Submerged Landscapes
Submerged landscapes are understudied areas, the Bouldnor Cliff site is the deepest of it's kind to be identified in British territorial waters. Therefore it presents an opportunity to explore methodologies and develop a framework for the sampling and interpretation of such sites. The work at Bouldnor Cliff has resulted in the trialing and testing of methods for sample collection, and methods of monitoring recession to help quantify the loss of the deposits.
The HWTMA is also working on submerged landscapes on the Hampshire side of the North West Solent around Pitts Deep and Lymington River.
The Trust's vast experience in this field has led to its involvement with an international project which looks at the submerged landscapes and migration patterns of early man. Trust staff have been heavily involved with work to identify prehistoric landscapes around the coast of Gibraltar and in the Farasan Islands.
Monitoring erosion
The Bouldnor Cliff Project offers an opportunity to identify and test different methods of monitoring erosion. Between 1998 and 2000 trials with steel pins were conducted at the foot of the submerged Bouldnor Cliff. A set of 0.5m long steel pins were pushed into the seabed with 0.05m (marked by brightly coloured insulating tape) remaining proud, they were then surveyed relative to datums.
These were successful in demonstrating spatially variable degrees of erosion over the short to medium term. There was difficulty locating some of the pins in 2003 and it was clear that some of them may have been lost as the deposit eroded beneath them. This has also been backed up by video and still photography of the site to enable comparison