Holderness Coast

Coastal System

Flamborough Head

• North of Holderness Coast

• Chalk headlands and cliffs

• Highly permeable 

• Hydraulic action 

• Hydraulic action, weathering and mass movement combined can form wave cut platforms

• Wave refraction causes notches, arches, caves, stacks and stumps

Holderness Cliffs

• Middle of Holderness Coast

• Retreating clay cliffs of the Holderness Bay

• Made from easily eroded boulder clay

• Retreating by 1.8m/y

• Rain causes land slides 

• Fine clay removed by longshore drift (carries half a million tones of sediment - suspension - per year)

• Winter storms threatening

Spurn Head

• South of Holderness Coast

• 6km spit at Spurn Point

• Longshore drift 

• 6km long

• Growing 10cm/y

• Winter storms threatening

• Home to sand dunes and salt marshes 

Differential Erosion

Different types of rocks erode at different speeds