| Erosion is a problem all around the world; acid rain can | | | | effects and colour, the Gault clay is locally known as |
| damage buildings and soil, floods, blizzards or other | | | | blue slipper. |
| extreme weather can do the same. In deserts, sand or | | | | This has a disastrous effect on the island, with some |
| snow storms, where tiny particles are picked up by | | | | areas losing as much as three metres of land a year. |
| incredibly fast and strong winds, will tear past anything, | | | | Footpaths, parks, beaches, and even roads have been |
| slowly but surely smoothing them down. | | | | destroyed by these landslips. |
| Another problem is whole islands eroding, which is | | | | Unlike normal erosion, the cost, scale and effort |
| exactly what is happening to the Isle of Wight. It's not | | | | involved in preventing landslips is too high to make it |
| directly the weather that wears away the island | | | | worthwhile, on top of which the measures to stop it |
| though; instead it is the way the ground has formed | | | | would ruin the landscape themselves. |
| over millions of years. | | | | Visitors to the island needn't worry; signs of landslips |
| Many parts of the island, mostly on the West coast, | | | | show themselves days, or even weeks before the |
| are made of layers of hard rock with soft, Gault clay | | | | landslip actually occurs. Some of the landscapes that |
| between them. The Gault clay is not nearly as firm | | | | the landslips create are fantastic and worth visiting |
| and strong as the layers on either side of it, and when | | | | anyway. |
| it gets wet, due to altered drainage or heavy rainfall, it | | | | The other forms of erosion are, as mentioned, not |
| can simply slip away, carrying layers on top of it away | | | | much of a problem. Though the methods used to halt |
| with it. | | | | or slow them do cost money, it is a manageable |
| When this happens, it is called a land slip, due not only | | | | amount. Shoring up collapsing cliffs and the |
| to the way it happens, but also the formation of earth | | | | construction of sea defences are the most common |
| that these acts create. It looks as if the land has slid | | | | solutions. |
| down the cliff side then solidified again. Because of its | | | | |