Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2025
Arches, hoodoos, buttes, mesas … these are the picturesque landforms that most tourists and landscape-lovers know about, and which are the focus of many parks and recreation areas. All of these landforms are bedrock-controlled, with rock at or immediately beneath the surface. This chapter introduces a wide array of bedrock-controlled landforms. Most have formed on sedimentary rock, the most common rock in Earth’s upper crust. Thus, much of the focus in this chapter will be on landforms developed on flat-lying bedrock strata (layers) that have experienced minimal tectonic disturbance throughout their history. Chapters 9 and 10 focus on bedrock-controlled landforms formed on much more tectonically active landscapes.
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