77
THE CHANNEL GRAVELS OF THE DUNWICH AND MINSMERE CLIFF H. B. MOTTRAM On the 6th of October 1996 the Society's Geological Group walked along part of the beach between Dunwich and Minsmere and observed that the Norwich Crag in the cliff was mainly composed of sand, Two large Channels containing gravel were seen cutting down into the sands; a relatively simple one at Dunwich and a more elaborate one at Minsmere. These two major Channels are considered to represent tidal inlets, that is to say, the gaps between and slightly seaward of barrier islands. The geographically nearest string of modern day examples is found among the barrier islands which skirt around the coast from northern Holland to western Denmark. These inlets are much wider than either the Dunwich or Minsmere inlets but examples of comparable width occur among the numerous inlets along the eastern seaboard of the U . S A . The Dunwich and Minsmere inlet Channels would have been aligned roughly parallel to the one which runs through Henham Park. Wangford and Southwold; i.e., approximately westnorth-west to east- south-east. Fig. 1 illustrates the likely Situation. Although the Suffolk Channels have not been afforded S.S.S.I. or R.I.G.S.
Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 33 (1997)