1.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
St Alban's Head
–
St Albans Head is a headland located 5 kilometres southwest of Swanage, on the coast of Dorset, England. It is the most southerly part of the Purbeck peninsula, and it is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The Norman St. Aldhelms Chapel, dedicated to St Aldhelm, on the bluff of the headland is a monument to the development of radar during World War II, by the Telecommunications Research Establishment at nearby RAF Worth Matravers. There is also a station, now maintained by the National Coastwatch Institution. St Albans Head has been quarried and there is a defunct sea-cliff quarry underneath the coastguard station. St Aldhelms Quarry just inland is still in active use, St Albans Head is designated a Special Area of Conservation under the European Unions Habitats Directive. List of places on the Jurassic Coast grid reference SY9675
3.
World Heritage Site
–
A World Heritage Site is a landmark which has been officially recognized by the United Nations, specifically by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sites are selected on the basis of having cultural, historical, scientific or some form of significance. UNESCO regards these sites as being important to the interests of humanity. The programme catalogues, names, and conserves sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common culture, under certain conditions, listed sites can obtain funds from the World Heritage Fund. The program was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of the Worlds Cultural and Natural Heritage, since then,192 state parties have ratified the convention, making it one of the most adhered to international instruments. As of July 2016,1052 sites are listed,814 cultural,203 natural, in 1959, the governments of Egypt and Sudan requested UNESCO to assist their countries to protect and rescue the endangered monuments and sites. In 1960, the Director-General of UNESCO launched an appeal to the Member States for an International Campaign to Save the Monuments of Nubia, the campaign, which ended in 1980, was considered a success. The project cost $80 million, about $40 million of which was collected from 50 countries, the projects success led to other safeguarding campaigns, saving Venice and its lagoon in Italy, the ruins of Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan, and the Borobodur Temple Compounds in Indonesia. UNESCO then initiated, with the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the United States initiated the idea of cultural conservation with nature conservation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature developed similar proposals in 1968, the Convention came into force on 17 December 1975. As of June 2016, it has been ratified by 192 states, including 188 UN member states plus the Cook Islands, the Holy See, Niue, a country must first list its significant cultural and natural sites, the result is called the Tentative List. A country may not nominate sites that have not been first included on the Tentative List, next, it can place sites selected from that list into a Nomination File. The Nomination File is evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites and these bodies then make their recommendations to the World Heritage Committee. There are ten selection criteria – a site must meet at least one of them to be included on the list, up to 2004, there were six criteria for cultural heritage and four criteria for natural heritage. In 2005, this was modified so there is now only one set of ten criteria. Nominated sites must be of outstanding value and meet at least one of the ten criteria. Thus, the Geneva Convention treaty promulgates, Article 53, PROTECTION OF CULTURAL OBJECTS AND OF PLACES OF WORSHIP. There are 1,052 World Heritage Sites located in 165 States Party, of these,814 are cultural,203 are natural and 35 are mixed properties
4.
English Channel
–
The English Channel, also called simply the Channel, is the body of water that separates southern England from northern France, and links the southern part of the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean. It is about 560 km long and varies in width from 240 km at its widest to 33.3 km in the Strait of Dover and it is the smallest of the shallow seas around the continental shelf of Europe, covering an area of some 75,000 km2. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the English Channel as follows, a line joining Isle Vierge to Lands End. The southwestern limit of the North Sea, the IHO defines the southwestern limit of the North Sea as a line joining the Walde Lighthouse and Leathercoat Point. The Walde Lighthouse is 6 km east of Calais, and Leathercoat Point is at the end of St Margarets Bay. The Strait of Dover, at the Channels eastern end, is its narrowest point and it is relatively shallow, with an average depth of about 120 m at its widest part, reducing to a depth of about 45 m between Dover and Calais. Eastwards from there the adjoining North Sea reduces to about 26 m in the Broad Fourteens where it lies over the watershed of the land bridge between East Anglia and the Low Countries. It reaches a depth of 180 m in the submerged valley of Hurds Deep,48 km west-northwest of Guernsey. The eastern region along the French coast between Cherbourg and the mouth of the Seine river at Le Havre is frequently referred to as the Bay of the Seine. There are several islands in the Channel, the most notable being the Isle of Wight off the English coast. The coastline, particularly on the French shore, is indented, several small islands close to the coastline, including Chausey. The Cotentin Peninsula in France juts out into the Channel, whilst on the English side there is a parallel channel known as the Solent between the Isle of Wight and the mainland. The Celtic Sea is to the west of the Channel, the time difference of about six hours between high water at the eastern and western limits of the Channel is indicative of the tidal range being amplified further by resonance. It was never defined as a border and the names were more or less descriptive. It was not considered as the property of a nation, strangely, before the development of the modern nations, British scholars very often referred to it as Gaulish and the French one as British or English. The name English Channel has been used since the early 18th century. In modern Dutch, however, it is known as Het Kanaal, later, it has also been known as the British Channel or the British Sea having been called the Oceanus Britannicus by the 2nd-century geographer Ptolemy. The same name is used on an Italian map of about 1450, the Anglo-Saxon texts often call it Sūð-sǣ as opposed to Norð-sǣ
5.
Exmouth
–
Exmouth /ˈɛksməθ/ is a port town, civil parish and seaside resort in East Devon, England, sited on the east bank of the mouth of the River Exe. In 2011, it had a population of 34,432 making Exmouth the 5th most populous settlement in Devon, byzantine coins dating back to c. 498–518, with the mark of Anastasius I, were retrieved on the beach in 1970, more recent human occupation of Exmouth Point can be traced back to the 11th century, when it was known as Lydwicnaesse, the point of the Bretons. The town appears on the century Peutinger Map one of only 15 British towns, the two ecclesiastical parishes, Littleham and Withycombe Raleigh, that make up the town of Exmouth today can be traced to pre-Saxon times. The name of the town derives from its location at the mouth of the River Exe estuary, in 1240 an area known as Pratteshuthe was sold to the mayor and citizens of Exeter. This was the site of the ferry dock and over time the name evolved first into Pratteshide. The original site is marked by an area outside the Glenorchy United Reformed Church close to the Magnolia Shopping Centre. The roads in and out of the area were in a poor state, a more permanent dock was built in 1825, replacing a series of apparently seasonal docks first noted on maps from 1576 as The Docke. New docks designed by Eugenius Birch were opened in 1868, the area adjacent to the docks once housed a thriving community of some 125 chalets built on the shoreline. These have been replaced by a marina complex known as Exmouth Quay. Human habitation was restricted by the exposed position on the estuary – civilisation took a hold in a greater. The town began to develop in the 13th century, morin Uppehille owned the land, granting part of it to John the Miller who in turn built a windmill, and earned his living on the exposed point, aided by the prevailing south-west winds. The windmill, the dock and a small settlement of farms began to develop into Exmouth. Sir Walter Raleigh sailed on many of his voyages from Exmouth Harbour, the town established itself during the 18th century and is regarded as the oldest holiday resort in Devon. Visitors prevented from visiting Europe by the turmoil in France were attracted by the views. Exmouth was renowned as a destination for the wealthy to recover their health, notable visitors in this time included Lady Byron and her daughter Ada Lovelace. Exmouth was also the residence of Lady Nelson, the wife of Lord Nelson. She is buried in Littleham Churchyard, high class tourism remained steady for a number of years
6.
East Devon
–
East Devon is a local government district in Devon, England. Its council is based in Sidmouth, and the largest town is Exmouth, East Devon is covered by two Parliamentary constituencies, East Devon and Tiverton and Honiton. Both were retained in the 2010 general election by the Conservative Party, in the 2001 census it was found that a third of East Devons population were over 60. The average for England was 24%, East Devon also had a higher number of people living in Medical and Care Establishments at 1. 6% compared to the England average of 0. 9%. A large amount of East Devon is made up of two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, East Devon AONB and the Blackdown Hills. AONBs have the level of protection as National parks of England and Wales which restricts new developments. A small stretch of the M5 passes through the district, the head office of Flybe is in the Jack Walker House on the grounds of Exeter Airport. Grade I listed buildings in East Devon Grade II* listed buildings in East Devon List of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Devon East Devon Otter Valley Weather
7.
Studland
–
Studland is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck in the English county of Dorset. It is famous for its beaches and nature reserve, the parish includes Brownsea Island within the harbour. Studland is sited in the lee of Ballard Down, close to the east-facing Studland Bay, the beaches are named South Beach, Middle Beach and Knoll Beach, with another at Shell Bay to the north. Although a coastal village, the houses in Studland are mostly sited a few hundred metres inland and he noted that Studland had no pretence to a quay, but rather turns its face from the sea to bury it among its myrtles and fuchsia bushes. He lamented the arrival of tourists and the construction of villas in the village however, since Treves time the village has expanded with more buildings filling in gaps along its streets, much of the construction taking place in the early and mid 20th century, plus some more recently. Few ancient buildings remain in the village today, with the exception of the parish church. Close to the church is a modern Celtic cross, which was erected in 1976, Studland Bay is protected from the prevailing southwesterly winds and storms by Ballard Down and Handfast Point, the chalk headland that separates Studland from Swanage Bay to the south. The beaches at Studland Bay are amongst the most popular in the country, the South East Dorset Conurbation lies on the other side of Poole Harbour, resulting in the beaches being relatively accessible to a large population. North of the centre the beach and dunes are owned and managed by the National Trust. A short northern stretch of beach is reserved as a naturist beach, in January 2004 the BBC television series The National Trust investigated the conflicts between different groups of people who use the beach and heath at Studland. The final stage of the South West Coast Path follows Studland Bay and ends at South Haven Point, behind the sand dunes there is a large area of heathland, named Studland Heath to the north of the village and Godlingston Heath to the west. This area is owned and managed by the National Trust. Within Studland Heath is a freshwater lake called Little Sea, which was cut off from the sea by the development of the dunes. Studland and Godlingston Heath NNR has been a nature reserve since 1946, and the site is on English Natures list of Spotlight Reserves. The site is also a protected Site of Special Scientific Interest, Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, part of the Purbeck Heritage Coast, standing on a mound on Godlingston Heath is the 17 ft high Agglestone Rock, estimated to weigh 400 tons. In truth, it is more likely part of a band of rocks that run across the whole of Godlingston Heath. The sandy earth was eroded around the rock and left it standing proud. Aggle was taken into the old Dorset dialect as meaning to wobble, in September 1970 the rock fell to one side, resulting in it losing its distinctive inverted-cone anvil appearance
8.
