The National Trust has advised people to keep away from Maer Cliff at Bude in Cornwall, southern England, following a major landslide on Friday 15 November 2019. The incident happened in the early hours of the morning, and is a result of the natural process of coastal erosion in the area, but there are concerns further events could follow so both the paths above the cliffs and the beach bellow are considered to be unsafe for the time being.
Landslip at Maer Cliffs near Bude in Cornwall last week. Beverley Tree/Cornwall Live.
The cliffs at Maer are Carboniferous in origin, and are made up of a sequence of alternating shale layers, laid down in a deep lake, and sandstones of shallow water origin, signs of a periodically changing climate with wetter and dryer intervals. Following this the sedimentary beds in the area have become heavily folder during collisional processes associated with the formation of Pangea. Over time the softer shale layers are slowly washed out by the action of the sea, until the sandstone layers can no longer support the weight of the cliffs, when sudden dramatic collapses occur.
Layers of sandstone and shale on Maer Cliffs near Bude. We Are Bude.
Maer Cliffs are also noted for the production of fossils, with siderite nodules within the shale layers which yield Fish and Plant fossils, as well as occasional trace fossils. Lose Fish scales are sometimes also found within the shale. This attracts fossil-hunters to the area, particularly after landslips when new sedimentary surfaces are exposed, but extreme caution should be taken in the area after large event such as the one seen last week.
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