User:Huligan0/Worbarrow Bay

Looking down on Worbarrow Bay from Flower's Barrow, with the Worbarrow Tout headland in the distance.

Worbarrow Bay is a large broad and shallow bay just to the east of Lulworth Cove on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England.

Location

Worbarrow Bay is located about six kilometres south of Wareham and about 16 kilometres west of Swanage. At the eastern end of the Bay is a promontory known as Worbarrow Tout. The northwest end of the bay is known as Cow Corner. Towering over Worbarrow Bay to the north is Flower's Barrow ridge, which due to coastal erosion is gradually falling into the sea. Flower’s Barrow forms the western end of the ridge which runs all the way to Ballard Point, north of Swanage.

Worbarrow Bay is only accessible when the Lulworth Military Range is open to the public. It can be reached by a 1.4-kilometre (0.9 mi) walk down an easy track alongside Tyneham Gwyle, from the car park alongside the ghost village of Tyneham. There is a museum within the ruins of the village.

Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck in the east.

The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earths history. The rocks dip gently to the east. Due to this tilting and erosion the oldest exposed rocks are found in the west. The younger Cretaceous rocks form the cliffs in the east. Worbarrow Bay is part of the Jurassic Coast.

• for further sites see: List of places on the Jurassic Coast

Geology

Geology of the coastline from Mupe Bay to Worbarrow Bay

The geology of Worbarrow Bay and Mupe Bay are very similar and they almost mirror each other. The mirror being the point where the two bays meet, the Arish Mell Gap.

The Cliffs behind Worbarrow Bay expose a sequence of Cretaceous rocks. These range from the Chalks at the northwest end of the bay, at Cow Corner, that are between 85 to 145 million years old, through to the hard stone outcrop in the east. The sediments that form the peninsula are Portland limestones, which is 150 million year old, and the Purbeck Beds, 147 million year old.

The Cliffs and the Tout have distinctive angular layers of rock that visibly demonstrate the complex sedimentary folding that affected this area some 30 million years ago. The foldings were caused by tectonic pressures as the African and European continents collided. At that time the cliff sediments were twisted horizontally and that is why the younger Chalks are found towards the rear of the bay and the older sediments face the sea at the front of the bay.

Fossil Zone

The localities along the Jurassic Coast include a large range of important fossil zones. The Purbeck lagoonal limestones and the shales that are exposed in the cliffs of Worbarrow Tout contain dinosaur footprints and have abundant brackish water bivalves, gastropods and ostracods.

Gallery

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  Worbarrow Bay from Gold Down
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  Worbarrow Bay from the end of Tyneham Gwyle
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  Worbarrow Bay from Gold Down