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Cliffs of Sangstrup
The Cliffs of Sangstrup and Karlby in Denmark, Northern Europe, at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, are two, up to 17 meters tall, and 5 km long coastal limestone cliffs originating from a 65-million-year-old coral reef in a prehistorical and tropical Danish sea. Today the climate in Denmark is coastal temperate.
Waves have eroded a number of caves into the cliffsIt is possible – and legal for anyone – to search for fossils in the cliffs. New cliff material is exposed regularly due coastal erosion, prompting rock falls. Here and there corroded cannonball holes can be found in the cliffs, supposedly from target shooting performed by German warships during World War II.
Some places the sea has hollowed out caves into the cliff wall. Mostly there is a narrow shoreline in front of the cliffs, although some coves are isolated and only accessible from the shore when the tide is out. The tidal difference is moderate, normally in the range of 30 cm (one foot) on this east-facing coastline shielded from the more exposed west-facing Atlantic coastlines of Europe.
The cliffs are not very known, not even among local residents on the peninsula, Djursland, where they are situated on the north-east coast facing Sweden 100 km across the sea. Djursland is a circa 40 km x 40 km peninsula with a population of 80.000 inhabitants and a population density of 42 per square kilometer.
The Cliffs of Sangstrup and Karlby are sought out by anglers, and snorkel- and scuba divers. The underwater topography consists of limestone outcrops with cliffs and crevasses among forests of kelp.
Access to the cliffs by car is possible at The Bight of Hjembæk, 10 km north of the town, Grenaa. Here the Cliffs of Karlby stretch to the north and The Cliffs of Sangstrup to the south.
Geological formation
The rocky limestone and flint seen as The Cliffs of Sangstrup (Sangstrup Klint, in Danish) is part of a geological formation, Danien, that can also be seen at the surface on one of the south easterly islands of Denmark, Møn, as The Cliffs of Møn (Møns Klint, in Danish)160 km south east of Sangstrup.
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