On Britain’s Jurassic Coast, a large rockfall has occurred near where a beacon for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee is set to be illuminated.
Hundreds of tons of stones and boulders have been thrown down from a 400-foot cliff near Eype, Dorset.
The fall has carved a 100-by-20-foot swath of land off of the cliff’s summit, leaving a sliver of fencing dangling over an abyss.
In the fall, a section of the old South West Coast Path vanished as well.
A few hundred yards east of Thorncombe Beacon, a 500-foot peak held by the National Trust, a landslip occurred.
It is one of 2,000 spots throughout the country where a Jubilee beacon will be illuminated, with scores of people expected to attend.
Fortunately, the landslide occurred in a remote stretch of the beach, and it went virtually undiscovered.
Natural erosion is thought to have been the cause.
The cliffs at Eype are constructed of clay and sandstone and date back 180 million years to the Jurassic period.
Because of the geology of the area, which includes permeable limestone at the top of the cliff and impermeable clay beneath it, the shoreline is prone to landslips.
When winter storms hit, rain seeps through the limestone and into the clay, adding weight and lubricating the cliff, resulting in a landslide.