Marine activity swirled away the chalky muds of the channel area and left the flint debris behind. Currents and wave activity gradually rounded the flints into sub-angular pebbles. Currents and storm conditions drove some of this ashore as a fringe to wave activity, leaving a large quantity in the deep channel. It does not move either side of high water. It all ends up at Dungeness eventually.
There is a worrying finding by Sussex University geographers which has become apparent recently, and that is the fact that the shingle is a decreasing resource and that rising sea levels on the south coast, linked to increased storm activity, and dwindling shingle, means a bleak time ahead for coastal dwellers. Geoffrey Mead, sent to website mailing-list, At last! I have always thought that the pebbles were the result of erosion caused my nature, even as a boy.
Some people think that they were put there by man but can you just imagine the man power and machinery needed for such a task! Even now you can see the pebbles embedded in the cliff face and from time to time there is collapse of the cliff face. The ramps going down to the beaches would have their foundations exposed, also the promenade foundations too, it was a great time to go beach hunting as well. Then the next day all the pebbles returned as if nothing had happened.
Sometimes the sea would wash tons of pebbles up onto the lower promenade and council workers had to shovel them by hand out of the shelters and back onto the beach. It is definitely a natural occurrence, the sea is able to sort out different size pebbles and very often you will get a mixture of coarse sand and small pebbles at the half tide mark. Councils spend thousands of pounds installing groynes and repairing them to stem the flow of pebbles easterly which should prove the fact that the sea moves them and could deposit pebbles in an obstructive way in just one area if left to its own devices.
That is how Pevensey Levels were formed, by the longshore drift of pebbles east to west. Pevensey marshes were originally under water until the flow of pebbles cut the sea off when the penisula extended all the way to Bexhill.
The pebbles along the Sussex shoreline are During the five ice ages we have had over the past two million years the Downs were covered in deep snow for thousands of years; there is no evidence of glaciation further south than North London. This poured south and north off the chalk. That to the south eventually was covered by the rising waters of the melted snows and about 10, years ago the Channel formed.
The flints are rolled by the currents and are rounded into pebbles, pushed ashore by wave action and moved generally west-east by longshore drift; very little actually comes from cliff falls. This is a non-renewable resource that is being relentlessly dredged offshore for industry and will eventually deplete our beaches, which is worrying as with global warming, sea levels along the south coast are rising, while we are geologically sinking.
Not a good combination! The tar which nestled unseen on the shingle until you found you were covered in it was from ships. Back in the day ships were allowed to flush the dregs of their empty fuel tanks out at sea which clumped together to form tar. Nowadays ships are not allowed to clean their tanks at sea any more, they must be cleaned in an enviromentally friendly way, usually at a harbour by a professional company.
Yes we remember the tar on the beach. Proof that good product does not sell on its own when hindered with unwise business decisions. Under the Coastal Protection Act , it is illegal to remove stones from public beaches. In fact, some areas of the country have large signs warning people that they could face prosecution if they remove stones.
The previous answer is nonsense! The pebbles are flint a hard grey rock deposited in the chalk cliffs adjacent to Brighton. Brighton is quite firmly on chalk, an all the pebbles of the beach are nodules of flint that have been weathered out of the chalk. If there had been more flint in the chalk, it might have built up sufficient amounts to eventually get ground all the way down to sand size. The rest of the rock tends to be limestone. Limestone is highly soluble in water.
Instead of being broken down into sand, it either dissolves completely or it becomes a gooey mud. This mud has absolutely nothing in common with sand. Yes, the kind of flint that you can strike to make a fire. A pebble beach is a much better place to sunbathe than a mud pit. The pebbles stretch a long way out into the water and provide a solid shield from the limestone mud. They may not be quite as comfortable as sand on a beach, but Brighton Beach is still very popular with holidaymakers in the summer.
Brighton Beach is one of the countries longest and the shingle section runs for an unbroken apart from the groyne divisions 5. You can find both brick-walled chalets and timber beach huts running along much of the length of Brighton Beach.
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