Everything about The Jurassic Coast totally explained
The
Jurassic Coast is a
World Heritage Site on the
English Channel coast of southern
England. The site stretches from
Orcombe Point near
Exmouth in East
Devon to
Old Harry Rocks near
Swanage in East
Dorset, a distance of .
Chartered in 2001, the Jurassic coast was the second wholly-natural World Heritage Site to be designated in the
United Kingdom. Its entire length can be walked on the
South West Coast Path.
Geology
The Jurassic Coast consists of
Triassic,
Jurassic and
Cretaceous cliffs, spanning the
Mesozoic Era, documenting 180 million years of
geological history.
The site contains a number of unique geological features and shows excellent examples of different landforms, including the
natural arch at
Durdle Door, the
cove and
limestone folding at
Lulworth Cove and an island, the
Isle of Portland.
Chesil Beach is a fine example of both a
tombolo and a
storm beach. The site has stretches of both
concordant and
discordant coastlines. Due to the quality of the varied geology, the site is the subject of international
field studies. This area was home to
Mary Anning, a
palaeontologist who studied the fossils of the coastline around Lyme Regis and discovered the first complete
Ichthyosaur fossil.
The highest point on the Jurassic Coast, and the entire south coast of England, is
Golden Cap at .
History
The site was featured on the television programme
Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the South West (of the UK), and in a 2005
poll of
Radio Times readers, the Jurassic Coast was named as the 5th greatest natural wonder in Britain.
During
World War II several sections of the Jurassic Coast became property of the then
Ministry of War. One of the
Royal Navy's largest bases was at
Portland Harbour, though it has since closed. A major army base at
Bovington remains in use today, and large areas of land, including the coast between
Lulworth Cove and
Kimmeridge, including
Tyneham ghost village, are still only partially accessible. Areas of the coast near Exmouth, The Fleet at Weymouth and the beaches at
Studland were also used for training during the war, but have since been returned to civilian use.
Parts of the coast, especially around Portland, can be very dangerous, and frequent shipwrecks have been a feature of the coast throughout recorded history. In January 2007 the coast experienced its most environmentally damaging wreck when the
MSC Napoli, a 2,400 capacity container ship, was beached at
Branscombe near
Sidmouth, losing oil and cargo.
On May 6 2008, a section of the coast was destroyed after a
landslip that was described as the worst in 100 years.
Gateway towns
West Bay forms a major gateway to the Jurassic Coast with the completion in 2004 of the Jurassic Pier.
Weymouth is also a major gateway town, near the centre of the world heritage site. A World Heritage Coast Centre is to be built in the town by 2011.
Other gateway towns include:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Jurassic Coast'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://jurassic_coast.totallyexplained.com">Jurassic Coast Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
