or erosion is replaced from other sources. A wider beach can ...

of the entire west beach of the island and this has proved an important protection against the loss of land. However this has also resulted in the Rotes Kliff in the municipality of Wenningstedt becoming largely invisible from the sea, because it is now hidden behind beach grass-covered

sand dune A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, fl ...

s. File:Panorama vor dem Roten Kliff.jpg, Rotes Kliff, seen from the beach between Wenningstedt and Kampen {{Coord, 54, 57, 03, N, 8, 19, 27, E, type:landmark_region:DE-SH, display=title Nordfriesland Cliffs of Germany Landforms of Schleswig-Holstein