Today we had a very busy day. We stopped at a couple different sites where we were engaged in discussions about coastal processes and features as well as the environmental management techniques planned to conserve them.
Durdle Door
After waiting for our bus and driving five hours, we finally made it to Durdle Door. It was AMAZING and well worth the drive! Some of us even went swimming under the arch. The water was cold but tolerable (even for the Floridian). One of the main things that popped out as unique was the water clarity. While most of the waters around coastal Florida have maybe 5 to 10 feet of visibility until you go farther offshore, the water at the Door looked more like a spring, with visibility easily over 50 feet. The beach itself was also unusual in that it was a pebble beach.
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| Beach on the south side of Durdle Door. Notice the new collapse of the cliff...and that vis! |
Durdle Door itself is a famous sea arch, formed by wave erosion in a portion of the cliff in which the material was a little weaker. One of the most interesting facts about sea arches is that, if you look closely, there are cracks running in all directions. Due to this network of cracks, the arch is actually like a stack of blocks rather than a true solid piece. This makes it very vulnerable to collapse. If left to nature, Durdle Door will eventually collapse, creating a sea stack. However, due to its popularity, there are plans to help conserve it in the future by placing bolts in those areas most vulnerable to collapse.Chesil Beach
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| Chert in Limestone |
The beach at Chesil is also formed of pebbles of varying lithologies. This is due to sediment transport from various areas of the landscape via offshore currents and wave action. If you were to study the composition of the various areas of the coast and compare that to a sample of pebbles, you would be able to tell where each one originated. The interesting thing about these pebbles is that there was little variation in the sizes. This suggests that they have gone through some sort of natural sieving process. We also listed the different kinds of clasts that were present by their size. They were gravels, pebbles and cobbles. One pebble in particular caught my eye, so I asked one of the faculty about it. It had a limestone look to it, but the other side was black. He said it was chert within limestone. Chert is partly the result of water infiltrating and breaking down quartz. We later stopped at an overlook which provided a view along the whole length of Chesil Beach, some 27 kilometers. |
| "Rocks are awesooooome!" |
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| "Rocks are pretty neat" |
On the way to our next hotel, the first student group gave their presentation which was on coastal features and processes. It was presented by Justin Barthle and none other than our own BJ Quinton, so naturally it was amazing! While it was delivered on the bus rather than on site (due to time restrictions) which was less than ideal, the students seemed to be interested and well informed.
Y'all come back on the blog tomorrow to hear how our day went at The Eden Project and the Tin Mines!
BJ & Brittany (The Duo)
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| Sponsorship towards the creation of some of the materials for the Study Abroad in the UK trip provided by the Office of Undergraduate of Research. |
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