Dorset
–
Dorset /ˈdɔːrsᵻt/ is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the county, which is governed by Dorset County Council. Covering an area of 2,653 square kilometres, Dorset borders Devon to the west, Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north-east, the county town is Dorchester which is in the south. After the reorganisation of government in 1974 the countys border was extended eastward to incorporate the Hampshire towns of Bournemouth. Around half of the lives in the South East Dorset conurbation. The county has a history of human settlement stretching back to the Neolithic era. The Romans conquered Dorsets indigenous Celtic tribe, and during the early Middle Ages, the first recorded Viking raid on the British Isles occurred in Dorset during the eighth century, and the Black Death entered England at Melcombe Regis in 1348. During the Second World War, Dorset was heavily involved in the preparations for the invasion of Normandy, the former was the sailing venue in the 2012 Summer Olympics, and both have clubs or hire venues for sailing, Cornish pilot gig rowing, sea kayaking and powerboating. Dorset has a varied landscape featuring broad elevated chalk downs, steep limestone ridges, over half the county is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three-quarters of its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast Natural World Heritage Site due to its geological and it features notable landforms such as Lulworth Cove, the Isle of Portland, Chesil Beach and Durdle Door. Agriculture was traditionally the major industry of Dorset but is now in decline, there are no motorways in Dorset but a network of A roads cross the county and two railway main lines connect to London. Dorset has ports at Poole, Weymouth and Portland, and an international airport, the county has a variety of museums, theatres and festivals, and is host to one of Europes largest outdoor shows. It is the birthplace of Thomas Hardy, who used the county as the setting of his novels. Dorset derives its name from the county town of Dorchester, the Romans established the settlement in the 1st century and named it Durnovaria which was a Latinised version of a Common Brittonic word possibly meaning place with fist-sized pebbles. It is first mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD845 and in the 10th century the countys archaic name, the first human visitors to Dorset were Mesolithic hunters, from around 8000 BC. The first permanent Neolithic settlers appeared around 3000 BC and were responsible for the creation of the Dorset Cursus, from 2800 BC onwards Bronze Age farmers cleared Dorsets woodlands for agricultural use and Dorsets high chalk hills provided a location for numerous round barrows. During the Iron Age, the British tribe known as the Durotriges established a series of forts across the county—most notably Maiden Castle which is one of the largest in Europe. The Romans arrived in Dorset during their conquest of Britain in AD43, Maiden Castle was captured by a Roman legion under the command of Vespasian, and the Roman settlement of Durnovaria was established nearby
9.
Erosion
–
In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earths crust, then transport it away to another location. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, the rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is carried by, for example. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, while erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. At well-known agriculture sites such as the Appalachian Mountains, intensive farming practices have caused erosion up to 100x the speed of the rate of erosion in the region. Excessive erosion causes both on-site and off-site problems, on-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads. Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion, however, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils. Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four types of soil erosion, splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the erosion process. In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a crater in the soil. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground. If the soil is saturated, or if the rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope, sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow. Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on hillslopes, generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and this means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers. Gully erosion occurs when water accumulates and rapidly flows in narrow channels during or immediately after heavy rains or melting snow
10.
Triassic
–
The Triassic is a geologic period and system which spans 50.9 million years from the end of the Permian Period 252.17 million years ago, to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.3 Mya. The Triassic is the first period of the Mesozoic Era, both the start and end of the period are marked by major extinction events. Therapsids and archosaurs were the terrestrial vertebrates during this time. A specialized subgroup of archosaurs, called dinosaurs, first appeared in the Late Triassic, the vast supercontinent of Pangaea existed until the mid-Triassic, after which it began to gradually rift into two separate landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. The global climate during the Triassic was mostly hot and dry, however, the climate shifted and became more humid as Pangaea began to drift apart. The end of the period was marked by yet another mass extinction, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event. The Triassic is usually separated into Early, Middle, and Late Triassic Epochs, from the east, along the equator, the Tethys sea penetrated Pangaea, causing the Paleo-Tethys Ocean to be closed. Later in the mid-Triassic a similar sea penetrated along the equator from the west, the remaining shores were surrounded by the world-ocean known as Panthalassa. All the deep-ocean sediments laid down during the Triassic have disappeared through subduction of oceanic plates, thus, the supercontinent Pangaea was rifting during the Triassic—especially late in that period—but had not yet separated. In North America, for example, marine deposits are limited to a few exposures in the west, thus Triassic stratigraphy is mostly based on organisms that lived in lagoons and hypersaline environments, such as Estheria crustaceans. At the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, Africa was joined with Earths other continents in Pangaea, Africa shared the supercontinents relatively uniform fauna which was dominated by theropods, prosauropods and primitive ornithischians by the close of the Triassic period. Late Triassic fossils are found throughout Africa, but are common in the south than north. The time boundary separating the Permian and Triassic marks the advent of an event with global impact. At Paleorrota geopark, located in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in these formations, one of the earliest dinosaurs, Staurikosaurus, as well as the mammal ancestors Brasilitherium and Brasilodon have been discovered. The Triassic continental interior climate was hot and dry, so that typical deposits are red bed sandstones and evaporites. Pangaeas large size limited the effect of the global ocean, its continental climate was highly seasonal, with very hot summers. The strong contrast between the Pangea supercontinent and the global ocean triggered intense cross-equatorial monsoons, the best studied of such episodes of humid climate, and probably the most intense and widespread, was the Carnian Pluvial Event. On land, the vascular plants included the lycophytes, the dominant cycadophytes, ginkgophyta, ferns, horsetails
11.
Jurassic
–
The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that spans 56.3 million years from the end of the Triassic Period 201.3 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period 145 Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic Era, also known as the Age of Reptiles, the start of the period is marked by the major Triassic–Jurassic extinction event. The Jurassic is named after the Jura Mountains within the European Alps, by the beginning of the Jurassic, the supercontinent Pangaea had begun rifting into two landmasses, Laurasia to the north and Gondwana to the south. This created more coastlines and shifted the continental climate from dry to humid, on land, the fauna transitioned from the Triassic fauna, dominated by both dinosauromorph and crocodylomorph archosaurs, to one dominated by dinosaurs alone. The first birds also appeared during the Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs, other major events include the appearance of the earliest lizards, and the evolution of therian mammals, including primitive placentals. Crocodilians made the transition from a terrestrial to a mode of life. The oceans were inhabited by marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs, the chronostratigraphic term Jurassic is directly linked to the Jura Mountains. The name Jura is derived from the Celtic root jor, which was Latinised into juria, the Jurassic period is divided into the Early Jurassic, Middle, and Late Jurassic epochs. The Jurassic System, in stratigraphy, is divided into the Lower Jurassic, Middle, the separation of the term Jurassic into three sections goes back to Leopold von Buch. The Jurassic North Atlantic Ocean was relatively narrow, while the South Atlantic did not open until the following Cretaceous period, the Tethys Sea closed, and the Neotethys basin appeared. Climates were warm, with no evidence of glaciation, as in the Triassic, there was apparently no land over either pole, and no extensive ice caps existed. In contrast, the North American Jurassic record is the poorest of the Mesozoic, the Jurassic was a time of calcite sea geochemistry in which low-magnesium calcite was the primary inorganic marine precipitate of calcium carbonate. Carbonate hardgrounds were thus very common, along with calcitic ooids, calcitic cements, the first of several massive batholiths were emplaced in the northern American cordillera beginning in the mid-Jurassic, marking the Nevadan orogeny. Important Jurassic exposures are found in Russia, India, South America, Japan, Australasia. As the Jurassic proceeded, larger and more groups of dinosaurs like sauropods and ornithopods proliferated in Africa. Middle Jurassic strata are well represented nor well studied in Africa. Late Jurassic strata are also poorly represented apart from the spectacular Tendaguru fauna in Tanzania, the Late Jurassic life of Tendaguru is very similar to that found in western North Americas Morrison Formation. During the Jurassic period, the primary living in the sea were fish
12.
Cretaceous
–
The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, during this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta, meaning chalk. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series, in older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series, Neocomian, Gallic and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide, in many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic and this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the usually accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin. Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age sees the study as a first step toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences, due to the high sea level there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the young age and great thickness of the system. Chalk is a type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites, among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls
13.
Fossil
–
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous rock formations and sedimentary layers is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, such a preserved specimen is called a fossil if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years. The observation that fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or absolute age of the various strata. Like extant organisms, fossils vary in size from microscopic, even single bacterial cells one micrometer in diameter, to gigantic, such as dinosaurs, Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as animal tracks or feces. These types of fossil are called trace fossils, as opposed to body fossils, finally, past life leaves some markers that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of biochemical signals, these are known as chemofossils or biosignatures. The process of fossilization varies according to type and external conditions. Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried, the empty spaces within an organism become filled with mineral-rich groundwater. Minerals precipitate from the groundwater, occupying the empty spaces and this process can occur in very small spaces, such as within the cell wall of a plant cell. Small scale permineralization can produce very detailed fossils, for permineralization to occur, the organism must become covered by sediment soon after death or soon after the initial decay process. The degree to which the remains are decayed when covered determines the later details of the fossil, some fossils consist only of skeletal remains or teeth, other fossils contain traces of skin, feathers or even soft tissues. This is a form of diagenesis, in some cases the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. The remaining organism-shaped hole in the rock is called an external mold, if this hole is later filled with other minerals, it is a cast. An endocast or internal mold is formed when sediments or minerals fill the cavity of an organism. This is a form of cast and mold formation. If the chemistry is right, the organism can act as a nucleus for the precipitation of minerals such as siderite, if this happens rapidly before significant decay to the organic tissue, very fine three-dimensional morphological detail can be preserved. Nodules from the Carboniferous Mazon Creek fossil beds of Illinois, USA, are among the best documented examples of such mineralization, replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral
14.
Natural arch
–
A natural arch, natural bridge or, less commonly, a rock arch is a natural rock formation where an arch has formed with an opening underneath. Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion from the sea, most natural arches are formed from narrow fins and sea stacks composed of sandstone or limestone with steep, often vertical, cliff faces. The formations become narrower due to erosion over time scales. The softer rock stratum erodes away creating rock shelters, or alcoves, on sides of the formation beneath the relatively harder stratum, or caprock. The alcoves erode further into the formation eventually meeting underneath the harder caprock layer, the choice between bridge and arch is somewhat arbitrary. The Natural Arch and Bridge Society identifies a bridge as a subtype of arch that is primarily water-formed, by contrast, the Dictionary of Geological Terms defines a natural bridge as a natural arch that spans a valley of erosion. The largest natural arch, by a significant margin, is the Xianren Bridge in China, on coasts two different types of arches can form depending on the geology. On discordant coastlines rock types run at 90° to the coast, wave refraction concentrates the wave energy on the headland, and an arch forms when caves break through the headland. Two examples of type of arch are London Arch—previously known as London Bridge—in Victoria, Australia. When these arches eventually collapse, they form stacks and stumps, on concordant coastlines rock types run parallel to the coastline, with weak rock such as shale protected by stronger rock such as limestone. The wave action along concordant coastlines breaks through the strong rock, good examples of this type of arch are the Durdle Door and Stair Hole near Lulworth Cove on Dorsets Jurassic Coast in south England. When Stair Hole eventually collapses it will form a cove, weather-eroded arches begin their formation as deep cracks which penetrate into a sandstone layer. Erosion occurring within the cracks wears away exposed rock layers and enlarges the surface cracks isolating narrow sandstone walls which are called fins, alternating frosts and thawing cause crumbling and flaking of the porous sandstone and eventually cut through some of the fins. The resulting holes become enlarged to arch proportions by rockfalls and weathering, the arches eventually collapse leaving only buttresses that in time will erode. Many weather-eroded arches are found in Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, some natural bridges may look like arches, but they form in the path of streams that wear away and penetrate the rock. Pothole arches form by chemical weathering as water collects in natural depressions, Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah protects the area surrounding three large natural bridges all of which were formed by streams running through canyons. The largest of which is named Sipapu Bridge with a span of 225 feet, Natural bridges can form from natural limestone caves, where paired sinkholes collapse and a ridge of stone is left standing in between, with the cave passageway connecting from sinkhole to sinkhole. Like all rock formations, natural bridges are subject to continued erosion, one example of this was the double-arched Victorian coastal rock formation, London Bridge, which lost an arch after storms increased erosion
15.
