On Draining the North Sea

TRANSACTIONS.

ON

DRAINING

THE

NORTH

SEA.

B Y FRANCIS H . A. ENGLEHEART, M.A., B . S c . , F . G . S .

The Project.—Upon a gigantic scheme, attributed to German engineers, the Daily Minor newspaper on 8 January 1930, published a short Article : it embraces nothing less than the complete drainage of most of the southern part of the North Sea. The idea, we are told, is to build two great dams, one from Hunstanton to the " upper" (presumably northern) coast of Denmark, the other " round Kent, across the Channel, and along the Belgian and Dutch coasts to the neighbourhood of Scheveningen," Dover and Calais being connected by mammoth bridges.

From this we may gather that London and the principal Low Countries' ports would be left open to the Channel by coastal strips of water ; but that, except for these, the whole of the south apophysis of the North Sea—and a good deal more to the north and north-east—would be reclaimed, with over a hundred thousand Square miles of virgin land (not soil) as the result. The alleged reason for this Brobdingnagian enterprise is that the newly acquired land would contain " amazing mineral wealth—enough to keep a population of over twenty million people " and so amply justify the enormous expense. Briefly put, that is the project outlined in the above Article, the sole source of information to my hand.

Now of course the whole conception may be merely an idle tale, but let us here assume it true in substance.

Presumably it is at present only a dream in the minds of a few enthusiasts : but such dreams are creative, they have a way of expressing themselves in a concrete manner (in more senses than one) and, though in the present state of worldfinance and perhaps in that of engineering such a notion 1

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seems quite beyond the pale of possibility, some day it might conceivably yield fruit. There is at least interest in examining briefly a few of the facts involved, mainly from the geological view-point.

The Geology.—The mineral wealth obtainable, and hence the rationale of the whole scheme, depends on the geology involved. The ancient Palaeozoic rocks form a distinct foundation, on which all later formations have been laid down layer by layer. Two relevant points to be remembered about these old rocks are :— (1) One of their upper divisions is the Carboniferous, whence practically all our Coal is derived ; but it is present only in certain places. (2) Their upper surface, i.e., the Palaeozoic Platform, is by no means level. In the south it rises into a ridge from west to east, emerging in Belgium to form the Ardennes, and occurring at no great depth in Kent. Along this ridge, in places, there is coal. To the north, as has been proved by Suffolk borings, the Platform dips ; and there no coal is known. These Palaeozoic or Primary rocks are succeeded upwards by the Secondary and Tertiary formations, though it must be understood that certain divisions of the normal sequence may be locally absent.

In England (a), the higbest member of the Secondary rocks, the Chalk, forms the visible basis of East Anglia. Lying upon this, we find such remains of the Tertiaries as have escaped the action of weather, sea, and glacier. The latter deposits in this area are mainly divisible into two : the Eöcene which may be said to form the Essex coast, and the Pliocene crags of Suffolk and Norfolk. Above these throughout the last two counties is the Quaternary, in the form of Pleistocene Drift : i.e., sand, gravel, and boulder-clay laid down by the Ice Age glaciers, by torrents, by shallow sea-water and, perhaps in some cases, by icebergs. Across the sea (b) obtain similar conditions, except that Oligocene and Miocene deposits succeed Eocene and that the Pliocene and Pleistocene are amazingly thicker towards the north, with the result that all the older rocks must be correspondingly deeper. Thus in Holland, while in the south we find the Quaternary and Pliocene together total some three hundred feet, in the north and nearer the sea a bering was still in the latter Stratum at the depth of 1,198 feet. The thickness appears to increase still more as the coast is approached, and must be considerable over most of the North Sea area.

One does not antieipate mineral wealth, as a rule, in these , later deposits : Oil is a possibility, but I am aware of no evidence pointing to its occurrence in these parts. To mine for Coal off the east of Kent should be the most profitable form of labour; indeed, the Coal Measures might Stretch away on

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to tbe Belgian coast. Debris, swept down by the Rhine in past millennia, include some Ores of Lead, Copper, Zinc, a ponderable amount of Silver and slight Gold. For the rest, the usual products of our sea-board would be forthcoming : brick, lime, cement and sand. " Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus !"

The Depths.—In the Article to which I have referred we read that the scheme had been rejected as absurd in England by " one of our greatest engineering authorities," who is quoted as stating that parts of the North Sea are half a mile deep.

But, since this is true of only a small part in the far north and the area in question is confined to the south, such objection is a trifle irrelevant. As a matter of fact, this Sea is well known to be phenomenally shallow, an infinitesimal depression on the Continental Shelf and, throughout the area embraced by the scheme, nowhere more than thirty fathoms (i.e., 180 feet) deep : along the lines of the proposed dams, indeed, the depth seldom exceeds twenty fathoms and, in places, is less than five. In order to make a model of the southern North Sea, a few feet wide and correctly to scale as to depth, it might be cut from a single sheet of tissue paper. Towards the north it deepens somewhat, with the exception of the Dogger Bank where waves break in rough weather and the water is turbid with sand. But, even in the further north, the depth is measurable in merely hundreds of feet, if we omit one singular gorge-like Valley (of considerable geological significance) which runs just off the western coast of Norway: in this, the Norwegian Channel, the bottom abruptly descends to 2,400 feet.

