'over the horizon'


Artists David Harbott, Anna Keleher and Kate Paxman are exploring the Berry Head National Nature Reserve which lies on the urban fringes of Brixham in Devon. Berry Head is a 400 million year old limestone promontary and is a designated SSSI for its nationally rare plants, its colony of horseshoe bats, the largest colony of guillemots on the South Coast and its geology. It houses the remains of 2 Napoleonic Forts which are scheduled monuments, and a vast, abandoned quarry which dates back over 300 years.
'over the horizon' is a Smooth Space project in partnership with the Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust with support from the English Riviera Global Geopark

Monday, 28 May 2012

Loess

approaching the North Fort, Berry Head


loess: a shallow layer of ancient silt forming a fertile topsoil for the limestone headland - a deposit of silty sediment blown high into the atmosphere by fierce glacial winds during the time of the Ice Ages

This .....reflects that the times of peak loessic silt production, and its deposition were during the ice ages themselves, not afterwards. Also we know definitely that the loess does not all date from the last ice age (though some of it will, of course). There are enough ancient loessic-derived cave earths around our part of Devon that predate the last (Devensian) glaciation that we can be confident about this.
  (with thanks to Dr Chris Proctor)

posted by Kate
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