Cove
–
A cove is a small type of bay or coastal inlet. Coves usually have narrow, restricted entrances, are circular or oval. Small, narrow, sheltered bays, inlets, creeks, or recesses in a coast are often considered coves, colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered bay. Geomorphology describes coves as precipitously-walled and rounded cirque-like openings as in a valley extending into or down a mountainside, coves are formed by differential erosion, which occurs when softer rocks are worn away faster than the harder rocks surrounding them. These rocks further erode to form a bay with a narrow entrance. A notable example is Lulworth Cove on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, to its west, a second cove, Stair Hole, is forming. Clark, John O. E. Stiegler, Stella, the Facts on File, Dictionary of Earth Science. New York, Market House Books Ltd
16.
Isle of Portland
–
The Isle of Portland is a limestone tied island,6 kilometres long by 2.7 kilometres wide, in the English Channel. Portland is 8 kilometres south of the resort of Weymouth, forming the southernmost point of the county of Dorset, a barrier beach called the Chesil Beach joins it to the mainland. The A354 road passes down the Portland end of the beach, Portland and Weymouth together form the borough of Weymouth and Portland. The population of Portland is 12,400, Portland is a central part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site on the Dorset and east Devon coast, important for its geology and landforms. Portland stone, famous for its use in British and world architecture, including St Pauls Cathedral, Portland Harbour, in between Portland and Weymouth, is one of the largest man-made harbours in the world. The harbour was made by the building of stone breakwaters between 1848 and 1905, the harbour is now a civilian port and popular recreation area, and was used for the 2012 Olympic Games. The name Portland is used for one of the British Sea Areas, the Romans occupied Portland, reputedly calling it Vindelis. The Vikings first raid on England occurred in Portland in 787 AD, three lost Viking ships from Hordaland landed at Portland Bill. The kings reeve tried to collect taxes from them, but they killed him, in 1539 King Henry VIII ordered the construction of Portland Castle for defence against attacks by the French, the castle cost £4,964. It is one of the best preserved castles from this period, well-known buildings in the capital, including St Pauls Cathedral and the eastern front of Buckingham Palace feature the stone. Portland cement has nothing to do with Portland, it was so named due to its colour to Portland stone when mixed with lime. There have been railways in Portland since the early 19th century, the Merchants Railway was the earliest—it opened in 1826 and ran from the quarries at the north of Tophill to a pier at Castletown, from where the Portland stone was shipped around the country. The line closed to passengers in 1952, and the goods train ran in April 1965. The Royal National Institution for the Preservation of Life from Shipwreck stationed a lifeboat at Portland in 1826, coastal flooding has affected Portlands residents and transport for centuries—the only way off the island by land is along the causeway in the lee of Chesil Beach. At times of extreme floods this road link is cut by floods, the low-lying village of Chiswell used to flood on average every 5 years. Chesil Beach occasionally faces severe storms and massive waves, which have a fetch across the Atlantic Ocean, in the 1980s it was agreed that a scheme to protect against a one-in-five-year storm would be practicable, it would reduce flood depth and duration in more severe storms. At the start of the First World War, HMS Hood was sunk in the passage between the southern breakwaters to protect the harbour from torpedo and submarine attack. Portland Harbour was formed by the construction of breakwaters, but before that the anchorage had hosted ships of the Royal Navy for more than 500 years
17.
Landslide
–
A landslide, also known as a landslip, is a form of mass wasting that includes a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes, and shallow debris flows. Landslides can occur underwater, called a submarine landslide, coastal, although the action of gravity is the primary driving force for a landslide to occur, there are other contributing factors affecting the original slope stability. Typically, pre-conditional factors build up specific sub-surface conditions that make the prone to failure. Landslides occur when the changes from a stable to an unstable condition. A change in the stability of a slope can be caused by a number of factors, slope material that becomes saturated with water may develop into a debris flow or mud flow. The resulting slurry of rock and mud may pick up trees, houses and cars, debris flow is often mistaken for flash flood, but they are entirely different processes. Muddy-debris flows in alpine areas cause severe damage to structures and infrastructure, muddy-debris flows can start as a result of slope-related factors and shallow landslides can dam stream beds, resulting in temporary water blockage. As the impoundments fail, an effect may be created, with a remarkable growth in the volume of the flowing mass. The solid–liquid mixture can reach densities of up to 2,000 kg/m3, for a small basin in the Italian Alps affected by a debris flow, estimated a peak discharge of 750 m3/s for a section located in the middle stretch of the main channel. At the same section, the maximum foreseeable water discharge, was 19 m3/s. Earthflows are downslope, viscous flows of saturated, fine-grained materials, typically, they can move at speeds from 0.17 to 20 km/h. Though these are a lot like mudflows, overall they are slow moving and are covered with solid material carried along by flow from within. They are different from fluid flows which are more rapid, clay, fine sand and silt, and fine-grained, pyroclastic material are all susceptible to earthflows. The velocity of the earthflow is all dependent on how much content is in the flow itself, if there is more water content in the flow. This thereby creates a bulging lobe which advances with a slow, as these lobes spread out, drainage of the mass increases and the margins dry out, thereby lowering the overall velocity of the flow. This process causes the flow to thicken, the bulbous variety of earthflows are not that spectacular, but they are much more common than their rapid counterparts. They develop a sag at their heads and are derived from the slumping at the source. Earthflows occur much more during periods of precipitation, which saturates the ground
18.
Lulworth Cove
–
Lulworth Cove is a cove near the village of West Lulworth, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in Dorset, southern England. The cove is one of the worlds finest examples of such a landform and it is close to the rock arch of Durdle Door and other Jurassic Coast sites. Lulworth Cove featured on the TV programme Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of southern England, the cove has formed as a result of bands of rock of alternating resistance running parallel to the shore. On the seaward side the clays and sands have been eroded away, a narrow band of Portland limestone rocks forms the shoreline. Behind this is a band of slightly less resistant Purbeck limestone. Behind this are 300–350 metres of much less resistant clays and greensands, forming the back of the cove is a 250-metre-wide band of chalk, which is considerably more resistant than the clays and sands, but less resistant than the limestones. The entrance to the cove is a gap in the limestone bands, formed by wave action. The wide part of the cove is where the weak clays, at the back of the cove, the sea has been unable to erode the chalk as fast because chalk does not dissolve in the sea acids. The unique shape of the cove is a result of wave diffraction, the narrow entrance to the cove causes waves to bend into an arced shape, as is visible in the photograph below. Stair Hole, less than half a mile away, is an infant cove which suggests what Lulworth Cove would have looked like a few hundred years ago. The sea has made a gap in the Portland and Purbeck limestone here, the sea has made its way through to the Wealdon clays and begun eroding them. The clay shows obvious signs of slumping, and is eroding very rapidly, stair Hole shows one of the best examples of limestone folding in the world, caused by movements in the Earths crust millions of years ago. Folding can also be seen at nearby Durdle Door and at Lulworth cove itself, Lulworth acts as a gateway to this part of the Jurassic Coast. As well as the cove, across Hambury Tout is Durdle Door, to the east there is a fossilised forest. Lulworth is also close to Kimmeridge, famous for its rocky shore, oil-bearing sands beneath the sea bed form the largest British oil field outside the North Sea area, and contain the highest quality oil in Europe. Geologists and geographers have been interested in the area since the beginning of the 19th century, since then the area has drawn Geology students from all over the world. Purbeck suffers from trampling because of its visitors and erosion from the sea. Management has been put in place to stop the coastline from being ruined, such as wooden steps and these will keep people to a certain path and steps will reinforce the ground
19.
Lyme Regis
–
Lyme Regis /ˌlaɪmˈriːdʒɪs/ is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and 25 miles east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset–Devon border and it is nicknamed The Pearl of Dorset. The town is noted for the found in the cliffs and beaches. The town was home to Admiral Sir George Somers, its one-time mayor and he founded the English colonial settlement of the Somers Isles, better known as Bermuda. Lyme Regis is twinned with St. Georges, Bermuda, in July 2015 Lyme Regis was also tripled with Jamestown, Virginia to form the Historic Atlantic Triangle between Lyme, St Georges and Jamestown. In the 2011 Census the towns parish and the ward had a population of 3,671. In Saxon times, the abbots of Sherborne Abbey had salt-boiling rights on land adjacent to the River Lym, Lyme is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. In the 13th century, it developed as one of the major British ports, a Royal Charter was granted by King Edward I in 1284 when Regis was added to the towns name. The charter was confirmed by Queen Elizabeth I in 1591, John Leland visited the town in the 16th century and described it as a praty market town set in the rootes of an high rokky hille down to the hard shore. There cummith a shalow broke from the hilles about a three miles by north, and cummith fleting on great stones through a bridge in the botom. In 1644, during the English Civil War, Parliamentarians withstood a siege of the town by Royalist forces under Prince Maurice. The Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis at start of the Monmouth Rebellion in 1685, on New Years Day,1915, the H. M. S. Formidable was torpedoed, the first major U-boat loss of World War I, a local lifeboat delivered bodies to the Pilot Boat Inn on Bridge Street. Lassie, the dog of the Inns owner, licked the face of Seaman Cowan, believed dead, the namesake of the cross-breed became a legend of books, radio, film and television. In 1965, the railway station was closed, in the Beeching Axe. The station was dismantled and rebuilt at Alresford, on the Mid Hants Watercress Railway in Hampshire, the route to Lyme Regis was notable for being operated by aged Victorian locomotives. One of these Adams Radial Tank engines is now preserved on the Bluebell Railway in Sussex, West Country Class steam locomotive No.34009 was named Lyme Regis after the town. In 2005, as part of the bicentenary of Admiral Nelsons victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, the actor playing the part of Trafalgar messenger Lieutenant Lapenotiere was welcomed at Lyme Regis
20.
