Rotes Kliff

The Red Cliff is a 52 meter high cliffs between the towns of Westerland and Kampen, on the North Sea island of Sylt. It is located on the located to the open sea west side of the island. In the south it begins south of the parking lot " Risgap " in Westerland and in the north it ends in height " house Kliffende " at the Kampen West Heath.

Earth's

Years ago, about 120,000 glaciers superimposed the Saale glaciation mighty masses of debris from unsorted rock in the area of ​​present-day island of Sylt. These formed due to sea level rise from a postglacial scarp. The rust-red boulder clay, which gave its name to the cliff, got his coloring by the oxidation of ferrous components.

In the 19th century, geologists suspected to have a geological connection between Sylt and Helgoland, whose rocks indeed have a similar coloration, but are considerably older and a different history. The breaking out of the red cliff rocks such as flint, or Rhombenporphyr Rapakivigranit leave today for a precise determination of their origin.

For centuries, served this striking scarp of shipping as an unmistakable distinguishing feature of the island, such a showy demolition coast but is found on the shores of the German and Dutch North Sea coast no more time.

Coastal protection and nature conservation

The Red Cliff is at significant risk has always been by storm surge and erosion. In the context of coastal protection, however, since the late 1970s carried out extensive beach nourishment on the entire western beach of the island and afford protection against the loss of land. This, however, led to the cliff mostly no longer visible in the municipality of Westerland, but is covered by vegetated with beach grass upstream dunes.

In 1979, the area starting from the northern residential community of Westerland, Kampen further direction, reported in the entire area between the building and the western sand beach as a nature reserve. This area above the red cliffs covers 177 ha and is listed under the CDDA Code 81561.

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