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Friday 3 October 2014

Abermawr raised beach exposure

The raised beach location at the northern end of Abermawr.  Click to enlarge if you have difficulty in seeing the detail or reading the text...

Today I was at Abermawr in the hope of getting a good look at the raised beach that I spotted back in the spring.  Unfortunately it was high tide, and the waves were crashing around the foot of the cliffs.  I got as close as I could, and I think the exposure is still there, as marked on the photo above.  The beach pebbles seem to be resting on an undulating raised beach platform, and the dark patch in the photo may well be a part of the beach which is cemented with manganese and iron oxide cement.  Need to get up there to examine it properly one day.........

The beach pebbles, which seem to be in a sandy matrix, are in a layer about 50 cms thick.  They are sealed beneath the thick Lower Head (the Early and Middle Devensian periglacial slope deposit).  And above that are the reddish brown flow tills and fluvio-glacial sands and gravels dating from the Devensian glacial episode of about 20,000 years ago. And above that are mixed solifluxion deposits, brickearth and blown sand.

Mt guess is that the raised beacj is from the last interglacial, which makes it around 100,000 yars old.

Here is another pic, taken from the clifftop to the north:


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