Ammonoidea
–
Ammonoids are an extinct group of marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs are more related to living coleoids than they are to shelled nautiloids such as the living Nautilus species. The earliest ammonites appear during the Devonian, and the last species died out during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, Ammonites are excellent index fossils, and it is often possible to link the rock layer in which a particular species or genus is found to specific geologic time periods. Their fossil shells usually take the form of planispirals, although there were some helically spiraled and nonspiraled forms, the name ammonite, from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resemble tightly coiled rams horns. Pliny the Elder called fossils of these animals ammonis cornua because the Egyptian god Ammon was typically depicted wearing rams horns, often the name of an ammonite genus ends in -ceras, which is Greek for horn. The topology of the septa, especially around the rim, results in the various suture patterns found, three major types of suture patterns are found in the Ammonoidea, Goniatitic - numerous undivided lobes and saddles, typically 8 lobes around the conch. This pattern is characteristic of the Paleozoic ammonoids, ceratitic - lobes have subdivided tips, giving them a saw-toothed appearance, and rounded undivided saddles. This suture pattern is characteristic of Triassic ammonoids and appears again in the Cretaceous pseudoceratites, ammonitic - lobes and saddles are much subdivided, subdivisions are usually rounded instead of saw-toothed. Ammonoids of this type are the most important species from a point of view. This suture type is characteristic of Jurassic and Cretaceous ammonoids, the siphuncle in most ammonoids by far is a narrow tubular structure that runs along the outer rim, known as the venter, connecting the chambers of the phragmocone to the body or living chamber. This distinguishes them from living nautiloides and typical Nautilida, the word siphuncle comes from the New Latin siphunculus, meaning little siphon. Originating from within the bactritoid nautiloids, the ammonoid cephalopods first appeared in the Devonian, while nearly all nautiloids show gently curving sutures, the ammonoid suture line is variably folded, forming saddles and lobes. In subsequent taxonomies, these are regarded as orders within the subclass Ammonoidea. Because ammonites and their relatives are extinct, little is known about their way of life. Their soft body parts are rarely preserved in any detail. Nonetheless, much has been worked out by examining ammonoid shells, synchrotron analysis of an aptychophoran ammonite revealed remains of isopod and mollusc larvae in its buccal cavity, indicating at least this kind of ammonite fed on plankton. They may have avoided predation by squirting ink, much like modern cephalopods, the soft body of the creature occupied the largest segments of the shell at the end of the coil. The smaller earlier segments were walled off and the animal could maintain its buoyancy by filling them with gas, thus, the smaller sections of the coil would have floated above the larger sections
21.
Mary Anning
–
Her findings contributed to important changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. She nearly died in 1833 during a landslide that killed her dog and her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces. She also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods, Anning did not fully participate in the scientific community of 19th-century Britain, who were mostly Anglican gentlemen. She struggled financially for much of her life and her family was poor, and her father, a cabinetmaker, died when she was eleven. She became well known in circles in Britain, Europe, and America. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London, indeed, she wrote in a letter, The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone. After her death in 1847, her life story attracted increasing interest. An uncredited author in All the Year Round, edited by Charles Dickens, wrote of her in 1865 that he carpenters daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it. Her fame rose again in the early 20th century and her story was the inspiration for the 1908 tongue-twister She sells seashells on the seashore by Terry Sullivan. In 2010, one hundred and sixty-three years after her death, Anning was born in Lyme Regis in Dorset, England. Her father, Richard Anning, was a cabinetmaker who supplemented his income by mining the coastal cliff-side fossil beds near the town and he married Mary Moore, known as Molly, on 8 August 1793 in Blandford Forum. The couple moved to Lyme and lived in a built on the towns bridge. They attended the Dissenter chapel on Coombe Street, whose worshippers initially called themselves independents, Richard and Molly had ten children. The first child, Mary, was born in 1794 and she was followed by another girl, who died almost at once, Joseph in 1796, and another son in 1798, who died in infancy. In December that year, the oldest child, then four years old, died after her clothes caught fire, possibly while adding wood shavings to the fire. The incident was reported in the Bath Chronicle on 27 December 1798, A child, four years of age of Mr. R. Anning, in a room where there were some shavings. The girls clothes caught fire and she was so dreadfully burnt as to cause her death, when another daughter was born just five months later, she was named Mary after her dead sister. More children were born after her, but none of them survived more than a couple of years, only Mary and Joseph survived to adulthood
22.
Paleontology
–
Paleontology or palaeontology is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene Epoch. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms evolution and interactions with each other, paleontological observations have been documented as far back as the 5th century BC. The science became established in the 18th century as a result of Georges Cuviers work on comparative anatomy, and developed rapidly in the 19th century. The term itself originates from Greek παλαιός, palaios, i. e. old, ancient, ὄν, on, i. e. being, creature and λόγος, logos, i. e. speech, thought, study. Paleontology lies on the border between biology and geology, but differs from archaeology in that it excludes the study of modern humans. It now uses techniques drawn from a range of sciences, including biochemistry, mathematics. The final quarter of the 20th century saw the development of molecular phylogenetics, molecular phylogenetics has also been used to estimate the dates when species diverged, but there is controversy about the reliability of the molecular clock on which such estimates depend. The simplest definition is the study of ancient life, paleontology is one of the historical sciences, along with archaeology, geology, astronomy, cosmology, philology and history itself. This means that it aims to describe phenomena of the past, hence it has three main elements, description of the phenomena, developing a general theory about the causes of various types of change, and applying those theories to specific facts. Sometimes the smoking gun is discovered by an accident during other research. Paleontology lies on the boundary between biology and geology since paleontology focuses on the record of past life but its source of evidence is fossils. In addition paleontology often uses techniques derived from other sciences, including biology, osteology, ecology, chemistry, techniques developed in engineering have been used to analyse how ancient organisms might have worked, for example how fast Tyrannosaurus could move and how powerful its bite was. As knowledge has increased, paleontology has developed specialised subdivisions, vertebrate paleontology concentrates on fossils of vertebrates, from the earliest fish to the immediate ancestors of modern mammals. Invertebrate paleontology deals with fossils of such as molluscs, arthropods. Paleobotany focuses on the study of plants, but traditionally includes the study of fossil algae. Palynology, the study of pollen and spores produced by plants and protists. Micropaleontology deals with all microscopic fossil organisms, regardless of the group to which they belong, one example is the development of oxygenic photosynthesis by bacteria, which hugely increased the productivity and diversity of ecosystems. This also caused the oxygenation of the atmosphere, together, these were a prerequisite for the evolution of the most complex eukaryotic cells, from which all multicellular organisms are built
23.
Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre
–
The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre is based in the upstairs floor of a long-disused cement factory on the foreshore of Charmouth in Dorset, England. The centre operates as an independent registered charity within the framework of the UNESCO Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site. The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 155 kilometres, from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks, in the east. The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a sequence of Triassic, Jurassic. The localities along the Jurassic Coast includes a range of important fossil zones. Entry to the centre and all of its displays is free and, as such and it has also received Heritage Lottery Fund grants. The centre was set up in 1985 by local residents, in response to concerns about damage being done to the cliffs by fossil hunters. The role of the centre has always been primarily as an educator and it has several phases of expansion as the demand from the public. In 2014 a grant from the Primary Science Teaching Trust enabled the provision of a classroom, list of places on the Jurassic Coast Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre website
24.
South West Coast Path
–
The South West Coast Path is Englands longest waymarked long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for 630 miles, running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, since it rises and falls with every river mouth, it is also one of the more challenging trails. The total height climbed has been calculated to be 114,931 ft and it has been voted Britains Best Walking route twice in a row by readers of the Ramblers Walk magazine, and regularly features in lists of the worlds best walks. The final section of the path was designated as a National Trail in 1978, many of the landscapes which the South West Coast Path crosses have special status, either as a National Park or one of the Heritage Coasts. The path passes through two World Heritage Sites, the Dorset and East Devon Coast, known as the Jurassic Coast, was designated in 2001, and the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape in 2007. This research also recorded that 27. 6% of visitors to the region came because of the Path, local people took 23 million walks on the Path and spent a further £116 million, and other visitors contributed the remainder. A further study in 2005 estimated this figure to have risen to around £300 million. They needed to be able to look down into every bay and cove, as a result, the South West Coast Path is no longer used by the Coastguard but it has been transformed from a practical defence system into a resource for recreational walkers. Sections of the path are maintained by the National Trust, which parts of the coast. The path is a designated National Trail, largely funded by Natural England and it was created in stages, with its final section, Somerset and North Devon, opening in 1978. It is maintained by a dedicated South West Coast Path Team, the South West Coast Path Association, a registered charity, exists to support the interests of users of the path. The Association was formed in 1973 and since then it has campaigned for improvements to the path and undertakes considerable fundraising to help care for and its services include accommodation guides and completion certificates. The route is described here anticlockwise, from Minehead to Poole, the distance and total ascent between any two points, in either direction, can be obtained from The South West Coast Path Association Distance Reckoner. A survey carried out in 1999 and 2000 found that at time the path had 2,473 signposts or waymarks, and included 302 bridges,921 stiles. In practice, any calculation is soon out of date because of path diversions due to landslips or access changes. Many walkers take about eight weeks to complete the path, often dividing this into sections walked over several years. This record was quickly broken and as of June 2015, the record is held by Mark Berry. On 24 May 2016 outdoor journalist and GB ultra runner Damian Hall set a new Fastest Known Time of 10 days,15 hours and 18 minutes
25.
Orcombe Point
–
Orcombe Point is a coastal feature near Exmouth, Devon, on the south coast of England. It lies about 10 mi south of the city of Exeter,2 mi southeast of Exmouth town centre and about 7.5 mi southwest of Sidmouth. Directly to the west lies Exmouth Beach and to the east is Sandy Bay, a holiday beach, the two beaches are part of a long strip of sand and are connected to each other below Orcombe Point at low tide. Sited high upon the hill, which affords spectacular views, Orcombe Point is marked by the Geoneedle, the artist whose conceived and designed the Geoneedle sculpture was Michael Fairfax. He also conceived and designed the Exeter Riddle in Exeter, the rocks dip gently to the east. Due to this tilting and erosion the oldest exposed rocks are found here in the west, the coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earths history. The localities along the Jurassic Coast includes a range of important fossil zones. Orcombe Point is the end of the Jurassic Coast and the South West Coast Path includes the entire length of the site. The ascent to Orcombe Point shows the layers of different sedimentary rocks. At the base are cross-bedded sandstones, towards the top, the rock types are those deposited by quieter, slower-flowing waters. The sediments are red and this indicates that they were formed in a desert. These formations belong to the Aylesbeare Mudstone Group and date from the Triassic period 250 million years ago, list of places on the Jurassic Coast
26.
