The stormy weather at the beginning of April has scoured the sand from the beach, normally there is a fairly wide sandy beach. The picture below shows the storm beach that has developed. I suspect the sand deposits have been washed into banks offshore and they may build up again with normal tidal action.
This black shale mussel bed has been exposed showing the outline of fossil bivalve shells.
Marine life offshore has been disrupted, many stranding of sea creatures have been reported along the Northumbrian coast. Here wrecked kelp has been washed up in drifts like broken limbs.
Sandstone rock layers have been scoured clean showing the embedded red ironstone nodules.
Beyond the Brierdene fault the glacial till are soft and showed recent evidence of slumping. The cliff has a normal rate of recession of 0.3 m per year. This slippage looks much greater.
This large erratic in the photo below has been pushed down the beach. This rock looks unusual standing out near the tideline. Perhaps it had originally been transported by a glacier, the tidal surge being strong enough to wash it down the beach.
The lichen has survived, as one would expect. This is, I think, Calaplaca maritima and it looks as golden as ever, clinging to the promenade.
I took a photograph of what looked like a Cormorant but turned out to be a Shag possibly the same one as I photographed last time, seemingly none the worse for the storms.
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