Storms spark fossil frenzy on Dorset's Jurassic Coast
24 January 2014 Last updated at 14:05 GMT
There has been a sharp increase in the number of amateur fossil hunters in Dorset after storms eroded parts of the Jurassic coastline.
The BBC's Duncan Kennedy reports from Charmouth where researchers are concerned by the damage being done to delicate and rare finds.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25883374
Fossil hunters warned over risk from landslips on Dorset coast
21 January 2014 Last updated at 17:12 GMT
Fossil hunters are being warned to stay away from the cliffs in Dorset after a series of landslips.
The popularity of the Jurassic coast is rising with some recent finds thought to be worth thousands of pounds.
Hamish Marshall reports..
Exploring erosion through art along the Jurassic Coast, England
Saturday 25 January 2014
Mock-up display point
I have been looking at a combination of grey 5mm foamex board for the sides and thin mdf for the top and bottom shelves. 3 of the sides are removeable except for the one with the wire pockets protruding.
Monday 20 January 2014
Sunday 19 January 2014
Saturday 18 January 2014
Jenny Gordon - 16 January on Facebook
I drank way too much tea at my knitting group last night and couldn’t sleep (how rock and roll!!). So I spent an hour in my head coming up with new alternative signage for your ‘Mind How You Go’ Dorset erosion project
Easy on there.
Hold someone’s hand.
Definitely not wheelchair accessible. (next to a cliff edge, hahahahaa)
In those shoes? Seriously?
Do you want to die today?
Adults must be accompanied by a child.
It’s a long way down!
Absolutely no yodelling, loose rocks!
I have more, is it good to laugh at your own jokes or is that insanity setting in? ;-
If anyone has anymore please post!
Kate O'Malley
Dorset rocks - but rolling won't help
It's a beautiful day to die - pay here for a selfle
Before The Fall
Look out before you leap
Cliff hanger
Kate O'Malley O dear Jenny Gordon I'd better stop - it's all a ploy on my behalf to avoid brain taxing work. and (B) it is great to laugh at your own jokes!
Kate O'Malley Marie Brennan any ideas on signage for Dorset warnings of cliff erosion
Jenny Gordon Keep em coming! I think id have done that job for free for the laugh! Jeff Pigott will do it fab though. Cant wait to see it.
Jenny Gordon Of course there's the old classic slippery when wet!
Kate O'Malley Jeff Piggot sure will do a great job - sounds a fab project. (Yes, I'd be tempted to do it for free … you're helping him by this FB brainstorm. It's the kinda project that people love giving feedback/ ideas on … be fun to have a local brainstorm in situ [complete with humorous simulation of danger]
Sara Lindsay Soft edges
Michele O'Brien HELP!!!!!!!!!
Kate O'Malley Wanted: Fall guys for horror movie
Easy on there.
Hold someone’s hand.
Definitely not wheelchair accessible. (next to a cliff edge, hahahahaa)
In those shoes? Seriously?
Do you want to die today?
Adults must be accompanied by a child.
It’s a long way down!
Absolutely no yodelling, loose rocks!
I have more, is it good to laugh at your own jokes or is that insanity setting in? ;-
If anyone has anymore please post!
Kate O'Malley
Dorset rocks - but rolling won't help
It's a beautiful day to die - pay here for a selfle
Before The Fall
Look out before you leap
Cliff hanger
Kate O'Malley O dear Jenny Gordon I'd better stop - it's all a ploy on my behalf to avoid brain taxing work. and (B) it is great to laugh at your own jokes!
Kate O'Malley Marie Brennan any ideas on signage for Dorset warnings of cliff erosion
Jenny Gordon Keep em coming! I think id have done that job for free for the laugh! Jeff Pigott will do it fab though. Cant wait to see it.
Jenny Gordon Of course there's the old classic slippery when wet!
Kate O'Malley Jeff Piggot sure will do a great job - sounds a fab project. (Yes, I'd be tempted to do it for free … you're helping him by this FB brainstorm. It's the kinda project that people love giving feedback/ ideas on … be fun to have a local brainstorm in situ [complete with humorous simulation of danger]
Sara Lindsay Soft edges
Michele O'Brien HELP!!!!!!!!!
Kate O'Malley Wanted: Fall guys for horror movie
Warning after huge cliff fall on beach
7:50am Saturday 18th January 2014 in News
Burton Bradstock rockfall. Picture Ray Beer
THERE are renewed safety warnings after a huge rockfall onto the beach at Burton Bradstock.
Massive boulders crashed down to the Hive beach in one of the largest falls this winter along the stretch of coastline.
The fall happened only a few hundred yards from the spot where a landslip killed Charlotte Blackman in summer 2012.
It is believed to have occurred overnight or very early this morning.