Old Harry Rocks
–
Old Harry Rocks are three chalk formations, including a stack and a stump, located at Handfast Point, on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, southern England. They mark the most easterly point of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Old Harry Rocks lies directly east of Studland, about 1.5 miles northeast of Swanage, and about 3 miles south of the large towns of Poole and Bournemouth. To the south are the cliffs of Ballard Down, much of which is owned by the National Trust. As the headland suffered hydraulic action, first caves, then arches formed, the tops of the arches collapsed after being weakened by rainfall and wind, leaving disconnected stacks. One of these stacks is known as Old Harry, Old Harrys Wife was another stack which was eroded through corrosion and abrasion, until the bottom was so weak the top fell away, leaving a stump. Hydraulic action is the cause of erosion that damaged the rock. The downlands of Ballard Down are formed of chalk with some bands of flint, the bands of stone have been gradually eroded over the centuries, some of the earlier stacks having fallen, while new ones have been formed by the breaching of narrow isthmuses. Across the water to the east The Needles on the Isle of Wight are usually visible and these are also part of the same chalk band and only a few thousand years ago were connected to Ballard Down. To form the stacks, the sea gradually eroded along the joints and this eventually eroded right through to create an arch. The arch subsequently collapsed to leave the stacks of Old Harry and his wife, No Mans Land, the large outcrop of rock at the end of the cliffs is often referred to as No Mans Land. Old Harry is formed by processes, which will eventually remove the stack. Some people desire to preserve the rocks and protect them from the processes that formed Old Harry. The National Trust, who own the stacks in perpetuity, have experience in looking after the coast, there are various stories about the naming of the rocks. One legend says that the Devil had a sleep on the rocks, another local legend says that the rocks were named after Harry Paye, the infamous Poole pirate, whose ship hid behind the rocks awaiting passing merchantmen. Yet another tale has it that a ninth-century Viking raid was thwarted by a storm, list of places on the Jurassic Coast The Needles The Jurassic Park Trust. A Walk Through Time, the Official Guide to the Jurassic Park, geology of Harry Rocks and Ballard Point Ian West, University of Southampton Old Harry Rocks, Dorset, GCSE Geography BBC Bitesize
27.
Swanage
–
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the end of the Isle of Purbeck. In the 2011 census the parish and two electoral wards had a population of 9,601. Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks, with Studland Bay, within the parish are Durlston Bay and Durlston Country Park to the south of the town. The parish also includes the areas of Herston, just to the west of the town, and Durlston, just to the south. The town, originally a port and fishing village, flourished in the Victorian era. During its history the bay was listed variously as Swanawic, Swanwich and Sandwich, the town is located at the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The town contains many listed buildings and two conservation areas – Swanage Conservation Area and Herston Conservation Area, while fishing is likely the towns oldest industry, quarrying has been important to the town and the local area since at least the 1st century AD. During the time of the Roman occupation this industry grew, with the distinctive Purbeck marble being used for purposes in buildings as far away as London. When the Romans left Britain, quarrying largely ceased until the 12th century, the town is first mentioned in historical texts in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 877. A hundred Danish ships which had survived the battle were driven by a storm onto Peveril Point, a monument topped by cannonballs was built in 1882 by John Mowlem to celebrate this event and is situated at the southern end of the seafront promenade. In the 12th century demand for Purbeck Marble grew once again, while Purbeck marble is not suited to external use, as it does not weather well, it is however strong and suitably decorative for use as internal columns. As such the stone was used in the construction of large churches. In contrast to the decorative Purbeck marble, Purbeck limestone, or more commonly Purbeck stone, has used in construction locally since the early days of quarrying on Purbeck. Its use is well documented as it was taken for granted as the default construction materials in the area. However, the arrival of modern quarrying techniques in the 17th century resulted in an increase in production. The Great Fire of London in 1666 led to a period of reconstruction in the city. It was in time that stone first started being loaded upon ships directly from the Swanage seafront
28.
Crustacean
–
Crustaceans form a large, diverse arthropod taxon which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill, woodlice and barnacles. In other words, some crustaceans are more related to insects. The 67,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at 0.1 mm, to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span of up to 3.8 m, like other arthropods, crustaceans have an exoskeleton, which they moult to grow. Most crustaceans are free-living aquatic animals, but some are terrestrial, some are parasitic, the group has an extensive fossil record, reaching back to the Cambrian, and includes living fossils such as Triops cancriformis, which has existed apparently unchanged since the Triassic period. More than 10 million tons of crustaceans are produced by fishery or farming for human consumption, krill and copepods are not as widely fished, but may be the animals with the greatest biomass on the planet, and form a vital part of the food chain. The scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology, and a scientist who works in carcinology is a carcinologist, the body of a crustacean is composed of segments, which are grouped into three regions, the cephalon or head, the thorax, and the pleon or abdomen. The head and thorax may be fused together to form a cephalothorax, the crustacean body is protected by the hard exoskeleton, which must be moulted for the animal to grow. The shell around each somite can be divided into a dorsal tergum, ventral sternum, various parts of the exoskeleton may be fused together. The abdomen bears pleopods, and ends in a telson, which bears the anus, the number and variety of appendages in different crustaceans may be partly responsible for the groups success. It is unclear whether the condition is a derived state which evolved in crustaceans. Trilobites, for instance, also possessed biramous appendages, the main body cavity is an open circulatory system, where blood is pumped into the haemocoel by a heart located near the dorsum. Malacostraca have haemocyanin as the pigment, while copepods, ostracods, barnacles. The alimentary canal consists of a tube that often has a gizzard-like gastric mill for grinding food and a pair of digestive glands that absorb food. Structures that function as kidneys are located near the antennae, a brain exists in the form of ganglia close to the antennae, and a collection of major ganglia is found below the gut. In many decapods, the first pair of pleopods are specialised in the male for sperm transfer, many terrestrial crustaceans mate seasonally and return to the sea to release the eggs. Others, such as woodlice, lay their eggs on land, in most decapods, the females retain the eggs until they hatch into free-swimming larvae. Marine crustaceans are as ubiquitous in the oceans as insects are on land, some branchiurans are able to withstand rapid changes of salinity and will also switch hosts from marine to non-marine species. Krill are the layer and the most important part of the food chain in Antarctic animal communities
29.
Insect
–
Insects are a class of hexapod invertebrates within the arthropod phylum that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body, three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes and one pair of antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet, including more than a million described species, the number of extant species is estimated at between six and ten million, and potentially represent over 90% of the differing animal life forms on Earth. Insects may be found in all environments, although only a small number of species reside in the oceans. The life cycles of insects vary but most hatch from eggs, insect growth is constrained by the inelastic exoskeleton and development involves a series of molts. The immature stages can differ from the adults in structure, habit and habitat, Insects that undergo 3-stage metamorphosis lack a pupal stage and adults develop through a series of nymphal stages. The higher level relationship of the Hexapoda is unclear, fossilized insects of enormous size have been found from the Paleozoic Era, including giant dragonflies with wingspans of 55 to 70 cm. The most diverse insect groups appear to have coevolved with flowering plants, adult insects typically move about by walking, flying or sometimes swimming. As it allows for rapid yet stable movement, many insects adopt a tripedal gait in which they walk with their legs touching the ground in alternating triangles, Insects are the only invertebrates to have evolved flight. Many insects spend at least part of their lives under water, with adaptations that include gills. Some species, such as water striders, are capable of walking on the surface of water, Insects are mostly solitary, but some, such as certain bees, ants and termites, are social and live in large, well-organized colonies. Some insects, such as earwigs, show maternal care, guarding their eggs, Insects can communicate with each other in a variety of ways. Male moths can sense the pheromones of female moths over great distances, other species communicate with sounds, crickets stridulate, or rub their wings together, to attract a mate and repel other males. Lampyridae in the beetle order communicate with light, humans regard certain insects as pests, and attempt to control them using insecticides and a host of other techniques. Some insects damage crops by feeding on sap, leaves or fruits, a few parasitic species are pathogenic. Some insects perform complex ecological roles, blow-flies, for example, help consume carrion, Many other insects are considered ecologically beneficial as predators and a few provide direct economic benefit. Silkworms and bees have been used extensively by humans for the production of silk and honey, in some cultures, people eat the larvae or adults of certain insects. Insect first appears documented in English in 1601 in Hollands translation of Pliny, translations of Aristotles term also form the usual word for insect in Welsh, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, etc. The evolutionary relationship of insects to other animal groups remains unclear, in the Pancrustacea theory, insects, together with Entognatha, Remipedia, and Cephalocarida, make up a natural clade labeled Miracrustacea
30.
Mollusca
–
The molluscs compose the large phylum Mollusca of invertebrate animals. Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized, molluscs are the largest marine phylum, comprising about 23% of all the named marine organisms. Numerous molluscs also live in freshwater and terrestrial habitats and they are highly diverse, not just in size and in anatomical structure, but also in behaviour and in habitat. The phylum is divided into 9 or 10 taxonomic classes. The gastropods are by far the most numerous molluscs in terms of classified species, the three most universal features defining modern molluscs are a mantle with a significant cavity used for breathing and excretion, the presence of a radula, and the structure of the nervous system. Other than these things, molluscs express great morphological diversity, so many textbooks base their descriptions on an ancestral mollusc. This has a single, limpet-like shell on top, which is made of proteins and chitin reinforced with calcium carbonate, the underside of the animal consists of a single muscular foot. Although molluscs are coelomates, the coelom tends to be small, the main body cavity is a hemocoel through which blood circulates, their circulatory systems are mainly open. The generalized mollusc has two paired nerve cords, or three in bivalves, the brain, in species that have one, encircles the esophagus. Most molluscs have eyes, and all have sensors to detect chemicals, vibrations, the simplest type of molluscan reproductive system relies on external fertilization, but more complex variations occur. All produce eggs, from which may emerge trochophore larvae, more complex veliger larvae, good evidence exists for the appearance of gastropods, cephalopods and bivalves in the Cambrian period 541 to 485.4 million years ago. Molluscs have, for centuries, also been the source of important luxury goods, notably pearls, mother of pearl, Tyrian purple dye and their shells have also been used as money in some preindustrial societies. Mollusc species can also represent hazards or pests for human activities, the bite of the blue-ringed octopus is often fatal, and that of Octopus apollyon causes inflammation that can last for over a month. Stings from a few species of large tropical cone shells can also kill, schistosomiasis is transmitted to humans via water snail hosts, and affects about 200 million people. Snails and slugs can also be serious pests, and accidental or deliberate introduction of some snail species into new environments has seriously damaged some ecosystems. The words mollusc and mollusk are both derived from the French mollusque, which originated from the Latin molluscus, from mollis, molluscus was itself an adaptation of Aristotles τα μαλακά, the soft things, which he applied to cuttlefish. The scientific study of molluscs is accordingly called malacology, as it is now known these groups have no relation to molluscs, and very little to one another, the name Molluscoida has been abandoned. The most universal features of the structure of molluscs are a mantle with a significant cavity used for breathing and excretion
31.
Echinoderm
–
Echinoderm is the common name given to any member of the phylum Echinodermata of marine animals. The adults are recognizable by their symmetry, and include such well-known animals as sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, echinoderms are also the largest phylum that has no freshwater or terrestrial representatives. Aside from the hard-to-classify Arkarua, the first definitive members of the phylum appeared near the start of the Cambrian, the echinoderms are important both ecologically and geologically. Ecologically, there are few other groupings so abundant in the desert of the deep sea. Most echinoderms are able to regenerate tissue, organs, limbs, geologically, the value of echinoderms is in their ossified skeletons, which are major contributors to many limestone formations, and can provide valuable clues as to the geological environment. They were the most used species in regenerative research in the 19th and 20th centuries, further, it is held by some scientists that the radiation of echinoderms was responsible for the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. Along with the chordates and hemichordates, echinoderms are deuterostomes, one of the two divisions of the bilaterians, the other being the protostomes. During the early development of the embryo, in deuterostomes, the blastopore becomes the anus whereas in the protostomes, in deuterostomes, the mouth develops at a later stage, at the opposite end of the blastula from the blastopore, and a gut forms connecting the two. There are a total of about 7,000 extant species of echinoderm as well as about 13,000 extinct species and they are found in habitats ranging from shallow intertidal areas to abyssal depths. These consist of the Crinoidea and the extinct blastoids and Paracrinoids, a fifth class of Eleutherozoa consisting of just three species, the Concentricycloidea, were recently merged into the Asteroidea. The fossil record includes a number of other classes which do not appear to fall into any extant crown group. All echinoderms are marine and nearly all are benthic, the oldest known echinoderm fossil may be Arkarua from the Precambrian of Australia. It is a fossil with radial ridges on the rim. However, no stereom or internal structure showing a water system is present. The first universally accepted echinoderms appear in the Lower Cambrian period, asterozoans appeared in the Ordovician, echinoderms left behind an extensive fossil record. It is hypothesised that the ancestor of all echinoderms was a simple, motile, bilaterally symmetrical animal with a mouth, gut and this ancestral stock adopted an attached mode of life and suspension feeding, and developed radial symmetry as this was more advantageous for such an existence
32.
