Klippe

For the style of coin, see Klippe (coin).

A klippe (German for cliff or crag; plural klippen or klippes^[1]) is a geological feature of thrust fault terrains. The klippe is the remnant portion of a nappe after erosion has removed connecting portions of the nappe. This process results in an outlier of exotic, often nearly horizontally translated strata overlying autochthonous strata.^[2]

Schematic overview of a thrust system. The shaded material is called a nappe. The erosional hole is called a window or fenster. The klippe is the isolated block of the nappe overlying autochthonous material.

Examples

^{[citation needed]}

• Chief Mountain, Montana
• Mount Yamnuska, Alberta
• The Rock of Gibraltar
• Acropolis of Athens, Greece
• Bac Grillera, Catalonia, Spain. The nappe of which this klippe once formed part had its root in the northern part of the Pyrenees mountain range.^[3][4]

Klippes may also be found in the Pre-Alps of Switzerland and some of the isolated mountains in Assynt, Sutherland, in NW Scotland.^[5]

• 
  Beckov Castle, Slovakia, perched on a limestone klippe
• 
  Serra de Bac Grillera, Catalonia, Spain (Lower Jurassic limestone resting on younger autochthonous Tertiary formations)