The narrow passage that exists between two or more elevations is called a gorge. These openings usually arise as a result of erosion that occurs in mountainous areas. See Abbreviation Finder for acronyms related to Gorge.
For example: “The heavy snowfall made it impossible to cross the gorge”, “The climber was advancing through the gorge when an avalanche buried him”, “The view from the gorge is impressive”.
Many times the gorge is created from river erosion. Later, when the water recedes from the channel, the opening dries up and the gorge is formed, which can usually be used to traverse the mountain.
Sometimes, the reason why the river forms the gorge in a limestone area dries up by a phenomenon called fluvial capture, which belongs to the field of hydrography and is defined as the erosion produced by the waters of a river and achieves the formation of a breach in the bed of another. The name derives from the fact that the first river ” captures ” the water of the second, stripping it of its flow, thus forming what is known as a capture elbow.
In the Spanish province of Cuenca, is the Ciudad Encantada, a natural area where we can see various limestone or calcareous rock formations, some of which are several millennia old. Between them there is a gorge, much visited by the thousands of tourists who come every year in search of its fascinating landscapes.
Depending on its characteristics, the gorge can also be known as an open, canyon, throat or step, and the choice of one name or another usually responds especially to the size of the formation. The definition, therefore, is ambiguous: the concept can be used in different contexts with more or less precise meanings.
If the gorges give rise to the formation of curves in the course of a river, we speak of a sickle, something that can be seen in the name Hoces del Duratón, which are found in the vicinity of the Spanish municipality of Sepúlveda, belonging to Segovia.
There are several gorges, canyons and mountain passes that have achieved fame over the decades thanks to their strategic value in terms of communications; in some cases the only way to access a major city is through them. Two very prominent examples can be seen in France and Greece, with Azincurt and Thermopylae, respectively. In the particular case of the Azincurt gorge, it is not the relief that forms the narrowness of the terrain, but rather two forests that are close together.
Other examples of gorges that have become famous for strategic reasons are that of the Siq, in the enclave called Petra, in Jordan, and the Puertas de Miraflores (also known by the name of Puertas del Guarapiche), which is located in the Republic of Venezuela..
The Rio Grande Gorge, in the United States, is an example of this type of formation. It is located in Taos County, belonging to the state of New Mexico.
In Spain, more precisely in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia, there is the Terradets gorge. This opening was caused by the action of the Noguera Pallaresa river, which crossed the Sierra del Montsec. Currently the gorge is crossed by a railway and a road.
Los Beyos, Los Gaitanes, Cumberland, La Hermida and Pancorbo are other known gorges. It should be noted that it is even possible to find gorges in the field of fiction. That is the case of the Tarlang Gorge, imagined by JRR Tolkien in his saga “The Lord of the Rings”.