User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Alcove (landform)

Alcove, is the geography and geology term for a landform, a steep-sided hollow in the side of a from an exposed rock face or cliff 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 concetrate, 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 sandstones of the Colorado Plateau, like the Navajo Sandstone.