|
Many
kinds of natural landform are found in the East
of England. Some are relict forms, developed
under a different climate during the ‘Ice Age’.
The active ones are being shaped today by
natural processes, although in many instances
they are also being shaped by human activity
such as river management and coastal defence
work.
|
Relict
landforms in the region include
|
-
river terraces, the remnants of
former floodplains isolated by later
erosion;
-
dry valleys,
formed during the ‘Ice Age’ when
permeable ground was frozen and
could be eroded by water action
-
pingos, hollows
with earth ramparts left by
collapsed blisters of ground ice;
-
patterned ground,
areas of contrasting sandy and
chalky subsoil sorted by ‘Ice Age’
frost action into a pattern of
stripes and polygons.
|
| |
 |
|
 |
|
A dry valley in
the Barton Hills, Bedfordshire. Flow
of soil and surface deposits (solifluction)
during periglacial conditions has
mantled the valley floor. |
|
Relict
pingo features at East Walton
Common, Norfolk, showing hollows
with surrounding ramparts. |
|
Active
landforms in the region include |
-
sand-dunes,
formed where wind-blown sand becomes
bound by marram grass and other
-
plants;
- swallow-holes, where a stream meets
a permeable rock layer and sinks
through it, taking a new subterranean
course;
-
spits and
nesses, formed where longshore drift
causes progressive accumulation and
outgrowth
of beach material
from the coastline;
-
gulls and gulleys, where water flow
cuts strongly downward into soft
rocks;
-
spring-lines, where downward precolating
ground-water flushes out a slope
where it meets an
underlying layer of
impermeable rock
-
cliffs, where water erosion
meets and undercuts masses of
upstanding sediment;
-
estuarine mud-flats, where
organic-rich silts and clays
build up in sheltered areas of
the coast
|
 |
|
 |
|
Benacre Cliffs,
Suffolk, where wave action is
eroding the cliffs at a rate of
several metres per year |
|
Swallow-holes at Water End, near
Hatfield, Herts, where the Mimshall
Brook flows over impermeable London
Clay then sinks through it into
permeable Chalk rock. |
 |
|
A dune
slack depression at Winterton Dunes,
Norfolk. These may form where
blow-outs reach the water-table, or
where new dunes have separate low areas
of beach from the sea. |
Use
the
Places to visit page to discover examples of the
region's fascinating heritage of landforms.
|
