__NOTOC__ Burning Cliff is a cliff under the

White Nothe White Nothe (meaning "White Nose") is a chalk downland, chalk headland on the English Channel coast at the eastern end of Ringstead Bay, east of Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth in Dorset, England. The area is well known for its geology and fossils. ...

headland at the eastern end of

Ringstead Bay __NOTOC__ Ringstead Bay is an bay, open bay of the English Channel located east of Weymouth, Dorset, Weymouth in Dorset, England. The bay lies on the Jurassic Coast and in the Dorset National Landscape area, and is known for its natural environm ...

, in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. The area is well known for its

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

and

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

s. The cliff is to the northwest of White Nothe. From 1826, the cliff smouldered with an underground fire for several years due to

bituminous shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitute ...

, hence the name. Geologically, Burning Cliff is on a

Kimmeridge Clay The Kimmeridge Clay is a sedimentary rock, sedimentary deposit of fossiliferous marine clay which is of Late Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous age and occurs in southern and eastern England and in the North Sea. This rock formation (geology), form ...

outcrop. It is immediately west of the fault and Holworth House. The cliff was originally named Holworth Cliff. Today, the cliff consists of landslide, scrubland plants, with the

partially visible. The Kimmeridge Clay above a fault connecting it with the

Purbeck Formation The Purbeck Group is an Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) in south-east England. The name is derived from the district known as the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset where the strata are exposed in th ...

to the east under Holworth House. There is a footpath on the cliff. The 1826 fire in the

continued for several years. The fire is thought to have been started by heat caused by decomposing

pyrite The mineral pyrite ( ), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral. Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue ...

, common in bituminous shale. It emitted sulphurous fumes. The Burning Cliff - geograph

At the top of the cliff is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

church, St Catherine-by-the-Sea, Holworth. The cliff lies on the

South West Coast Path The South West Coast Path is England's longest waymarked Long-distance footpaths in the UK, long-distance footpath and a National Trail. It stretches for , running from Minehead in Somerset, along the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, to Poole Harb ...

and forms part of the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast, also known as the Dorset and East Devon Coast, is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was ins ...

World Heritage Site. The surrounding area is owned by the

National Trust The National Trust () is a heritage and nature conservation charity and membership organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Trust was founded in 1895 by Octavia Hill, Sir Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley to "promote the ...

References

External links

* Cliffs of England Landforms of Dorset Jurassic Coast {{Dorset-geo-stub

See also

References

External links