All links checked January 2004. New Happisburgh material.
The South West Grid for Learning have an excellent area all about the JURASSIC COAST OF DORSET and East Devon with some excellent graphics and the chance to take a virtual trip. Lots of detail to flesh out case study work. Learning resources on locations like West Bay and Lyme Regis, including details on erosion protection schemes, and engineering works. Worth investigating to see what other treasures are buried within. Try the Digital Jurassic Coast. This is the case study we use for a Concordant coastline, to compare with the Discordant coastline around to the East near the Foreland and Swanage Bay. We also use a GA booklet of Classic Landforms on East Dorset, which is a little beyond most people . Recommended.
A follow up to the site above is this personal site which has lots on the FOSSILS OF THE JURASSIC COAST. Some useful little images and details on coastal landforms and unconformities, which is better on second visit than I remembered.
Details on the TIDES can be found on the BBC Weather site. Go to the BBC WEATHER site and look for the link down the right hand side of the page. You can get a print out in graphical format of the tide situation on any day for a whole range of ports around the coast of Britain. You can use the graph to work out tidal range, so this could be an activity to develop looking at differences in tidal range at ports in different locations around the coast of the British Isles. Just a thought...
I use the BBC WORLD PHYSICAL video to explain how erosion, transportation and deposition combine along the coast of Wales to result in Harlech Castle being almost a kilometre inland when around 700 years ago it was next to the sea. The erosion on the Pembrokeshire Coast results in marvellous features such as the Green Bridge of Wales. Searching appropriately will produce lots of information, particularly on the dune systems of Morfa Harlech (see later on this page) The following sites have information on the castle and its area: Tremadog Bay. The siege of the castle, and the victory of Owain Glyndywr (sic) gave rise to the famous song: 'Men of Harlech'.
HARLECH CASTLE
CASTLES OF BRITAIN
Students need to know a little about the formation of tides, and why there are spring and neap tides. These have an obvious effect on the coastline as they determine how far inland the saltwater penetrates in areas such as salt marsh. This then has a knock on effect on zonation of plant species. To see the current position of the sun and moon in relation to the earth, try this German SUN AND MOON VIEWER applet which is quite groovy.
Deposition is not always natural. There are several locations where material is being deliberately placed in the sea: on the coast of Japan there is the formation of many large areas of reclaimed land, such as Rokko Island. A particularly expensive plan is underway off the coast of Dubai. The plan is to produce a man-made island in the shape of a palm tree: the PALM JUMEIRAH. There is already a spectacular hotel: the Jumeirah Beach Hotel shaped like the sails of an Arab dhow. The Daily Mail recently printed an excellent diagram showing the map as it will be when completed. Billions of dollars are being 'sunk' into the project.
There's a COASTAL EROSION lesson at the GEOMATICS site. Register for access to some useful resources.
There's a good set of resources on SEDIMENT at BIRKBECK COLLEGE, which I think my friend Mr. Douglass must have referred to. By stripping off the address you can explore other parts of the site and there are some good resources to use. The BIRKBECK College site has another very useful resource which is a set of notes on RIVER AND COASTAL FLOODING. Mainly in PDF format.
There is a good map available courtesy of NORWICH GREEN PARTY. They have a very nice map showing the effect of a 6m rise in sea level, which is a bit of a worst-case scenario, on Norfolk.
Interested in the coastal geology of the North Norfolk COAST ? Go to this site which is based in Cromer. There are plenty of places where you can find images of the Norfolk coast. We use some of these as a starter activity for Key Stage 3 pupils.
Go to the TIDE TIMES site for TIDE TIMES, and other information relating to fishing: FISHING REPORT.
Details on SAND DUNES here, and other material, courtesy of Paul Swinhoe. There is some excellent data which could form the basis for a 'virtual' sand dune trip.
The COASTAL GUIDE site has fairly high level resources related to Coastal management.
More here at EXETER UNIVERSITY
Recently came across some useful materials produced by Raffles Girls School in Singapore. There are a few pages which have some useful animations on coastal erosion. There is also some information about a particular coastal feature in the area. A group of students from the school recently went on a field trip to Bali and Australia (as you do...) - one of the features that they went to see was a feature called TANAH LOT and the 12 APOSTLES. Tanah Lot is a high energy coastline which therefore has a very dramatic series of landforms. The 12 Apostles are a series of stacks (of which only 7 remain as the rest have collapsed over time), and are found in the Port Campbell National Park in Australia. The animations are good to show the erosion of a headland.
