UKC

So I know little of geology, but any chance of this wet weather exposing new rock, once dirty chossy coastal cliffs exposing climbable routes?

If it gets wetter what about landslip potential like we've seen in photos from Europe recently.

In reply to Lukem6:

Certainly potential there. For example on Portland.

However, newly quarried limestone is very soft. It used to be cut with hand saws and then left outside to harden (oxidise?). Hence many of the large blocks you see left lying around the coast.

In a few years time maybe.

In reply to Lukem6:

Sea Cliff collapse always seems to take more than it gives; St Govan's, Stackpole, Mother Carey's Kitchen. By the looks of Portland, it has left several hundred tonnes of soil, with the promise of more collapse soon.

Trowbarrow Quarry improved significantly by all accounts, but that was blasted, and it still looks like it might fall down tomorrow. Al Evans knows all about that.

In reply to Lukem6:

So, why start a sentence with SO! has it become obligitory for any matters relating to Science or general intellecual oratory on UKC as well as Radio 4 now? So, when particles are accelerated in the Higgs Bosum flatulator they undertake a fundemental and molecular change?(raise voice to question intonation at end). AAAH

In reply to paul fleuriot:

So, get like you don't know where you are. Last time you tried this, your post was so riddled with errors you looked like a complete idiot and frankly you should shut up or atleast try and make a joke of it or better still try and make a positive contribution instead. However I am no master of words so for the view from an expert follow the link on the grammar nazis thread for what Stephen Fry thinks of your ilk.

In reply to Lukem6:

From the point of view of entropy, every cliff is tending towards becoming a rubble slope (think of a sand castle slowly disintegrating). So maybe these events are only making cliffs shorter and less steep (and looser). Obviously depends on cleavage planes and such like but my guess is that the chances of a large, vertical section of rock being exposed in mint condition are small.

In reply to paul fleuriot:

So, you missed a capital letter in the word 'has'; you spelt 'obligatory', 'intellectual' and 'fundamental' wrong; you missed a space between the '?' & '(' and I have absolutely no idea what a 'flatulator' is. I suspect you made it up. AAAH

In reply to Lukem6:

So, to try to answer more sensibly and as an ex geologist (though actually I think this is more one for someone specialising in modern landscapes).

Lots of rain does weaken rock and can cause small and large collapses of rock/faces. The problem is that the exposed surfaces tend to contain lots of unstable bits which would make it dangerous to climb new routes through what is left or exposed. Normally it takes a lot of time and weathering for the newly exposed areas to stabilise and be climbable.

Speaking of which, I wonder how Craig Pant Ifan is holding up...?!

In reply to Oceanrower:


I can testify that new routing on Portland (and elsewhere) can be a fraught affair involving fraying ropes, frayed nerves, flying blocks and frazzled brain cells.

Add in newly exposed rock and landslip potential and it's tempting to tread warily.

Mick

In reply to crayefish:

The Stephen Fry link again on why pedants are wrong:

youtube.com/watch?v=J7E-aoXLZGY&