coastal erosion and management casestudy

The Holderness coast-
Europe fastest eroding coastline.(2m per yr)Around 2 million tonnes of material every year.
The Holderness coast is made of boulder clay. Underlying it is chalk.
 Spurn point is a spit that contains 3% of the cliffs eroded material.

Waves are dominant from the North East.destructive waves erode and attack the foot of the cliff removing clay. Longshore drift carries this material southward.

2 main type of rock found in HC is boulder clay and chalk. The more resistant chalk has overcome erosion and created Flambourgh head which is a (stack stump etc).

Physical factors that effect erosion?
Winter storms produce stronger waves and higher sea levels. they intensify sub-aerial weathering eg mass movement (slumping) due to clay saturation.

Boulder clay is eroding at fast rate due the refraction concentration the wave attack on the headland.(Mappleton)
 Foot path erosion
Urbanisation and driving

Tourism in bridling-ton and Hornsea as their are caravan parks etc.
Interfering with natural processes such as longshore drift due to groynes in Mappleton and Hornsea there has been a problem with sediment being prevented from building beaches somewhere else. rapid erosion may occur eg in Great Cowden due to sediment starvation.

Global warming causes a rise in sea level.

Due to easily eroded material in Mappleton and because to destructive waves attacking beaches groynes are put in-place to trap sediment. Due to the fact that 1 million tonnes of sediment are transport due to longshore drift. This  mean less sediemnt is present to protect the cliffs during storm months and protect the beach. These groynes may lead to intense erosion down the coast.

Features of flambourough head-

Notch show the intensity of the wave. Wave refraction also concentrated the wave on headlands increasing change of erosion into cliffs stacks and stump.

The holdreness Cliffs

retreating 10x faster than chalk cliffs at 2 meters per year.

On land the rainwater enters the clay in the cliff as it is permeable increasing the weight of the cliff causing slumping which is a mass movement. Urbanisation and removal of vegetation increase this effect.

Spurn Head- sediement is deposited here due to longshore drift, Waves and wind have created a recurved spit. Spit is growing at 10 cm per year, winter storms threaten to detach its neck from the main land.