Fish
–
A fish is any member of a group of animals that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous, tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered obsolete or paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, because in this manner the term fish is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification, the earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts, fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators, the first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water and they can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans. With 33,100 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any group of vertebrates. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food, commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. They are also caught by fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the evolution of fish is not studied as a single event. Early fish from the record are represented by a group of small, jawless. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct, an extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils, the diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the form into adulthood. Fish are a group, that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods
33.
Amphibian
–
Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. They inhabit a variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Thus amphibians typically start out as larvae living in water, the young generally undergo metamorphosis from larva with gills to an adult air-breathing form with lungs. Amphibians use their skin as a respiratory surface and some small terrestrial salamanders and frogs lack lungs. They are superficially similar to lizards but, along with mammals and birds, reptiles are amniotes, the earliest amphibians evolved in the Devonian period from sarcopterygian fish with lungs and bony-limbed fins, features that were helpful in adapting to dry land. They diversified and became dominant during the Carboniferous and Permian periods, over time, amphibians shrank in size and decreased in diversity, leaving only the modern subclass Lissamphibia. The three modern orders of amphibians are Anura, Urodela, and Apoda, the number of known amphibian species is approximately 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. The smallest amphibian in the world is a frog from New Guinea with a length of just 7.7 mm. The largest living amphibian is the 1.8 m Chinese giant salamander, the study of amphibians is called batrachology, while the study of both reptiles and amphibians is called herpetology. The word amphibian is derived from the Ancient Greek term ἀμφίβιος, the term was initially used as a general adjective for animals that could live on land or in water, including seals and otters. Traditionally, the class Amphibia includes all tetrapod vertebrates that are not amniotes, the numbers of species cited above follows Frost and the total number of known amphibian species is over 7,000, of which nearly 90% are frogs. With the phylogenetic classification, the taxon Labyrinthodontia has been discarded as it is a group without unique defining features apart from shared primitive characteristics. Classification varies according to the phylogeny of the author and whether they use a stem-based or a node-based classification. The phylogeny of Paleozoic amphibians is uncertain, and Lissamphibia may possibly fall within groups, like the Temnospondyli or the Lepospondyli. If the common ancestor of amphibians and amniotes is included in Amphibia, all modern amphibians are included in the subclass Lissamphibia, which is usually considered a clade, a group of species that have evolved from a common ancestor. The three modern orders are Anura, Caudata, and Gymnophiona, although the fossils of several older proto-frogs with primitive characteristics are known, the oldest true frog is Prosalirus bitis, from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation of Arizona. It is anatomically similar to modern frogs. The oldest known caecilian is another Early Jurassic species, Eocaecilia micropodia, the earliest salamander is Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis from the Late Jurassic of northeastern China
34.
Reptile
–
Reptiles are tetrapod animals in the class Reptilia, comprising todays turtles, crocodilians, snakes, amphisbaenians, lizards, tuatara, and their extinct relatives. The study of these traditional reptile orders, historically combined with that of amphibians, is called herpetology. Because some reptiles are more related to birds than they are to other reptiles. For this reason, many scientists prefer to consider the birds part of Reptilia as well. Some early examples include the lizard-like Hylonomus and Casineria, in addition to the living reptiles, there are many diverse groups that are now extinct, in some cases due to mass extinction events. In particular, the K–Pg extinction wiped out the pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, ornithischians, and sauropods, as well as species of theropods, crocodyliforms. Modern non-avian reptiles inhabit every continent with the exception of Antarctica, several living subgroups are recognized, Testudines, approximately 400 species, Sphenodontia,1 species, Squamata, over 9,600 species, Crocodilia,25 species, and Aves,10,000 species. Reptiles are tetrapod vertebrates, creatures that either have four limbs or, unlike amphibians, reptiles do not have an aquatic larval stage. As amniotes, reptile eggs are surrounded by membranes for protection and transport, many of the viviparous species feed their fetuses through various forms of placenta analogous to those of mammals, with some providing initial care for their hatchlings. In the 18th century, the reptiles were, from the outset of classification, the terms reptile and amphibian were largely interchangeable, reptile being preferred by the French. Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti was the first to use the term Reptilia for an expanded selection of reptiles. Today, the two groups are commonly treated under the same heading as herptiles. He subsequently proposed the names of Sauropsida and Ichthyopsida for the two groups. In 1866, Haeckel demonstrated that vertebrates could be divided based on their strategies, and that reptiles, birds. The terms Sauropsida and Theropsida were used again in 1916 by E. S, Goodrich to distinguish between lizards, birds, and their relatives on the one hand and mammals and their extinct relatives on the other. Goodrich supported this division by the nature of the hearts and blood vessels in each group, according to Goodrich, both lineages evolved from an earlier stem group, Protosauria in which he included some animals today considered reptile-like amphibians, as well as early reptiles. Watson observed that the first two groups diverged very early in history, so he divided Goodrichs Protosauria between them. He also reinterpreted Sauropsida and Theropsida to exclude birds and mammals, thus his Sauropsida included Procolophonia, Eosuchia, Millerosauria, Chelonia, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, Crocodilia, thecodonts, non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and sauropterygians
35.
Mammal
–
Mammals are any vertebrates within the class Mammalia, a clade of endothermic amniotes distinguished from reptiles by the possession of a neocortex, hair, three middle ear bones and mammary glands. All female mammals nurse their young with milk, secreted from the mammary glands, Mammals include the largest animals on the planet, the great whales. The basic body type is a quadruped, but some mammals are adapted for life at sea, in the air, in trees. The largest group of mammals, the placentals, have a placenta, Mammals range in size from the 30–40 mm bumblebee bat to the 30-meter blue whale. With the exception of the five species of monotreme, all modern mammals give birth to live young, most mammals, including the six most species-rich orders, belong to the placental group. The largest orders are the rodents, bats and Soricomorpha, the next three biggest orders, depending on the biological classification scheme used, are the Primates, the Cetartiodactyla, and the Carnivora. Living mammals are divided into the Yinotheria and Theriiformes There are around 5450 species of mammal, in some classifications, extant mammals are divided into two subclasses, the Prototheria, that is, the order Monotremata, and the Theria, or the infraclasses Metatheria and Eutheria. The marsupials constitute the group of the Metatheria, and include all living metatherians as well as many extinct ones. Much of the changes reflect the advances of cladistic analysis and molecular genetics, findings from molecular genetics, for example, have prompted adopting new groups, such as the Afrotheria, and abandoning traditional groups, such as the Insectivora. The mammals represent the only living Synapsida, which together with the Sauropsida form the Amniota clade, the early synapsid mammalian ancestors were sphenacodont pelycosaurs, a group that produced the non-mammalian Dimetrodon. At the end of the Carboniferous period, this group diverged from the line that led to todays reptiles. Some mammals are intelligent, with some possessing large brains, self-awareness, Mammals can communicate and vocalize in several different ways, including the production of ultrasound, scent-marking, alarm signals, singing, and echolocation. Mammals can organize themselves into fission-fusion societies, harems, and hierarchies, most mammals are polygynous, but some can be monogamous or polyandrous. They provided, and continue to provide, power for transport and agriculture, as well as commodities such as meat, dairy products, wool. Mammals are hunted or raced for sport, and are used as model organisms in science, Mammals have been depicted in art since Palaeolithic times, and appear in literature, film, mythology, and religion. Defaunation of mammals is primarily driven by anthropogenic factors, such as poaching and habitat destruction, Mammal classification has been through several iterations since Carl Linnaeus initially defined the class. No classification system is accepted, McKenna & Bell and Wilson & Reader provide useful recent compendiums. Though field work gradually made Simpsons classification outdated, it remains the closest thing to a classification of mammals
36.
Pinophyta
–
The Pinophyta, also known as Coniferophyta or Coniferae, or commonly as conifers, are a division of vascular land plants containing a single class, Pinopsida. They are gymnosperms, cone-bearing seed plants, all extant conifers are perennial woody plants with secondary growth. The great majority are trees, though a few are shrubs, examples include cedars, Douglas firs, cypresses, firs, junipers, kauri, larches, pines, hemlocks, redwoods, spruces, and yews. As of 1998, the division Pinophyta was estimated to contain eight families,68 genera, although the total number of species is relatively small, conifers are ecologically important. They are the dominant plants over large areas of land, most notably the taiga of the Northern Hemisphere, boreal conifers have many wintertime adaptations. The narrow conical shape of northern conifers, and their downward-drooping limbs, many of them seasonally alter their biochemistry to make them more resistant to freezing. While tropical rainforests have more biodiversity and turnover, the conifer forests of the world represent the largest terrestrial carbon sink. Conifers are of economic value for softwood lumber and paper production. The earliest conifers in the record date to the late Carboniferous period, possibly arising from Cordaites. Pinophytes, Cycadophytes, and Ginkgophytes all developed at this time, an important adaptation of these gymnosperms was allowing plants to live without being so dependent on water. Other adaptations are pollen and the seed, which allows the embryo to be transported and developed elsewhere, Conifers appear to be one of the taxa that benefited from the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and were the dominant land plants of the Mesozoic. They were overtaken by the plants, which first appeared in the Cretaceous. They were the food of herbivorous dinosaurs, and their resins and poisons would have given protection against herbivores. Reproductive features of modern conifers had evolved by the end of the Mesozoic era, Conifer is a Latin word, a compound of conus and ferre, meaning the one that bears cone. A descriptive name in use for the conifers is Coniferae. Alternatively, descriptive botanical names may also be used at any rank above family and this means that if conifers are considered a division, they may be called Pinophyta or Coniferae. As a class they may be called Pinopsida or Coniferae, as an order they may be called Pinales or Coniferae or Coniferales. Conifers are the largest and economically most important component group of the gymnosperms, the division Pinophyta consists of just one class, Pinopsida, which includes both living and fossil taxa
37.
Cyatheales
–
The order Cyatheales, which includes the tree ferns, is a taxonomic division of the fern class, Polypodiopsida. No clear morphological features characterize all of the Cyatheales, but DNA sequence data indicate the order is monophyletic, some species in the Cyatheales have tree-like growth forms, but others have rhizomes. Some species have scales on the stems and leaves, while others have hairs, however, most plants in the Cyatheales are tree ferns and have trunk-like stems up to 10 metres tall. It is unclear how many times the form has evolved. In general, any fern that grows with a trunk elevating the fronds above ground level can be called a tree fern, however, the plants formally known as tree ferns comprise a group of large ferns belonging to the families Dicksoniaceae and Cyatheaceae in the order Cyatheales. Like all ferns, tree ferns reproduce by means of spores developed in sporangia on the undersides of the fronds, the fronds of tree ferns are usually very large and multiple-pinnated, but at least one type has entire fronds. The fronds of tree ferns also exhibit circinate vernation, meaning the young emerge in coils that uncurl as they grow. Unlike flowering plants, tree ferns do not form new tissue in their trunk as they grow. Rather, the trunk is supported by a mass of roots that expands as the tree fern grows. Some genera — for example Dicksonia and Cibotium, and some Cyathea — can be transplanted by severing the top portion from the rest of the trunk, if the transplanted top part is kept moist it will regrow a new root system over the next year. The success rate of transplantation increases if the roots are dug up intact, if the crown of the Tasmanian tree fern Dicksonia antarctica is damaged, it will die because all new growth occurs there. But other clump-forming tree fern species, such as D. squarrosa and D. youngiae, Tree ferns often fall over in the wild, yet manage to reroot from this new prostrate position and begin new vertical growth. The number of tree species is likely to be around a thousand. While many ferns are able to achieve a widespread distribution because of their spore reproduction and this makes their species much more susceptible to the effects of local deforestation. Why species are not more widespread is unknown, especially considering they have sufficient height to have a chance of getting spores into the wind stream. Where feral pigs are a problem, as in some Hawaiian rainforests, they knock over tree ferns to root out the starchy pith. Outside of the Cyatheales a few ferns in other groups could be considered tree ferns, a few species in the genera Blechnum, Leptopteris, Sadleria and Todea could also be considered tree ferns in a liberal interpretation of the term. In the molecular phylogenetic classification of Smith et al. in 2006, eight families, Thyrsopteridaceae, Loxsomataceae, Culcitaceae, Plagiogyriaceae, Cibotiaceae, Cyatheaceae, Dicksoniaceae, and Metaxyaceae, were recognized
38.
Cycad
–
Cycads /ˈsaɪkædz/ are seed plants with a long fossil history that were formerly more abundant and more diverse than they are today. They typically have a stout and woody trunk with a crown of large, hard and stiff, the individual plants are either all male or all female. Cycads vary in size from having only a few centimeters to several meters tall. They typically grow very slowly and live long, with some specimens known to be as much as 1,000 years old. Because of their resemblance, they are sometimes mistaken for palms or ferns. The living cycads are found much of the subtropical and tropical parts of the world. The greatest diversity occurs in South and Central America, some can survive in harsh desert or semi-desert climates, others in wet rain forest conditions, and some in both. Some can grow in sand or even on rock, some in oxygen-poor, swampy, some are able to grow in full sun, some in full shade, and some in both. The three extant families of cycads are Cycadaceae, Stangeriaceae, and Zamiaceae, Cycads have changed little since the Jurassic, compared to some major evolutionary changes in other plant divisions. Cycads have very specialized pollinators, usually a species of beetle. They have been reported to fix nitrogen in association with various cyanobacteria living in the roots and these photosynthetic bacteria produce a neurotoxin called BMAA that is found in the seeds of cycads. This neurotoxin may enter a food chain as the cycad seeds may be eaten directly as a source of flour by humans or by wild or feral animals such as bats. It is hypothesized that this is a source of some neurological diseases in humans, Cycads have a cylindrical trunk which usually does not branch. Leaves grow directly from the trunk, and typically fall when older, the leaves grow in a rosette form, with new foliage emerging from the top and center of the crown. The trunk may be buried, so the leaves appear to be emerging from the ground, the leaves are generally large in proportion to the trunk size, and sometimes even larger than the trunk. The leaves are pinnate, with a leaf stalk from which parallel ribs emerge from each side of the stalk. The leaves are typically either compound, or have edges so deeply cut so as to appear compound. Some species have leaves that are bipinnate, which means the leaflets each have their own subleaflets, for example, the family Stangeriaceae only contains three extant species in Africa and Australia
39.
Lyme Bay
–
Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel situated in the southwest of England between Start Bay in the west and Portland in the east. The counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay, the area around Lyme Bay is part of a World Heritage Site, the Jurassic Coast, named for its Jurassic geology. Many of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur and other prehistoric remains were in the area surrounding Lyme Regis. Notable among these were the discoveries made by self-educated palaeontologist and fossil collector Mary Anning, the weather in the bay is temperate by English standards, and far more temperate than many other places at a similar latitude. The reason for this is the action of the Gulf Stream. The area along the coast of Lyme Bay is thus a popular holiday destination, on 22 March 1993, four schoolchildren died in what is known as the Lyme Bay kayaking tragedy. Lyme Bay was the site of Exercise Tiger, a run for the D-Day invasion of France in 1944. The operation went horribly wrong when German E-boats appeared on the scene and attacked the landing craft, killing 749 American Army, a ship commissioned in 2007 for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary carries the name of the area, RFA Lyme Bay. Tank wrecks from the D-Day practice provide a venue for diving, marine life includes the Devon cup coral and rare pink sea fan. The reefs have been under threat from scallop dredging which, if unregulated, Devon Wildlife Trust has been campaigning to protect the reefs, calling for an end to the dredging and trawling within a 60-square-mile zone to help the reefs recover. About 20% of this area is now protected by an agreement made between the DEFRA and the fishermen of the South West Inshore Fishermens Association. Virtle Rock is an islet in Pokers Pool, Lyme Bay and it is the farthest islet from the coast of Pokers Pool. List of places on the Jurassic Coast Devon Wildlife Trusts page about the Lyme Bay coral reefs Save Lyme Bay Reefs
40.
Durdle Door
–
Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch on the Jurassic Coast near Lulworth in Dorset, England. It is privately owned by the Welds, a family who owns 12,000 acres in Dorset in the name of the Lulworth Estate and it is open to the public. The name Durdle is derived from the Old English thirl meaning bore or drill, the form of the coastline around Durdle Door is controlled by its geology—both by the contrasting hardnesses of the rocks, and by the local patterns of faults and folds. The arch has formed on a concordant coastline where bands of rock run parallel to the shoreline, the rock strata are almost vertical, and the bands of rock are quite narrow. Originally a band of resistant Portland limestone ran along the shore, behind this is a 120-metre band of weaker, easily eroded rocks, and behind this is a stronger and much thicker band of chalk, which forms the Purbeck Hills. These steeply dipping rocks are part of the structure known as the Lulworth crumple. The limestone and chalk are in proximity at Durdle Door than at Swanage,10 miles to the east. Around this part of the coast nearly all of the limestone has been removed by sea erosion, erosion at the western end of the limestone band has resulted in the arch formation. UNESCO teams monitor the condition of both the arch and adjacent beach. In Man O War Bay, the bay immediately east of Durdle Door, the band of Portland and Purbeck limestone has not been entirely eroded away. Similarly, offshore to the west, the limestone outcrop forms a line of small rocky islets called The Bull, The Blind Cow, The Cow. There is a dearth of written records about the arch. In the late eighteenth century there is a description of the magnificent arch of Durdle-rock Door, in 1811 the first Ordnance Survey map of the area named it as Dirdale Door. Durdle is derived from the Old English thirl, meaning to pierce, bore or drill, the Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth, 4th pr. London, Geological Survey of Great Britain, HMSO, a Geological Guide to the Dorset Coast, 2nd ed. London, Adam & Charles Black
41.
Mesozoic
–
The Mesozoic Era is an interval of geological time from about 252 to 66 million years ago. This Era is also called from a paleobotanist view the Age of Conifers, Mesozoic means middle life, deriving from the Greek prefix meso-/μεσο- for between and zōon/ζῷον meaning animal or living being. It is one of three eras of the Phanerozoic Eon, preceded by the Paleozoic and succeeded by the Cenozoic. The era is subdivided into three periods, the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, which are further subdivided into a number of epochs. The Mesozoic was a time of significant tectonic, climate and evolutionary activity, the era witnessed the gradual rifting of the supercontinent Pangaea into separate landmasses that would eventually move into their current positions. The climate of the Mesozoic was varied, alternating between warming and cooling periods, overall, however, the Earth was hotter than it is today. Birds first appeared in the Jurassic, having evolved from a branch of theropod dinosaurs, the first mammals also appeared during the Mesozoic, but would remain small—less than 15 kg —until the Cenozoic. Following the Paleozoic, the Mesozoic extended roughly 186 million years and this time frame is separated into three geologic periods. It is also known as the Great Dying because it is considered the largest mass extinction in the Earths history, the upper boundary of the Mesozoic is set at the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which may have been caused by the impactor that created Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula. Towards the Late Cretaceous large volcanic eruptions are believed to have contributed to the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Approximately 50% of all genera became extinct, including all of the non-avian dinosaurs, the Triassic ranges roughly from 252 million to 201 million years ago. The Triassic is a time in Earths history bracketed between the Permian Extinction and the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, two of the big five, and precedes the Jurassic Period and it has three major epochs, the Early Triassic, the Middle Triassic and the Late Triassic. The Early Triassic was between about 252 million to 247 million years ago and was dominated by deserts as Pangaea had not yet broken up, thus the interior was nothing, the Earth had just witnessed a massive die-off in which 95% of all life became extinct. The most common life on earth were Lystrosaurus, labyrinthodonts. Temnospondyls evolved during this time and would be the dominant predator for much of the Triassic, the Middle Triassic spans roughly from 247 million to 237 million years ago. The Middle Triassic featured the beginnings of the breakup of Pangaea, the ecosystem had recovered from the devastation that was the Great Dying. Algae, sponge, corals, and crustaceans all had recovered, new aquatic reptiles evolved, such as ichthyosaurs and nothosaurs. Meanwhile, on land, pine forests flourished, as did groups of insects like mosquitoes, the first ancient crocodilians evolved, which sparked competition with the large amphibians that had since ruled the freshwater world
42.
