Geomorphology of North Norfolk

[dylanwinter]

I have been loving my time on/in the Wash and along the North Norfolk Coast

Can anyone tell me why it looks the way it does

how long it has looked that way>

and

where it is going assuming we leave it alone and don't build the sea walls up

incidentally, Wells-Next-the-sea is so called because of the fresh water springs in the creek

the local tell me that the water comes from scandinavia

can that be true?

Dylan

 

[DJE]

Well according to this there's chalk under there somewhere which would account for the springs. But I'd think the water is more likely to come from the Chilterns than Skandinavia.

 

[sighmoon]

Way back, the Thames was merely a tributary of the Rhine.

I believe that there are lots of neolithic tools under the North Sea because East Anglia was much bigger a few thousand years ago.

 

[Habebty]

Norfolk is mostly glacial terminal morain consisiting of lenticular deposits of sands and gravels washed here when the glaciers retreated in the ice age. North Norfolk has textbook examples of drumlins (hillocks left by ice sheet movement).
Longshore drift is moving most of coastal Norfolk down towards Suffolk, hence the shapes of Yarmouth harbour and Orford Ness.
If left to it's own devices, I suspect Norfolk would end up looking like the Fresian Islands with Yarmouth becoming a barrier island with shallow tidal waters behind. Good thing if you ask me because Great Yarmouth is as the scientific term would have it - a craphole.

 

[dylanwinter]

the measurement of coastal advance

what deoes this mean?

accretion was greater than 8 m a–1,

used in this paper

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount2038.pdf


Dylan

 

[JayBee]

Great thread! The British coast from Lewis to Norfolk, either way round, must be the most varied and interesting of any landmass, anywhere.

 

[Habebty]

what deoes this mean?

accretion was greater than 8 m a–1,

used in this paper

http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/pdf/gcrdb/GCRsiteaccount2038.pdf


Dylan

What an interesting paper...

Having scanned it quickly it concentrates on the Westward longshore drift of the North Norfolk coast rather than the Southward drift of the East Norfolk coast and Suffolk.

The point at which the boundary lies between the two opposing drifts is somewhere in the vicinity of Caister on Sea.

The paper refers to both vertical and longitudinal acretion or rates of deposition at rates of metres per annum above ordnance datum vertically or ms per annum longitudinally.

It is facinating to note both the relative fragility of the coastline and the rate of change at which new features are created.

A possible analogy is hosing mud of your driveway, where the underlying bedrock of chalk and sandstone is your driveway and the fragile layers of gravels, sands, and clays of North Norfolk are the mud on your driveway being hosed off by the longshore drift.

Off lying the coast of North Norfolk are reefs and canyons of chalk which have been (and still are - especially if you live at Happisburgh!) denuded of the overlying glacial deposits exposing the chalk - a piece of which I imagine did for the slug. These canyons and reefs are possibly unique. Hence all the MCZ stuff going around at the moment. There is a website about them somewhere with amazing underwater photos.

The paper totally fails to address the underlying premise that Great Yarmouth is a craphole.

 

[Habebty]

try this about the chalk reefs

http://www.seasearch.co.uk/downloads/Norfolk Chalk Reef report 2010.pdf

 

[dylanwinter]

so

it seems to me that this coast is wobbling around at 100m a year - either in retreat or in advance

I have to say ....if wells bar is anything to go by this stuff is really on the move

I did read somewhere that big sand dunes move at up to 1m per year

Dylan

 

[Habebty]

The North Norfolk coast is just the suviving pile of glacial dirt being moved about by the sea in the general direction of the prevailing currents and eddies on the eternal driveway of creation.

There is probably a better way of describing North Norfolk but hey, I like it

Could we start a campaign to let Great Yarmouth turn into an island?