The extraordinary whiteness of chalk has given rise to distinct cliffs visible over large distances. From the Fourth Century BC Greek navigator, Pytheas of Massilia, through Julius Caesar and Shakespeare, to modern writers, chalk coasts were given a unique character. They are most commonly known for their place in Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” the literature of Maupassant and the paintings of Monet and the wartime nostalgic song, “White Cliffs of Dover.” The Romans called England “Albion” because of its white cliffs. The earliest regional study of a chalk coast is Girard’s (1907) description of the cliffs of the English Channel. Chalk cliffs occur, however, more widely than these classic locations. Chalk is a CaCO3 limestone found in the Upper Cretaceous outcrops on the European coast, in northern Ireland, Yorkshire and Norfolk, along the southern coast of England from the Isle of Thanet in the east to Beer in the west (Steers 1946), along the northern coast of France from Calais to the...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Briquet A (1930) Le littoral du nord de la France, et son évolution morphologique. Tessier, Orleans
Foote Y, Moses C, Robinson D, Saddleton P, Williams R (2000) European Shore Platform Erosion Dynamics (ESPED). University of Sussex, Brighton, UK, pp 563–573
Girard J (1907) Les falaises de la Manche. Leroux, Paris
Hancock JM (1976) The petrology of the chalk. Proceedings of the Geological Association 86:499–535
Hutchinson JN (1971) Field and laboratory studies of a fall in Chalk cliffs at Joss Bay, Isle of Thanet. In: Proceedings of the Roscoe Memorial Symposium, Cambridge, Henley-on-Thames, pp 692–706
Hutchinson JN (1980) Various forms of cliff instability arising from coast erosion in the UK. Fjellsprengningsteknikk-Bergmekanikk-Geoteknikk 1979, pp 19.1–19.32
Hutchinson JN (1983) Engineering in a landscape. Inaugural lecture, 9th October 1979. Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London
Hutchinson JN (1984) Landslides in Britain and their counter-measures. J Jpn Landslide Soc 21(1):1–24
Hutchinson JN, Bromhead EN, Lupini JF (1980) Additional observations on the landslides at Folkestone Warren. Q J Eng Geol 13:1–31
Jehu TJ (1918) Rock-boring organisms as agents in coast erosion. Scott Geogr Mag 34:1–11
Leddra MJ, Jones ME (1990) Steady-state flow during undrained loading of chalk. In: Chalk – proceedings international symposium, Brighton 1989. London, pp 245–252
May VJ (1971) The retreat of chalk cliffs. Geogr J 137:203–206
May V, Hansom J (2003) Coastal geomorphology of Great Britain. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough
May VJ, Heeps C (1985) The nature and rates of change on chalk coastlines. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie NF 57:81–94
Perrin RMS (1971) The clay mineralogy of British sediments. Mineralogical Society, London
Precheur C (1960) Le littoral de la Manche de Ste Adresse à Ault. SFIL, Poitiers
So CL (1965) Coastal platforms of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. Trans Inst Br Geogr 37:147–156
Steers JA (1946) The coastline of England and Wales. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
Wood A (1968) Beach platforms in the Chalk of Kent. Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie NF 12:107–113
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
May, V. (2018). Chalk Coasts. In: Finkl, C., Makowski, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science . Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_65-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48657-4_65-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48657-4
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences