Story of a chalk cliff in northern France

Hello everyone!

Here I am again uploading one of my landscapes I took in the northwestern of France. This chalk cliff in France is from the same formation that built the chalk cliffs in the United Kingdom on the other side of the English Channel near Dover. This formation was once continuous, but 450,000 years ago, after one of the ice ages, ice melted and filled a large sea in the northern part of what is now the English Channel. This build up of water once caused a major outburst into the Atlantic ocean and created the channel with two cliffs on both sides. There are still old river cuts visible on the bottom of the channel to prove this theory.

Since the formation that was cut by the outburst contained chalk, both cliffs are chalk cliffs. Chalk is very erodible by water and due to shore disturbance caused by nearby ports, erosion has increased. There is a continuous flow carrying gravel parralel to the shore. Ports or other buildings that stretch into the sea block this flow and cause accumulation of gravel. The water that carries these rocks still continuous to flow but the energy it used to carry the heavy rocks is now free. This increased energy in the sea current causes waves to hit the cliffs stronger than they would before, causing them to erode much faster.

This already put many buildings in danger and on some shores we find remnants of old bunkers and other buildings. Many coastal villages invest a lot of their budget in mitigation measures to protect themselves from the power of the sea.

I hope you found this interesting. Don't hesitate to make a comment or ask a question below!