Slumping at Hornsea March 2019
Slumping at Hornsea March 2019
Following a spell of unusually hot and dry weather in February significant mass movement has occurred at Hornsea on the Holderness Coast. On Friday 8th March 2019 the Hull Daily Mail first reported a crack forming in the cliffs at Longbeach Leisure Park to the south of Hornsea. A large section of the cliff, around 50m long and 8.5m at its widest point, had slumped. The image* below shows the area affected by slumping on Saturday 9th March 2019.
Slumping at Long Beach Leisure Park
Slumping to the south of sea defences at Hornsea is common, however, this is one of the largest sections of boulder clay cliff to have slumped since 2008 when 8.75m of land was lost. A number of holiday homes will be relocated away from the affected area taking the total number this year to 12.
To the south of the sea defences, the rate of erosion increases rapidly. The red line on the map below shows the location of the cliff top on Saturday 9th March 2019. By zooming in you can really appreciate the rate of erosion since the satellite photograph was taken on 1st July 2018. As you can see a considerable amount of land has been lost since the satellite image was taken.
The slump at Hornsea illustrates the classic features of this type of mass movement as shown in the image* below.
Classic features of slumping
Hornsea Slump Gallery*
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