Steep Coast

A steep coast is a stretch of coastline where the land descends abruptly to the sea rather than sloping gradually, creating a sharp transition between land well above sea level and the water. Most steep coasts are rocky, abrasion coastlines shaped by direct wave erosion, though fjords form a glacial variant, where glacially carved valleys were partly submerged by rising sea levels to leave near vertical walls that can rise over 1,000 meters above the water and continue another 300 meters below it, as in Norway, New Zealand and Alaska. On volcanic islands, steep coasts can also form where the sea has entered a caldera or where a volcanic pipe face meets the water, as at Santorini in Greece, where the caldera rim rises about 300 meters above sea level and descends roughly 200 meters below it.