Spectroscopy
Now: In 1286 a storm washed a large part of the English
town of Dunwich into the North Sea and deposited significant
amounts of silt in the mouth of the Dunwich River. Over the
next 200 years, further storms continued to silt up the harbor
and eat away parts of the city until most of the inhabitants
abandoned the area. In the half-millennium since, most of the
rest of the city has been washed into the sea. David Sear of
Southampton University and his colleagues used high-resolution
acoustic imaging technology to map the city's underwater
remains. Primarily used for imaging shipwrecks, the acoustic
imaging was necessary because of the generally muddy nature of
the water in the area. The imaging revealed that the city
covered 1.8 km
2, almost the area of present-day London. The
coastal erosion that Dunwich experienced was due to storms that
occurred during a period of significant global climate change.
A better understanding of erosion processes caused by storms
may help countries and towns prepare for potential effects of
rising oceans and changing weather patterns due to global
warming.
