Saturday 14 January 2012

Alternative Jurassic coast

Sent by a reader:-
"The recent stormy weather has washed clean the sea front at Clevedon and removed a lot of beach pebbles, sand and, more importantly, mud. The strata are much clearer than normally seen. South of the pier slip-way numerous steeply inclined strata have been revealed and these show similar folding to that seen on the Portishead shore. I have not examined these beds for fossils but I assume they are of a similar age. 
Between the slip-way and the cliff, by the pier, an expanse of near horizontal beds can been seen at low tide.  These lie just above the unconformity and the same near horizontal strata can be seen at Ladye Bay. Again these are exposed at low tide. 
Perhaps both bays in the present shore line were features of the Triassic and the present topography is an exhumed "Jurassic coast" unlike that mis-named along the south coast."

2 comments:

Alan said...

Thanks for the information; very impressive - - must go and have a look!

Alan said...

I visited Clevedon today as a result of this information on the beach being sediment free. Very interesting and well worth a visit. Thanks for the information. Interesting range of things in a small area