Coastal Erosion at the North Norfolk Coastline - page 1
Keywords: Cley, Overstrand, Cliffs, Coastal erosion,
By ROYDS on 26/09/2008
Level: GCSE Key Stage 4 (Years 10-11)
Page Number: 1 of 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
North Norfolk Coast line
Cley
Cley ‘next to the sea’ or so it is called is a small village in the North Norfolk and despite being called Cley next to the sea it is actually 1 kilometre away. Cley used to be ‘next to the sea’ and was, in the medieval times a thriving port exporting grain and wool from the local sheep but as the time has past a large sand spit, Blakeney spit, has formed.
What is a spit?
It is a permanent landform resulting from marine deposition. It’s usually a long and narrow accumulation of sand or shingle, with one end attached to the land (proximal end) and the other across a river estuary or outwards toward the sea (distal end). Normally spits have a hooked end and like Blakeney, over time marshland has developed over the centuries behind it.
How can they form?
There are two ways in which a spit can form; they are by an off shore bar that has moved in to the bay to the cost line or the gradual process of long shore drift. The latter, being long shore drift is the more common of the two processes. Long shore drift occurs when the wave approaches the beach at an angle, a similar angle to that of the prevailing winds. As the waves hit the beach swash carries material diagonally up the beach and in turn the backwash carries it directly down back out. This process keeps occurring and eventually makes a spit. You can place sea defences such as wooden groynes to prevent the spit forming but you still end up with an accumulation of sand and a depletion of sand either side. The reason we are not sure that long shore drift was the sole cause is because if we look at photos from 200 years ago we can see there used to be a bar out shore. The theory is that the bar moved inwards and moulded to the coast, this was probably created by a postglacial rise in the sea level, which pushed material towards the shore. The bar was slightly larger than this part of the coast, which left part of the bar sticking out, forming a spit.
Problems at Blakeney?
The problem with this particular spit is that the marshland behind the ridge is low-lying hence being susceptible to flooding. The last time there was a flood
Last 5 comments…
There have been no comments posted for this article, but you need to register if you want to be the first!