Two teenaged girls were rescues by teams from Kent Fire and Rescue
and the Whitstable RNLI after becoming trapped in soft mud at Warden Point on
the Isle of Sheppey (off the north coast of Kent in the Thames Estuary) on
Saturday 2014. Initial attempts to by the Fire Service to reach the girls from
land were hampered by the incoming tide, leading to a crew from the Lifeboat
Institution to be called. The girls were reported to be suffering from mild
hypothermia when rescued, but otherwise unhurt.
The two girls trapped in soft mud at warden point on
13 December 2014. Whitstable RNLI.
Warden Point is popular with fossil collectors due to the large
number of Eocene fossils it produces. The London Clay outcrops directly on the
coast here, and as this is a poorly consolidated, soft sediment, it is easily
eroded by the action of the sea, revealing large numbers of highly
fossiliferous phosphate nodules, noted for the high quality plant macrofossils
(particularly Mangrove Plants) and marine invertebrates (particularly articulated Decapod Crustaceans) that
they produce. Unfortunately the same sediment makes conditions at the site
extremely treacherous, as the clay readily absorbs large volumes of water,
turning into a highly sticky mud that an trap the unwary, as the weight of a
human footfall is sufficient to squeeze the water out of the mud beneath the foot,
creating a vacuum that prevents the foot from being lifted again.
An articulated Eocene Lobster, Hoploparia sp., from a phosphate nodule collected at Warden Point
on the Isle of Sheppey. Discovering Fossils.
Weather conditions across much of the UK have been extremely wet for
the past few days, driven by a storm system the popular press have dubbed the
‘Weather Bomb’, driven by warm weather over the Atlantic Ocean, which has
brought with it an area of very low pressure, leading to a storm surge that has
brought high tides to coastal areas, and very high rainfall levels. The low
pressure above oceanic storms causes water to rise there by ~1 cm for every
millibar drop in pressure, leading to a storm surge that can overwhelm
low-lying coastal areas, while at the same time the heat leads to high levels
of evaporation from the sea - and subsequently high levels of rainfall.
The two girls trapped in soft mud at warden point on
13 December 2014. Whitstable RNLI.
his can cause additional flooding on land, as well as landslides,
which are are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore
water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to
flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy
rainfall. The extent to which this has happened at Warden Point this weekend is
unclear, but photographs from the Whitstable RNLI appear to show signs of
recent slumping, and the mud produced by recent slumps is particularly
dangerous.
Satellite image showing the typical extent of slumping
on the foreshore at Warden Point. Google Maps.
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