Bridport amateur photographer Ray Beer took dramatic shots of the scene on the beach today as people were already ignoring warnings not to go near areas of slippage.
The fall happened a couple of hundred metres west of the Hive Beach café, a popular spot for walkers and people exercising their dogs.
Mr Beer said that he was walking his dog along the stretch of beach a couple of days ago.
“It was only two days ago that I was walking my dog under these cliffs and I didn't like the state of the cliffs as there were numerous fresh crack, “ he added.
“I met a man who was on the beach yesterday and he said the fall had not happened then so it must have been overnight or very early today.
“I am surprised they have not closed off the beach. There were people climbing over the rocks. “Personally I think they are mad.”
National Trust West Dorset head warden Rob Rhodes said that the fall was a large one and that there is a likelihood that more could come down.
“From my point of view I am not surprised that this has happened after all the storms, “ he said.
“I would repeat our warnings that people stay away from the cliffs and this shows exactly what can happen.
“This was a large fall and and there are cracks higher up that suggest that there is more to come down.”
Mr Rhodes said that he and his team were monitoring the situation closely and would be putting up warning signs.
“We have discovered if we try to close the beaches, it makes no difference, “ We are monitoring the situation closely to see if there is any further movement.”
The authorities warned of landslip and rock fall risk following the recent storms that battered Dorset's coastline.
Residents and visitors are being encouraged to follow safety advice along the coastline as landslides and rock falls can occur quickly and without warning.
A spokesman for both Weymouth and Portland Borough Council andWest Dorset District Council said that waves and tides had re-shaped and stripped beaches around the coast meaning it is easier to get cut off by the incoming tide.
People are being urged to keep to official routes along the coast path and take care as the recent heavy rain will have made the path muddy and slippery in places.
Dorset Police are warning that landslides often take place after wet weather as there is a delay in the rainwater falling and soaking into the ground. Cliffs and areas that have clays at the base and porous sandstone or limestone at the top are prone to landslides because the water soaks down through the cliff top but cannot pass through the clay.
Tuesday 14 January 2014
Sunday 12 January 2014
Flood defenders go back to nature to keep vulnerable homes dry
The exceptional month of storms has also brought a fierce battering of coastal defences. But through another "back to nature" approach, communities near Selsey and Bracklesham in West Sussex have survived unscathed. In November, in a "managed realignment", the sea walls were deliberately breached, letting the ocean back on to land and recreating saltmarshes. These now soak up the destructive power of the storms, better protecting the 350 homes beyond. Similar realignments are occurring along the coast of East Anglia.
In West Sussex, letting the sea back in has created a new RSPB nature reserve. The society's head of water policy, Rob Cunningham, says: "We are seeing a lot of knee-jerk responses to the current floods, seeking to return things to a 1960s state. But we have to adapt and progress into a world where this level of rain and storms is normal."
Tuesday 7 January 2014
Sea over Chiswell as sirens warn of 'extreme risk' to Portland community
Ancient rock stack on Portland Bill destroyed by high seas
Cliff collapse near Hastings
And in another time and place:-
A
chance decision to stop and pick up a seashell meant a Wells couple narrowly
missed being crushed to death by 300 tonnes of rock that came tumbling off a
cliff in Dorset.
Tim
Cambridge and partner Tamara Pollard, from West Horrington, were just a few feet
away when the rocks crashed down onto the beach at Burton Bradstock
It
was only because trainee teacher Tamara, who is six months pregnant, paused to
pick up a shell on the beach that they didn't walk under the mass of falling
rock.
The
huge boulders that fell down the 150ft cliff would have instantly killed the
couple.
The
limestone cliff that collapsed measured about 30ft across.
"Tim
shouted "stop, stop!" and we looked at the cliffs and I couldn't see anything,"
Ms Pollard, 45, told the Daily Mail newspaper.
"Then
all of a sudden these big boulders rolled down the cliff and out along the beach
towards the sea.
"It
all took about five seconds or so to come down.
"It
made the most horrendous crash, I was terrified.
"I
screamed and we looked up, I didn't know what was going to happen or if more was
going to come down.
"I
had stopped to pick up a beautiful shell for my six-year-old daughter Rose at
that moment. If we hadn't done that we would have been flattened.
"We
were so lucky and it makes you aware of the power of nature."
Mr
Cambridge, a computer engineer, said: "We stopped to look up because I felt
something was happening.
"You
could hear an almighty roar as it came down right in front of us."
After
a narrow escape the couple had to wade into the chilly water around the huge
pile of rock that had blocked their path on the beach.
They
then sought sanctuary at a nearby cafe where they had a hot chocolate to steady
their nerves.
Mr
Cambridge added: "We were both frightened but focussed on getting off the
beach."
It
is thought that water falls between the large cracks in the cliff and freezes in
the cold weather, causing them to fall down.