General Considerations.—We see, then, that the proposed undertaking involves two dams of the order of four hundred and two hundred miles in length respectively, of a height ranging up to a maximum of some 140 or even 180 feet above the sea-bed though the foundations would have to go, no doubt, considerably deeper. Whether such dams are within the ränge of modern engineering I cannot say, though one difficulty may be pointed out. Unless some Stratum of impermeable rock, such as the London Clay, should Stretch right across at the requisite depth (which is nowhere the case) so that the dams could be built thereon, there would be a copious seepage of water beneath the dams (after the enclosed sea had been pumped out) and this, Welling up unceasingly through the new land-surface, would of necessity call for a titan system of pumps. Such pumps, indeed, there must be in any case to deal with the ordinary drainage, not only of that new country, but of those parts of East Anglia, Holland, Germany and Denmark that drain into the same area. That

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all such land water alone would be an impracticable amount for any pumps to cope with may well be contended : what then becomes the case when, to this, is added that vast wellspring from the sea, forced up through the ground under pressure ?

Presuming all these obstacles overcome, however, and a reasonable security for the new land achieved, what especial advantages would accrue ? The mere acquisition of so much virgin territory, in a Situation climatically desirable and easy of access, would of course be ipso facto a gain to humanity soil would soon form, and fertile fields undoubtedly result in time. The fabulous mineral wealth, however, (unless the Promoters possess " inside knowledge "), appears as a fable indeed, and agriculture is negligible as afinancialreturn to offset the enormous cost. This cost would be truly colossal and, as Professor Low very justly averred, might be better directed to the mineralogical exploitation of some more accessible area : but surely his provisional estimate of ten years for the period of the work is vastly underestimated. The partial draining of little Lake Nemi, near Rome, has taken several years : the amount of water to be pumped out here is some two hundred million times as great. The original dams might well be in need of repair before the presence of minerals could be proved —or disproved !

In the present State of world-finance no such scheme can materialise; at any time it must surely be international. If, by curious fortune, extraordinary mineral riches should prove to exist, action at some future period might be taken.

British commerce would doubtless be augmented : Dutch, Danish and German overseas trade would pass through England to and from our western ports ; the need for a water-way between North Sea and Channel would be greatly diminished and a canal through the new sea-land would meet the case. Questions of political security would hardly arise : or, in their event, reflooding is always easy. Security from the sea would be the paramount problem. That Britain were no longer an island need scarcely cause pain to those of us who look to the past : we have but to glance a little further. For it was not more than yesterday, geologically, that the Dover straits opened, and it was but the day before when the North Sea formed, invading the piain of the Rhine river-system that then ran on quite possibly through Suffolk. In short, from the naturalistic point of view, this country is essentialy continental and only incidentally an island.

One cannot help remarking with impotent regret that, while this area, if drained, would be ever in the highly precarious position of lying a hundred feet below the waves, within a

JOHN ELLOR TAYLOR, P H . D . , F . L . S . ,

F.G.S.,

b. at Levenshulme 21 September 1837 : d. at Ipswich 28 September 1895 : " T h e Old Doctor."

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few short miles millions of tons of solid earth would persistently be wasted in the Channel. Material from Germany, from Switzerland, from France is pouring through the ScheldtRhine delta ; the Cotswolds, southern Midlands and the rieh Home Counties are likewise flowing slowly to the sea. All this must needs be wasted as far as the present scheme is concerned, short of cyclopean settling-tanks with labour and machinery to shift and dump the sediment for several thousand years ! No doubt the law of isostaey would produce a slight uplift of the entire area, by removal of the weight of the sea ; but there would be a " time-lag " of an age or so.

Summary.—The Minerals obtainable should include some Coal in the south ; Oil is possible, but not probable ; certain metalliferous Ores might also be found as constituents of the Rhine alluvium, off the delta of that river and probably along the coast of Holland to the north because, as can be seen from the disposition of the Frisian Islands, the flow of the general current sets that way. Thus, even if the engineering were possible, I see nothing to compensate for more than an infinitesimal fraction of the enormous cost : even if it brought in huge returns, by the time it did so developments in other spheres might render it unnecessary.—It is good at times to take long views, if only by way of seeing our practical lives in a truer perspective. When physicists harness the energy locked in the atom, great things will be toward. The so-called annihilation of matter will be involved, which means of course its transformation into energy. For this purpose the sea would be convenient and slowly, very slowly, the level of oceans would be lowered, discovering new land along every tidal coast throughout the world. But when would such things be ?

Perhaps before that time the North Sea will be land again by means of natural action ; perhaps, too, this fair country of ours will be swept away (such things are the very stuff of geological history), but others will assuredly arise . . . .

I will seize this opportunity of putting one or two emendations to my former paper in these TRANSACTIONS :—At page 3 , line 18, for the word it read at its base and that of Red Crag.

At page 5, line 7, after floor Substitute the highest part of which is now nearly a thousand feet below sea level. And two lines lower :—Igneous Rock does everywhere underlie all eise, yet there are many thousands of feet of Palaeozoic strata without i t ; and it may occur at any age, and any depth. The lava poured from /Etna to-day is igneous rock in process of deposition, and that formed millions of years ago may now compose the surface of the ground. None has been found in Suffolk, as far as I know, except ice-borne pebbles brought from far.