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YOUR experiences, reports and comments of Daddy Hole |
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Corals at Daddys Hole Devon |
Date: St Georges Day 23/04/05
Written by: Dave d
A good day for a short trip to Torquay, well we thought. On arrival it was a little misty and the idea was to park up and go down the foreshore to Hopes Nose but the tide was not quite right and so the plan was changed to a trip to Daddy’s Hole. This is when the weather really changed and the fog just rolled in hard and fast. At the quarry the visibility was almost a couple of yards. to dangerous to descend into the steep non visible depths. Plan three walk along the prom in front of the beach chalets to the small promenade at the end.
Over the small climb at the end is a section of cliff eroded and smashed by the sea. The layers if the strata have been twisted to a 45 degree angle and extend across a small flat cove like the cut of pages of a child’s thick card book. each "page" being about 6" to 12" thick.
Just over the rise descending into the cove I suddenly realised the surface I was standing on was a "pavement" made of Coral fossils a slab of one of the pages about 8' by 4' covered in coral. this slab was about 6" thick and be hind it another just the same, each disappearing under the covering slabs Now what age range represents 6" of limestone I don’t know both there seemed to be two distinct time when there was a coral reef at this point.
Not wanting to cut into the face of these fantastic slabs I chiselled a few bits from around the edges. The coral stood out from the pavement as though it had fell yesterday but I was surprised just how thin the layer was on the underlying stone.
I followed both layers across the cove up to the drop at the seas edge. I now turned my attention to the other layers and followed each one across the cove all were as far as I could see stile of any fossils until about 10 or 12 layers there was another deposit of coral this one having been laid down on a sandstone type bed ( see photo 8 in Finds section) so after many eons the tropics had again seemed of have arrived back at the same point.
A good day if spoilt by the weather. Hope fully I will get some good photos of this site and the layers of rock showing the "pages" of time from one tropical time to another in a few steps but of modern man and the worlds time line. I will post them as soon as I have them. Dave d
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