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Bubbling sea bed

Mystery bubbling on the seashore

 

When I saw the ‘bubbling’ on the shore on Autumn (Thursday 18th November) I knew what it was – certainly not methane bubbles from decomposing seaweed. The bubbles were, if you look, not gas/air but liquid. These effects are typical of water flowing from a height above the seabed/seashore emerging through the sand (see graphic). My daughter and I dive off of a saltwater lagoon called Widewater, near Shoreham in Sussex. This body of water is higher than adjacent beach and seabed. When the tide goes out the lagoon ‘leeks’, its water draining through its bottom and the beach to emerge further out as a mysterious bubbling effect. The same occurs along the Essex coast where sandy deposits sit over clay. At this junction water draining through the sand meets the impermeable clay and drains under the beach to emerge further down – bubbling up.

 

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Uploaded on November 19, 2010
Taken on November 19, 2010