Geological masterclass-Lulworth Cove. Isle of Portland in the background, Jurassic World Heritage Costline, Dorset, England.

Commentary.

 

A story of rocks, sea, bays for many eons.

Outermost, harder headlands and stacks of Jurassic Portland and Purbeck limestone have resisted the sea’s perpetual pounding.

Where breached, the younger, softer Greensand and Gault Clay has been scoured into a perfect arc.

Waves rolling in on the ubiquitous south-westerly winds

are distorted and condensed in the cove.

In transit, their pattern is distorted within the headlands

to a similar broad curve, further accentuating

the rapid incursions into the softer rocks.

The medium resistance of the Cretaceous Chalk

slows this incursion but where undercut

cliffs collapse, hundreds of tons at a time.

All this geomorphology, geology and

differential erosion is fine, but this place,

first and foremost is a beautiful, sheltered haven,

loved and visited by countless thousands

from within and beyond our magical shores.

Done