Staithes

Today’s the day ...................... for a geological succession

This is the lovely little seaside town of Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast.

I came here on a day field excursion as a young (and pretty clueless) geology student at Hull University back in the late ‘60s. Looking back on it now, I know how privileged we were to be able to go out with geology lecturers who really knew their stuff and could make it all come alive for us. There were only 14 of us in our year – so we got very good attention.

The cliffs here are formed by layers of Jurassic rock gently dipping to the east. They are high and steep because at the top of the succession is a hard sandstone which protects the softer rocks below. The sea eats away at the softer rocks from beneath, causing boulders of the sandstone to break off. Within the softer mudstones, you can see the hard bands of the Cleveland Ironstone standing out – and at the boundary between the Lower and Middle Jurassic is another resistant reddish layer known as the Dogger.

I wish I could say that I remembered all that from student days – but I have to confess that I had to look it up. I haven’t lost any of the interest in knowing though. I just need a bit of help to bring it all back to mind ....................!