Althouse: Chalkfall.

March 15, 2012

Chalkfall.

Massive collapse at the White Cliffs of Dover.

30 comments:

john said...: Great sense of humor in the comments, esp. "One small landfall will not change anything about England. Just a bit more beach to fight them on...; 3/15/12, 12:52 PM
Revenant said...: I blame global warming.; 3/15/12, 12:55 PM
edutcher said...: Love the headline:

Now France is even further away

Just what many Englishmen have wanted for centuries.

WV (no kidding) "onCons" Battle cry that strikes fear into what PB&J uses for a heart.; 3/15/12, 1:05 PM
Tim said...: Revenant said...

"I blame global warming."

Why not?

Al Gore surely will...; 3/15/12, 1:11 PM
David Blaska said...: No blood for chalk.; 3/15/12, 1:12 PM
Crimso said...: "Now France is even further away"

Still smarting from 1066.; 3/15/12, 1:23 PM
Michael said...: Will the landowner get his property taxes cut? This is the UK so the answer is no. In fact rhey might well sue him to put the cliff back where it was.; 3/15/12, 1:26 PM
MadisonMan said...: First the Old Man of the Mountain, and now this.; 3/15/12, 1:31 PM
Curious George said...: France actually got closer.; 3/15/12, 1:32 PM
Synova said...: Wow.

"I blame global warming."

;-)

I blame gravity.; 3/15/12, 1:37 PM
Rusty said...: I found the photograph of the Supermarine Spitfire much more interesting.; 3/15/12, 1:40 PM
Indigo Red said...: This is how continents get smaller without rising seas.; 3/15/12, 1:47 PM
traditionalguy said...: The culprit is the two very real winters of record freezing weather from global cooling in Europe.

Water seeping into cracks freezes, expands and spalls off the rock.; 3/15/12, 1:47 PM
chickelit said...: I applaud this. It freshed up up the look. The older facade was looking grungy.; 3/15/12, 1:48 PM
kcom said...: It might be "massive" but if you look at the pictures it's about 0.0000001% of the volume of just that section of the cliffs. I don't think they'll be disappearing any time soon.; 3/15/12, 2:01 PM
Curious George said...: Hey finally a post were the "Collapse comments" link makes sense...; 3/15/12, 2:07 PM
Methadras said...: I blame mass sheer forces and possibly plate tectonics, but then again, I live in the real world.; 3/15/12, 2:16 PM
SteveR said...: The Law of Uniformitarianism is a real bitch; 3/15/12, 2:31 PM
Christy said...: Sentimentalist I am. Sorry to see a millions-upon-millions of year old graveyard for small sea creatures fall to ruin.; 3/15/12, 2:41 PM
Synova said...: I thought that uniformitarianism was (not a law) the assumption that a process observed now is the same as the process that can not be observed that left the same sort of remnant... petrified ancient wave ripples are wave ripples, etc.

But I could well be wrong.

In any case, the cliff face reached the place where it had the lowest potential energy.; 3/15/12, 3:00 PM
SteveR said...: Synova, you are correct about the definition and it was called a Law back when I had to learn it. In any case it plays hell for Algore who wants everything to reflect of man's influence.; 3/15/12, 3:05 PM
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...: If you look, you'll see there's another collapse -- equally large -- beginning just to the east of the one featured.; 3/15/12, 3:10 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Comment at the link:

Do you suppose we might have a few more pictures of this chalkfall from a few different vantage points? I'm not sure I've quite got the full impact yet.

Heh.; 3/15/12, 3:49 PM
FleetUSA said...: The Daily Mail is always on the spot with great photographs. I guess they are becoming the "Life" magazine of the web.; 3/15/12, 4:02 PM
rcommal said...: As long as there are still bluebirds... .; 3/15/12, 4:05 PM
Mary Beth said...: As long as there are still bluebirds... .

I looked at all of the photos and couldn't find any bluebirds. I was disappointed.; 3/15/12, 4:14 PM
Anonymous said...: There'll always be an England. No one said anything about how much of it there'd be.; 3/15/12, 5:17 PM
kcom said...: "I looked at all of the photos and couldn't find any bluebirds. I was disappointed."

Can Chip be far behind with a challenge like that...; 3/15/12, 5:28 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: That's a shitload of chalk right there.; 3/15/12, 8:22 PM
AlanKH said...: It's Bush's fault.; 3/15/12, 11:11 PM