Read more: http://www.legacythisissomerset.co.uk/Shell-stop-Dorset-beach-gives-Somerset-couple/story-15298400-detail/story.html#ixzz2pZxUFCXg
Read more: http://www.legacythisissomerset.co.uk/Shell-stop-Dorset-beach-gives-Somerset-couple/story-15298400-detail/story.html#ixzz2pZxCUbOA
Monday 6 January 2014
Storms
A very deep area of low pressure over the Atlantic will move eastwards, then northeastwards, passing northwest Scotland on Tuesday as a filling feature. This low will maintain unsettled and windy conditions everywhere, but importantly, will generate some exceptionally large waves around southwestern coasts.
Forecasters are warning of more coastal flooding on Monday.
"A large, deep depression in the Atlantic is whipping waves up out at sea on Sunday and these will come into western and southern coastal areas of the UK as a large swell on Monday," the Met Office said.
"This, combined with waves driven by the winds in UK waters on Monday, will generate wave heights of 7-10m over parts of western Scotland, Wales and south-west England, and 3-7m in much of the English Channel and Irish Sea."
The Met Office said the public should be aware of the dangers of waves crashing onshore and over topping shore lines and sea fronts.
BBC NEWS - Have you been affected by the floods? Please get in touch using the form below. When sending us pictures at no time should you endanger yourself or others.
BUT
A near-complete ichthyosaur skeleton discovered on the Dorset coast after Christmas storms was hours away from destruction, fossil hunters have said.
Storms uncovered the 1.5m (5ft) fossil at the base of Black Ven near Charmouth on Boxing Day.
The giant marine reptile fossil was painstakingly removed over eight hours, shortly before another storm was due.
Professional fossil hunter Paul Crossley, who helped excavate it, said it was "a beautiful find".
"There was a very difficult, short window before another storm blew in so we were limited for time before it got ploughed out," he said.
With only part of the snout missing, but with most vertebrae and its rib cage in place, Mr Crossley said it was one of only a few ichthyosaur fossils found in such a complete condition on the Jurassic Coast in the past decade.
Recent storm-force south-westerly winds hitting the crumbling cliffs have produced some of the most conducive conditions for fossil hunting on the beaches around Lyme Regis in several years.
Mr Crossley said: "The word is already out that Lyme Regis is the capital of fossil hunting at the moment, we've seen more people than normal on the beaches.
"We always advise going when the tide is falling and always stay well away from the cliffs and mudslides. Use common sense."
MIND HOW YOU GO.
Forecasters are warning of more coastal flooding on Monday.
"A large, deep depression in the Atlantic is whipping waves up out at sea on Sunday and these will come into western and southern coastal areas of the UK as a large swell on Monday," the Met Office said.
"This, combined with waves driven by the winds in UK waters on Monday, will generate wave heights of 7-10m over parts of western Scotland, Wales and south-west England, and 3-7m in much of the English Channel and Irish Sea."
The Met Office said the public should be aware of the dangers of waves crashing onshore and over topping shore lines and sea fronts.
BBC NEWS - Have you been affected by the floods? Please get in touch using the form below. When sending us pictures at no time should you endanger yourself or others.
BUT
A near-complete ichthyosaur skeleton discovered on the Dorset coast after Christmas storms was hours away from destruction, fossil hunters have said.
Storms uncovered the 1.5m (5ft) fossil at the base of Black Ven near Charmouth on Boxing Day.
The giant marine reptile fossil was painstakingly removed over eight hours, shortly before another storm was due.
Professional fossil hunter Paul Crossley, who helped excavate it, said it was "a beautiful find".
"There was a very difficult, short window before another storm blew in so we were limited for time before it got ploughed out," he said.
With only part of the snout missing, but with most vertebrae and its rib cage in place, Mr Crossley said it was one of only a few ichthyosaur fossils found in such a complete condition on the Jurassic Coast in the past decade.
Recent storm-force south-westerly winds hitting the crumbling cliffs have produced some of the most conducive conditions for fossil hunting on the beaches around Lyme Regis in several years.
Mr Crossley said: "The word is already out that Lyme Regis is the capital of fossil hunting at the moment, we've seen more people than normal on the beaches.
"We always advise going when the tide is falling and always stay well away from the cliffs and mudslides. Use common sense."
MIND HOW YOU GO.
- A review of coastal flood defences and the impact of the storms has been ordered by the Welsh government
- The search for Harry Martin, 18, missing since going out to take pictures of stormy seas in Devon,continued for a third day
- A group of wild horses stranded by rising flood waters have been rescued in Dorset
- Work to try to halt tidal flooding in the Cornish town of Looe would cost more than £10m, the Environment Agency says
- A West Sussex beach has been cordoned off after strong tides breached recently completed sea defences
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