[HN Gopher] The City That Fell Off a Cliff
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The City That Fell Off a Cliff
Author : benbreen
Score : 63 points
Date : 2023-04-05 15:37 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (publicdomainreview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (publicdomainreview.org)
| playingalong wrote:
| Similar thing with a church in NW Poland:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruins_of_the_church_in_Trz%C4%...
| interfixus wrote:
| A Danish one, too, teetering on the brink. If you walk down the
| stairs to the right of the church, down on the beach you can
| make out a thin, greyish horizontal line in the white chalk of
| the cliffs, gunsmoke from the big thing which disturbed
| dinosaur tranquility. This is one of the places the Alvarez'es
| went - around 1980 - to collect their evidence.
|
| https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:H%C3%B8jerup_Gam...
| blowski wrote:
| In 2019, coastal defences were significantly improved in Bacton,
| which is just up the road from Dunwich.
|
| https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58919791
| MoSattler wrote:
| One of the maps in the article is titled "Northern Sea or German
| Ocean". I never heard "German Ocean" before. Did they mean the
| "Deutsche Bucht" (German Bay)?
| scatters wrote:
| > Before the adoption of "North Sea", the names used in English
| were "German Sea" or "German Ocean", referred to as the Latin
| names "Mare Germanicum" and "Oceanus Germanicus", and these
| persisted in use until the First World War.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Sea#cite_ref-106
| Maursault wrote:
| There are many ways to preserve and even extend shoreline. It's
| just too bad that coastal engineering technology was 400 years
| too late for this old town.
| [deleted]
| truculent wrote:
| More like 700 years from the sounds of things.
|
| > This city was once the same physical size as the City of
| London with a population, in its late-thirteenth-century
| heyday, of around ten thousand, before it was savagely
| diminished by two calamitous sea-storms in 1288 and 1328
| initiating a process of coastal erosion that would plunge much
| of the city off the cliff in the succeeding, sorrowful
| centuries.
| knodi123 wrote:
| my uncle used to say, invest in land, it's the only thing
| they're not making any more of. he would probably call
| volcanic islands the exception that proves the rule.
| fsckboy wrote:
| land in Dunwich must have soared in value as there was less
| and less of it!
| rikroots wrote:
| The late 13th century was a time for some epic storms: https:
| //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_England_flood_of_Februar...
| wahern wrote:
| The map in that article seems bogus. Looking at Google
| Maps, including the satellite view, the actual modern
| coastline looks just like the supposed pre-1287 coastline.
| To orient myself, both in the article's map and Google
| Maps, I drew a line from Hastings to Gravesend.
|
| There's simply no way that article map is legitimate; at
| best the peninsula may have been temporarily flooded. The
| whole peninsula was a marsh both before and after the
| flood. And contrary to the Wikipedia article, from a quick
| glance at the sources it seems it has become drier over
| time, presumably due to human activity.
| zabzonk wrote:
| > There are many ways to preserve and even extend shoreline.
|
| None seem to be effective here:
| https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/tiny-yorkshir...
| (lots of other examples on the English East Coast).
|
| You may be able to slow things, but in the end, the sea is
| going to win.
| Lio wrote:
| As a side note for anyone interested in present day Dunwich, the
| next Dunwich Dynamo ride is on 1st July 2023.
|
| It's a free annual bike ride where 1000s ride from Hackney in
| East London through the night to Dunwich beach.
|
| With many pubs along the way staying open all night and locals
| putting out little candles it's a magical ride that anyone can
| do.
|
| (Oh, and it's pronounced Dun-ige to rhyme with midge not Dun-
| which for anyone wondering.)
|
| https://www.dunwichdynamo.co.uk/
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwich_Dynamo
| DonaldFisk wrote:
| > it's a magical ride that anyone can do.
|
| It's 180km, so you do need to be reasonably fit. I was on it
| each year from 2008-2014. Options on the way back are (were?)
| book a seat on a bus, ride to Saxmundham and get the train from
| there, ride to Ipswich and get the train from there, or (if
| you're _really_ fit), ride home. There are a few things to see
| when you get there, the ruins of Greyfriars Priory, a leper
| hospital, and a museum.
| ljf wrote:
| I highly recommend this ride, it is so much fun. Just make sure
| you book the transport back and don't hope to get a train or
| public transport, just too many people!
| gumby wrote:
| With a name like Dun _wich_ it shouldn't be a surprise.
| bell-cot wrote:
| Important Context:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_England#Superficial...
|
| The "land" that was (and is) being eaten away by the sea - at a
| seemingly furious pace - is not good bedrock. Nor even "White
| Cliffs of Dover" soft chalk. It is a mix of sand, clay, random
| rocks, and such - which glacial action piled up during ice ages.
| And is now washing away like a big sand castle on the beach, as
| gravity and a bit of wave action do their natural duties.
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(page generated 2023-04-06 23:01 UTC)