Rupes

Term applied to scarps on planetary surfaces. Many scarps are thought to be the surface expression of faults within the crustOutermost layer of a differentiated planet, asteroid or moon, usually consisting of silicate rock and extending no more than 10s of km from the surface. The term is also applied to icy bodies, in which case it is composed of ices, frozen gases, and accumulated meteoritic material. On Earth, the of the planetary object.