Geology
–
Geology is an earth science concerned with the solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Geology can also refer generally to the study of the features of any terrestrial planet. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth by providing the evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life. Geology also plays a role in engineering and is a major academic discipline. The majority of data comes from research on solid Earth materials. These typically fall into one of two categories, rock and unconsolidated material, the majority of research in geology is associated with the study of rock, as rock provides the primary record of the majority of the geologic history of the Earth. There are three types of rock, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The rock cycle is an important concept in geology which illustrates the relationships between three types of rock, and magma. When a rock crystallizes from melt, it is an igneous rock, the sedimentary rock can then be subsequently turned into a metamorphic rock due to heat and pressure and is then weathered, eroded, deposited, and lithified, ultimately becoming a sedimentary rock. Sedimentary rock may also be re-eroded and redeposited, and metamorphic rock may also undergo additional metamorphism, all three types of rocks may be re-melted, when this happens, a new magma is formed, from which an igneous rock may once again crystallize. Geologists also study unlithified material which typically comes from more recent deposits and these materials are superficial deposits which lie above the bedrock. Because of this, the study of material is often known as Quaternary geology. This includes the study of sediment and soils, including studies in geomorphology, sedimentology and this theory is supported by several types of observations, including seafloor spreading, and the global distribution of mountain terrain and seismicity. This coupling between rigid plates moving on the surface of the Earth and the mantle is called plate tectonics. The development of plate tectonics provided a basis for many observations of the solid Earth. Long linear regions of geologic features could be explained as plate boundaries, mid-ocean ridges, high regions on the seafloor where hydrothermal vents and volcanoes exist, were explained as divergent boundaries, where two plates move apart. Arcs of volcanoes and earthquakes were explained as convergent boundaries, where one plate subducts under another, transform boundaries, such as the San Andreas Fault system, resulted in widespread powerful earthquakes. Plate tectonics also provided a mechanism for Alfred Wegeners theory of continental drift and they also provided a driving force for crustal deformation, and a new setting for the observations of structural geology
43.
Budleigh Salterton
–
Budleigh Salterton is a small town on the coast in East Devon, England,15 miles south-east of Exeter. It is situated within the East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and it is a major part of the electoral ward of Budleigh. The ward population at the 2011 census was 5,967 and it has a designated area for naturists. Budleigh Salterton lies on the South West Coast Path, with clifftop routes eastwards to Sidmouth, the pebble beach and cliffs are part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site. Fairlynch Museum is housed in a listed, thatched marine cottage orné dating from 1811 and it covers the history and geology of the region, and opened in 1967, offering exhibitions and a local archive. It possesses a collection of period costumes. The town has a choir, which performs for charity. Budleigh Salterton lies on the B3178 and the B3179 ends on the edge of the town. It is served by three bus routes, The Coasthopper 157 to towns Exmouth and Sidmouth, the 357, the 58 every two hours to Exeter and the 57C to Exeter and Bicton College. Budleigh Salterton is home to the scenic East Devon Golf Club, the first team of the Budleigh Salterton Association Football Club plays in the South West Peninsula League Division One East. The club also has a team, a ladies team. In addition, there is a club, a rifle club. Budleigh Salterton Anglicans were originally served by a chapel of ease that came under the parish of All Saints, as the population grew, this was replaced in the 1890s by what became the parish church of St Peter in 1901. The church was damaged by enemy aircraft bombing on 17 April 1942. Today the Raleigh Mission Community at St Peter’s, Budleigh Salterton, the Roman Catholic Church is also dedicated to St Peter. The Temple Methodist Church was completed in 1904, to replace an earlier, smaller chapel dating from 1812, built by the bookseller James Lackington, there is a Baptist church in the town, whose congregation dates back to 1843. Writer Dame Hilary Mantel, author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies and it is also the home of BBC Radio 4 comic character Giles Wemmbley-Hogg. Charles Warrell, creator of the I-Spy series of childrens books, in 2003, Budleigh Salterton featured in episode 3 of series 3 of Top Gear as the destination for a road test by Jeremy Clarkson of a Bentley Continental GT
44.
Quartzite
–
Quartzite is a hard, non-foliated metamorphic rock which was originally pure quartz sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure related to tectonic compression within orogenic belts. Pure quartzite is usually white to grey, though quartzites often occur in shades of pink. Other colors, such as yellow, green, blue and orange, are due to other minerals, when sandstone is cemented to quartzite, the individual quartz grains recrystallize along with the former cementing material to form an interlocking mosaic of quartz crystals. Most or all of the texture and sedimentary structures of the sandstone are erased by the metamorphism. The grainy, sandpaper-like surface becomes glassy in appearance, minor amounts of former cementing materials, iron oxide, silica, carbonate and clay, often migrate during recrystallization and metamorphosis. This causes streaks and lenses to form within the quartzite, orthoquartzite is a very pure quartz sandstone composed of usually well-rounded quartz grains cemented by silica. Orthoquartzite is often 99% SiO2 with only minor amounts of iron oxide and trace resistant minerals such as zircon, rutile. Although few fossils are present, the original texture and sedimentary structures are preserved. The term is traditionally used for quartz-cemented quartz arenites. Quartzite is very resistant to weathering and often forms ridges. The nearly pure silica content of the rock provides little for soil, therefore, because of its hardness and angular shape, crushed quartzite is often used as railway ballast. Quartzite is a stone and may be used to cover walls, as roofing tiles, as flooring. Its use for countertops in kitchens is expanding rapidly and it is harder and more resistant to stains than granite. Crushed quartzite is used in road construction. High purity quartzite is used to produce ferrosilicon, industrial silica sand, during the Paleolithic quartzite was used, in addition to flint, quartz, and other lithic raw materials, for making stone tools. Quartzite is also found in the Morenci Copper Mine in Arizona, the town of Quartzsite in western Arizona derives its name from the quartzites in the nearby mountains in both Arizona and Southeastern California. A glassy vitreous quartzite has been described from the Belt Supergroup in the Coeur d’Alene district of northern Idaho, in the United Kingdom, a craggy ridge of quartzite called the Stiperstones runs parallel with the Pontesford-Linley fault,6 km north-west of the Long Mynd in south Shropshire
45.
Ladram Bay
–
Ladram Bay is a secluded bay with pebble beach, between the coastal towns of Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth, on the south coast of Devon, England. Ladram Bay lies about 11 miles southeast of the city centre of Exeter, Ladram Bay lies just under 2 miles southwest of Sidmouth and about 2.5 miles northeast of Budleigh Salterton. Directly southwest of Ladram Bay are Smallstones Point and Chiselbury Bay, to the east is a hill called High Peak and below the hill are the Hern Point and Big Picket Rocks. The holiday park at Ladram Bay is the second largest holiday centre in Devon and it was started by FWS Carter in 1950. It hosts the site of the first Digital TV Transponder in the United Kingdom, the Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 96 miles from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks near Studland, in the east. The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a sequence of Triassic, Jurassic. The localities along the Jurassic Coast includes a range of important fossil zones. See also, List of places on the Jurassic Coast Among the most impressive sights along the Jurassic Coast are the sea stacks at Ladram Bay, the sandstones contain numerous vertical fractures and joints that were formed deep in the Earths crust during past mountain building periods. The sea picked out these planes of weakness to form caves, the “Otter Sandstone” that forms the cliffs and sea stacks were deposited in a hot dry climates in the Triassic Period about 220 Million years ago. The stacks are composed of the rock, which is relatively soft. The striking red colour of the rock is caused by iron oxide, the “Otter Sandstone” is the richest source of Triassic reptile remains in Britain and one of the most important in the world. The bay is sited on the band of Sandstone that forms the oil reservoir at the Wytch Farm oilfield on the Isle of Purbeck
46.
Charmouth
–
Charmouth is a village and civil parish at the mouth of the River Char in West Dorset, England. Dorset County Council estimate that in 2013 the population of the parish was 1,310. In the 2011 census the population of the parish, combined with the parish of Catherston Leweston to the north, was 1,352. The history of Charmouth dates back to the Iron Age when a Celtic tribe, evidence of hill forts can still be seen in the area. The name Charmouth originated from the Saxon Cerne meaning stony river, historian George Roberts wrote, During the Saxon period, the neighbouring coast was particularly subject to the invasions of the Danes, concerning whom so much has been written. In 787, the Danes, Northern men, or Normans, a. D.833, according to the Saxon Chronicle, though some of our historians place the event in 831 or 832, a dreadful battle was fought at Charmouth. The Danes having met with repulses in other parts of the kingdom sailed to Charmouth where having landed, Speed says, they made cruel ravage and slaughter. Their fleet consisted of 35 ships, containing a powerful army, their force, Huntingdon remarks, must have amounted to 17,500 men. Egbert collected the whole force of the county, and marched to attack them, after they had continued their ravages, according to Matthew of Westminster, about a twelve month. The king had nearly succeeded in cutting them off as they were forming, he threw them into great confusion, the Saxons were routed, the night alone prevented their destruction by the infuriated invaders, by the favour of which, Speed says, the king hardly escaped. Among the number of the slain were two earls, his officers, Dudda and Osmond, Wigen, bishop of Sherborne. The Danes, finding a settlement would be liable to the attacks of the brave Egbert, retired to their ships with precipitation and they continued to hover about the coast. In 840, they effected a landing on the same spot, a successive series of invasions followed. In 1086 in the Domesday Book Charmouth was recorded as Cernemude and it was in Whitchurch Canonicorum Hundred and the tenant-in-chief was Count Robert of Mortain. A small trading ship was bound for St Malo. On the following day Charles left Charmouth pursued by troops, who were alerted to his presence by an employee of the inn. The buildings on either side of Charmouths main street vary in age, some of the cottages date from the 17th or 18th centuries. A number of buildings in the village have listed building status, abbots House is a grade II listed, early 16th-century house that was re-faced in the 18th century
47.
Chesil Beach
–
Chesil Beach /ˈtʃɛzᵻl/, sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain. Its toponym is derived from the Old English ceosel or cisel, the shingle beach is 29 kilometres long,200 metres wide and 15 metres high. The beach and the Fleet are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, at the eastern end of the beach at the village of Chiswell, against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, the beach curves round sharply to form Chesil Cove. This part of the beach protects the village from flooding. The beach has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and as such was named by Thomas Hardy as Dead Mans Bay, westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing the Fleet, a shallow tidal lagoon. The beach provides shelter from the winds and waves for the town of Weymouth. It is said that smugglers who landed on the beach in the middle of the night could judge exactly where they were by the size of the shingle, there are three owners of the beach. The Crown Estates own the beach from Portland to its boundary stone at Littlesea, finally from West Bexington to West Bay it is owned by the National Trust. The whole of Chesil Beach south from the Portland Bound Stone is registered common land over which there is a right of access on foot. The origin of Chesil Beach has been argued over for some time, originally it was believed that beach material was from the Budleigh Salterton pebble beds to the west and later from Portland to the south east. Normally, tombolos are created due to the effects of the island on waves and to sediment transport, fossils occur all along the landward shore of the Fleet and along the landward side of Chesil Beach from Abbotsbury to West Bay. The main site is at Burton Bradstock, there have been many shipwrecks on Chesil Beach, particularly during the age of sail. The beach was particularly dangerous within the English Channel, as it forms an extended lee shore during south-westerly gales, a ship coming up the Channel had to clear Portland Bill to be safe, but the wind and tide would be pushing it northwards into Lyme Bay. At present there are no manned stations along the beach, as coverage is provided when required from Portland Coastguard, the local fishermen, particularly at Portland, developed a purpose-built vessel to withstand the sea actions of Chesil Beach. The boat, known as a Lerret, is an open fishing boat - 16–17 feet long - used for seine net fishing. It is usually rowed by four people with a fifth to steer, much of the villages Fleet and Chiswell were destroyed in the Great Storm of 1824. Over the centuries Chiswell had battled with the sea and was flooded during rough winter storms. In the storms the sea would pour through the part of the bank
