Photo 11 (Return)

Mupe Rocks and Warbarrow Bay, 1996. The rocks are the eroded remnants of a formerly more continuous rampart of Portland Stone that connected with Warbarrow Tout and Gadd cliff in the distance. The rampart was probably penetrated initially by fluvial incision and gaps were then exploited by inundation of tidal waters as sea-level rose over the past 10,000 years. Following removal of the Portland Stone, marine erosion has excavated the softer intervening Purbeck and Wealden Beds and is now cutting into the Chalk forming cliffs of up to 170m height at Flower's Barrow (in distance to left).