The S-COOL site now has some useful notes for AS and A2 Coasts work. The notes are on Deltas and Estuaries and Changes to Coastal Areas. They cover Delta Form and formation, Estuaries, Sea Level Change (Submergent and Emergent coastlines) and Human Influences on the coast.
Head off to the Teacher Resource Exchange and you'll find some information on the Sandscale Sand-dune system put there by Rick Cope of Backwell School.
The spring tides in September 2001 coincided with a low pressure system over the North Sea, heavy rain, and strong northerly winds which pushed onto the North West Norfolk coast, and produced some dramatic erosion on the beaches at Heacham and Snettisham in particular. Sea defences built in 1990 were almost breached and people had to be evacuated from the caravan and mobile home parks in the area. A page of information and photos is here. The defence works are now being undertaken and more news on this story as it happens. There have recently (May 2002) been several public meetings to keep people locally informed of the progress on the defence work and where the millions are going.
There are notes from a series of lectures on the Norfolk coast given at a Coastal Change conference in 1999 and 2000. They are on the NORFOLK AONB site. There's an excellent one by John Pethick on the nature of sediment movement in the Wash.
There are some details on the floods of 1953 at my dedicated page HERE and a detailed LESSON PLAN here.
There was also a useful report on a cliff collapse at Happisburgh, in North Norfolk. This was featured in the EDP in January 2003. Head off to HAPPISBURGH's site to sign their online petition.
There are some excellent photos produced by GERD MASSELINK of Loughborough University. Some of them have some good features. There are pictures of the Devon coast, plus Norfolk and the Holderness coast. Some of the useful features are coastal platforms in various locations, and beach cusps.
Lifeboatmen had to rescue a lady who fell over the cliff. North Norfolk District Council have warned people away from the area after people have been going to have a look at the houses which are close to falling over the cliff. Many are walking too close to the edge. There is also work taking place to put in temporary sea defences in the form of a rip rap wall.
Wells next the Sea has a history of being flooded, and is now protected by a large bank. There are details and lots of pictures at the site of WELLS itself which has some good images.
Good find in February 2004.
A new find is the DORSET COAST DIGITAL ARCHIVE. This has information on 3 THEMES, or LEARNING PACKAGES. Theme 1 is called 'Physical Changes to the Coast' and has 4 topics (Dorset's Marine and Coastal Habitats, Marine Ecology, Coastal Form Processes and Dorset's Underwater World). Theme 2 is 'Settlements and Society' and has 4 topics (Origins of Growth and Settlement, Life on the land and in the town, Leisure hours, The influence of the Sea). Theme 3 is 'Managing the Coast' and has 4 topics (Impacts of Landslide and Coastal change, History on the seabed, Who's who in coastal management and Marine resources) Recommended.
One area where coastal processes are very much a part of the landscape is at Skagen: on the tip of the Jutland peninsula, close to the port of Aalborg. This is very popular with tourists, and every year the population is swelled 5 times by visitors. It attracts artists because of 'the light'. The peninsula is where the Baltic (or Kattegat) meets the North Sea (Skagerrak). The waves are driven on by the prevailing winds, 450 miles from Scotland, and shift huge amounts of sand when they arrive. Every year more than 1 million cubic yards is dumped on the coast, with the result that Denmark is advancing towards Sweden at a rate of 50m a year. For more information try the DANISH TOURIST BOARD.
There are a series of stretches of coastline which we commonly use, and which students should be familiar with.
THE HOLDERNESS COASTLINE: Ranging from the chalk of Flamborough Head, with all the classic landforms from stacks, to arches to shore platforms. The Chalk dips down, and you move onto the low boulder clay cliffs which are the fastest eroding coastline in Europe. Rotational slumping of the cliffs.
THE PURBECK COAST OF DORSET: Need to bear in mind the erosion of the Foreland, producing the Old Harry stack, the differential erosion at Swanage Bay and Studland Bay, then round the coast to Durdle Door, Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove (there are links to the Jurrassic Coast site above...)
There is also the PURBECK COAST council. Try some useful PAPERS here. There's also the COASTLINK site.
Some aerial PHOTOGRAPHY OF THE DORSET COAST here and also HERE.
