Natural Hazards, Disasters, & Catastrophes of England

Happisburgh, on Nortfolk’s North Sea Coast is a coastal village with a population of about 1,400 people. This town suffered a deadly flood 1953 that took the lives of 76 people and keeps on constantly being affected by rapid coastal erosion.  Happisburgh, on Nortfolk’s North Sea Coast is a coastal village with a population of about 1,400 people. This town suffered a deadly flood 1953 that took the lives of 76 people and keeps on constantly being affected by rapid coastal erosion.  There are cliffs in this are 6-10 meters high (19.5ft -32.8ft). These cliffs aren’t just straight down, they’re kind of in a stair-case way. So there are cliffs on cliffs on cliffs, kind of. These layers are normally buried under the beach waters but when the tide goes down then they show. They consist of stratified brown sands and clays. The government has built coastal defenses in this town to slow down the rate of retreat, they have also made "walls" with big rocks closer to th...

This week we learned about extreme weather. The occurrence that caught my attention the most was blizzards. Besides the holidays, the only other reason why I love winter is because of the snow. Is it so pretty and makes everything look so nice, it just warms my heart! (As contradicting as it sounds!) Of course this is to a certain extent, heavy snow fall can create dangerous conditions. Chapter 9 of our books explains that blizzards are created by heavy snow falls and blowing winds which create low visibility for long periods of time. When low visibility becomes extreme it is called a whiteout , because all you can see around is white. Blizzards are more extreme and dangerous than snow storm because of the combination of heavy snow fall with strong winds. Blizzards also create a wind chill effect. This is the effect on exposed skin to these extremely low temperatures. When these winds are blowing fast the body cools down at a fast rate which makes the skin temperature to drop...

This week we learned about mass wasting. Mass wasting is the downward and outward movement of soil/sand/rock that is typically affected by water. For example, heavy rains might cause the soil to loosen on mountains which then slide down as a mass. If there are communities close by sometimes these mass wasting might affect them. In England there are landslides and coastal erosions at Aldbrough. This is located about 10 km (about 6.2miles) from Hornsea. Such close proximity has cause the loss of buildings through time. There is a program in charge of monitoring costal erosion at different sites around this area, this program is called British Geological Survey (BGS). This program has discovered that the cliffs in the area are constantly receding. These cliffs are prone to landslides when there are high tides. Constant monitoring of coastal erosion and landsliding is how they prevent damage in the area. Once they’ve seen a considerable change on the cliffs or landslide they alert the c...