teaching - Earth Science Teachers' Association

TEACHING EARTH SCIENCES ● Volume 30 ● Number 1, 2005
Reviews
Classic Landforms of the Coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
Ada W. Pringle. Classic Landform Guides. Published by the Geographical Association in conjunction with the
British Geomorphological Research Group, 2003. (Series editors: Christopher Green, Michael Naish and Sally Naish).
£9.99 (sale price August 2004 £5.99). 64pp. ISBN 1-84377-071-7.
This attractively produced booklet is one
of a series on classic landforms in the
British landscape, the aim of which is to
provide concise, informative guides to
parts of the country that are frequently
visited by students and the general populace.
Previously published titles include
the Brecon Beacons, the Lake District,
Morecambe Bay and Skye. All of the authors
involved in their production have extensive
knowledge of the areas concerned.
The informative text of this guide is
accompanied by several tables, 13 photographs
of coastal scenery and 16 figures
that consist of maps, stratigraphic
sections and interpretative diagrams, all
of which are in colour. Some of the
maps have been specially drafted for the
guide; others are extracts from Ordnance
Survey maps.
For those who worry about rising sea
levels and the erosion of our coasts, the
contents of this guide will not do anything
to allay fears that large parts of lowland
Britain may eventually be drowned
beneath the waves, as has happened on
many occasions in the geological past.
Erosion of the Holderness cliffs to the
south of prominent Flamborough Head is
particularly rapid, with numerous
settlements along the coast having been
lost since Roman times.
The guide begins logically with a
chapter on the sedimentary and structural
geology of Flamborough Head. The
recently revised stratigraphy of the
succession (formation and member
subdivisions) is used, and compared on a
figure with the former breakdown of
Lower, Middle and Upper Chalk. It
closes with a paragraph on the glacial
deposits that serves as a lead into the next
chapter, which considers the glaciation of
Holderness and the various deposits of
till, sand, silt, silty clay and chalky gravel
that form the undulating topography of
the region. An interesting chapter follows
on the wave, tidal and storm-surge
influences on the coast. The remaining
seven chapters deal with sections of the
coast in more detail, beginning with the
vertical Bempton Cliffs of Flamborough
Head and followed by the Flamborough
Lighthouse area, Selwicks Bay and High
Stacks, the buried cliff at Sewerby, the
Barmston, Mappleton and Withernsea
stretches of coast in North, Central and
South Holderness respectively, and the
sand and shingle spit of Spurn Head.
Each considers the local geology and its
considerable influence on topography and
coastal configuration, and discusses the
present-day processes that are causing the
coastline to retreat. The problems
associated with the erosion and attempts
at reducing it dominate the chapters on
Central and South Holderness.
The shifting position of Spurn Head
from 1066 onwards has been determined
from old maps, charts and other
historical documents, and more recently
(from 1851 onwards) via Ordnance
Survey mapping. Discussion of this and
the various works that have been carried
out when necessary to protect the spit,
close breaches, and repair and replace the
road along its length (originally
constructed during the Second World
War), make for interesting reading.
The chapter on Spurn Head closes
with a section on the beaches on the
North Sea side of the spit, around the
point, and in the Humber Estuary
where, in the quieter conditions that
prevail, the sandy strand is much
narrower and mudflats dominate the
scene. Further up the estuary, former
upper beach and adjacent mudflats are
covered with saltmarsh. The booklet is
rounded of with a glossary and a list of
references, its goals achieved.
David J. Batten
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences
University of Wales, Aberystwyth,
and Department of Earth Sciences
Manchester University
Geological Map of Land and Sea Areas of Northern Europe.
Norges Geologiske Undersokelse (NGU). N-7491 Trondheim, Norway. distribusjon@ngu.no www.ngu.no Printed map $32; digital version $125.
This new geological map of northern
Europe, on a scale of 1:4 million, is
published under the aegis of the
Commission for the Geological Map of
the World. For the first time, it displays
the geology of both land and sea areas of
this large region, from Greenland and
Svalbard in the north, to the northern
coast of France and parts of Russia. The
geology shown excludes Quaternary
sediments, though it includes recent
basalts, i.e. it is the bedrock geology
which is featured. The map also shows
fault zones, escarpments, spreading axes,
magnetic reversals, and the boundary
between continental and oceanic crust.
Cross-sections are included, with special
sections through all the deep-sea drilling
sites in the oceanic areas. It is hoped that
the map will be useful for all geologists,
whatever their speciality, and should also
prove instructive for students getting to
grips with the geology of Europe and the
North Atlantic. It is printed in both a
Norwegian and English version.
29 www.esta-uk.org