There are some good images at the website of the WDCRG (see link lower down the page) One of the good ones was an image produced by Malcolm Bray of West Bay in Dorset. I'm sure lots of teachers have images of similar quality and value lurking in photo albums from past travels. A little effort scanning these and a large archive of images could be built up very quickly.
START BAY: Slapton Sands, the village of Hallsands which was destroyed by a storm after the shingle beach protecting it was dredged for use in constructing naval dockyards. The village is one of those places which have a very strange ambience - lots of 'ghosts'. I visited in 1984, since when the village has apparently been fenced off for safety reasons.
Other useful individual examples:
Etretat: on the coast of Normandy, France - famous sea stack and arches
A recent news article on the BBC site (do a search for it) gave some information on the causeway which links Lindisfarne (Holy Island) to the mainland. Having travelled over the road a large number of times, it was always important to arrive at the right time to coincide with the low tide (twice a day) which would allow you to drive over. A build up of sand moving round the coastline is now threatening the island with isolation. This results in sand and water blocking the causeway even after the tide has receded. The build up is being blamed on strong westerly winds, and has overcome 400 yards of ditches built to stop the build-up.
Mont St Michel is also going to be altered to reinstate the tombolo causeway connection, and allow the water to come up around the island.
The JURASSIC Coast is also joined by the coast of the Isle of Wight. This is well served with websites.
A rather good site is the one linked to by the image below:
HULL UNIVERSITY has the Institute for Estuarine and Coastal Studies.
ISLE OF WIGHT
Start with the MEDINA VALLEY centre. Go to the COASTALWEB section of the site for a range of materials on the nature of the coast of the Isle of Wight. There are maps, plus details on the various management options for stretches of the Isle of Wight coastline in particular locations (similar to the exercise I put together for the Holderness coast...)
The options, to remind you again, are:
HOLD THE LINE
RETREAT THE LINE
DO NOTHING BUT MONITOR
ADVANCE THE LINE
For example, at Monk's Bay, rip rap walls made from Norwegian granite blocks have been installed. This is great CASE STUDY material for schools in the south of England, and elsewhere.
There's also the VISITOR CENTRE which has some excellent links.
HAPPISBURGH has a website which is the base for the CCAG: COASTAL CONCERN ACTION GROUP. Recommended. There's a whole range of resources: images, data, news and campaign news. As with most sites in the area it has a section on the 1953 Floods, and a new picture of an SOS protest from August 2003 when a number of people spelt out SOS with their bodies. There's a very clear image taken in late December 2003 which shows the extent to which some buildings are now threatened with disaster. I recommend that you go and check this site out if you want to have a case study of rapid coastal erosion.
The home page puts across a clear message. Happisburgh is on the doorstep to disaster. You can do 2 useful things at the site:
Sign up for a monthly newsletter
Sign the online petition. I added my name to make it 545 signatures (there were over 1500 by January 2004, and the number grows by the day)
The site also has a link to some excellent images produced by David Moore, called NORFOLK IMAGES. There are images of North Norfolk, Happisburgh and Coastal Erosion. There are also some nice images from Mike Page at the NORFOLK SKYVIEW site. These are featured on the site and elsewhere.
Happisburgh was the subject of a very useful article in 'The Times' in February 2004, with the headline: "Now you see it, now you don't".
There is a row of houses in Beach Road which is particularly under threat (it soon will be on the beach)
Communities either side of Happisburgh, such as Bacton and Sea Palling have been protected by sea walls or offshore reefs. The reefs at Sea Palling are featured elsewhere on GeographyPages. Problems go aback to around 1990 when a 300m length of defensive revetment was destroyed in a storm, and 6 homes were undermined. The local council couldn't get the support to rebuild or repair the barrier on the grounds of cost.
Check out this art work at BAWDSEY in SUFFOLK.
The artist Bettina Furnee planted a series of flags on the top of low cliffs near to a Martello Tower on the Suffolk coast. The flags are different colours and spell out the message SUBMISSION IS ADVANCING AT A FRIGHTFUL SPEED... and that is certainly the case.
A webcam takes a picture of the scene every 15 minutes, and these can be animated together to show the rate at which this area is being eroded. Check out the latest image by visiting the site, then head over to the ARCHIVE. February 24th saw several flags disappearing - it's worth logging on when the tide is high and there's an onshore wind blowing.
Keep an eye on this during the year - how long before those flags all disappear ? Art and Geography meeting once again.