Now this (for me at least) is cool … it is a video of some rather dramatic Coastal Erosion in Cornwall. The chap who took the video just happened to be in the right spot at just the right moment and caught 1000’s of tonnes of rock falling into the Atlantic!. The cameraman was on the North Cliffs near Hell’s Mouth in north Cornwall when the earth started to move, as you listen, you can hear a woman scream “Oh My God” as part of the 100 metre high cliff peels away. A man then asks: “Are there any people down there?”
Here is the video itself on YouTube …
The failure occurred at about 5pm on Friday 23rd September 2011, and so this proves that Geology is an exciting subject. Also, I’m happy to report that no seals or humans were hurt in the filming of this clip!
The footage of tens of thousands of tonnes of rock crashing into the sea has been attracting the interest of geologists from around the world, not because such falls are particularly rare but because it is uncommon for such clear footage to be captured.
Environment Agency spokesman Paul Gainey has been quoted as explaining:
“Coastal rock falls like this are caused by a combination of factors. It’s wave and wind action: the waves erode the foot of the cliff and undermine it. Wind buffets the cliff and erodes it away.
“Those effects can be compounded by weather conditions on a particular day to create a rockfall.”
However, thats not the best comment on all this. One chap on the thisiscornwall website wrote:
“Like getting great delight out of filming a head-on car crash, may look really cool but that’s Cornwall disappearing into the sea!”