White Cliffs of Dover

Die White Cliffs of Dover waaroor soveel skrywers al geskryf en sangers gesing het, is opgemaak uit saamgeperste doppe van seediertjies wat in sediment verander het en is 80 miljoen jaar oud:

"The cliffs of Dover were mentioned by Julius Caesar in his account of the Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. Shakespeare too makes reference to them in 'King Lear' and the lines beginning "There is a cliff, whose high and bending head looks fearfully on the confined deep" are commemorated by Shakespeare Cliff to the west of the town.

The cliffs were formed in the Cretaceous Period (Mesozoic Era), which commenced about 136,000,000 years ago, and are essentially marine in origin, probably originating in deep, open sea. They consist mainly of upper, middle and lower chalk, i.e. white, soft pure limestone composed ofcountless shells. The top of Shakespeare Cliff for example, consists of nodular upper chalk with flints, the centre of middle white and nodular chalk and the bottom of chalk (glauconitic) marl and grey chalk on a base of gault and greensand.

Numerous fossils have been discovered in the chalk, ranging from shark's teeth, ventriculites, micrasters and many sponges in the upper chalk, to large pectens, palatal teeth oysters, ammonites, remains of saurians and brain corals in the middle and lower chalk." [as quoted from http://www.dover-kent.co.uk/places/white_cliffs.htm]