Dorset Coast Flashcards
What is Dorset Coast:
Dorset has become famous for its Jurassic Coastline - a world heritage site protected because of its extensive rocks and fossils, some dating back 185 million years. It is an example of both a discordant and concordant coast, as well as many different distinct coastal features.
1. Chesil Beach
2. Weymouth Spit
3. Lulworth Cove
4. Durlston Point
5. Ballard Point
Chesil Beach:
It’s a barrier beach connecting the mainland to the Isle of Portland.
The barrier beach has also created Fleet Lagoon, which is saline (salty).
The beach is 18 miles long and has a maximum height of 15m. it is made of pebbles.
Weymouth Spit:
A spit formed as the mainland behind changed direction sharply.
A recent change in the prevailing wind direction has caused the spit to curve.
A salt marsh has formed behind, as the spit offers protection from the sea’s currents.
Lulworth Cove:
The formation began after an Ice Age, when a river running to sea became swollen with glacier meltwater.
Erosion of the river banks and marine erosion at the mouth widened the river.
Now the sea can access soft rock behind the cliff face, and erosion accelerates when in contact with the soft rock, to form a cove.
Durlston Point:
Durlston Point is receding due to erosion.
Weathering on top of the cliff and marine erosion created a wave-cut notch which caused the cliff to weaken.
Eventually, the cliff will collapse and fall under mass movement, leaving a shallow wave cut platform and a new cliff face for erosion to act on.
Ballard Point:
Old Harry and His Wife are an example of a cave-arch-stack-stump sequence.
Old Harry is a stack, left separated from the mainland as the arch connecting them collapsed.
Old Harry’s Wife is a stump, which would have previously been a stack that had eroded, weathered, and collapsed.
The cliffs are made of Cretaceous Chalk, which is strong enough to support itself as a vertical stack.
