Where is europes fastest eroding coastline

The sediment is taken from the north and transported down south to Spurn Head. Spurn Head is a spit, which is a narrow stretch of land extending into the sea. Although measures have been taken to slow the loss of sediment, like seawalls and jetties, the land is still being lost to the sea at fast rates. There are several reasons why the coast at Holderness is eroding so quickly: Rock type - the cliffs are made from less-resistant boulder clay made from sands and clays which slumps when wet.

Naturally narrow beaches - these beaches give less protection to the coast as it doesn't reduce the power of the waves.

Man-made structures - groynes have been installed to stop long-shore drift. This narrows unprotected beaches elsewhere even more.

Powerful waves - waves at Holderness travel long distances over the North Sea so have a long fetch which means they will increase in energy. This newspaper has been a central part of community life for many years. Our industry faces testing times, which is why we're asking for your support.

Every contribution will help us continue to produce local journalism that makes a measurable difference to our community. Commercial Property. Published: AM September 16, Coastal erosion continues, despite coastal defences that include a concrete seawalls and timber groynes — long structures sticking into the sea to prevent the beach being washed away by longshore drift. These have had limited benefits, and sometimes even adverse effects. Add to that a geological process called isostatic recoil, which means the area is sinking at a rate of thee millimetres per year.

Combined with rising sea levels due to climate change, the North Sea could be half a metre higher here by The map shown here is based on T. This version was produced by Dr. Caitlin Green for an article on her website, in which she focuses on what was perhaps the shortest-lived, but certainly the best-documented and arguably the most interesting of the lost coastal towns of Holderness: Ravenser Odd.

Ravenser Odd was an island town founded on a spit of land thrown up by the sea in the s. An Inquisition report from states that:. Forty years ago, a certain ship was cast away at Ravenser Odd, where no house was then built, which ship a certain man appropriated to himself, and from it made for himself a hut or cabin, which he inhabited for so long a time that he received ships and merchants there, and sold them food and drink, and afterwards others began to dwell there.

Rising from the sea, Ravenser Odd grew by it and prospered from it, before the sea swallowed it up again — all in not much more than a century. The exact location of the island-town is uncertain.

It is usually situated east of where Spurn Head is today, at a distance of more than a mile from the mainland shore. Ravenser Odd grew busy and rich fast. In , it obtained a charter for a market and a fair.