User:Huligan0/Danger Point

Danger Point is a coastal feature and cliff face near Budleigh Salterton in the County Devon, on the south coast of England.

Location

Danger Point is about 18 Kilometres southeast of the city of Exeter and about seven Kilometres east of Exmouth. Danger Point lies between the towns of Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth.

Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck near Studland in the east .

The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earths history. The rocks dip gently to the east. Due to this tilting and erosion the oldest exposed rocks are found in the west, between Exmouth and Sidmouth, with progressively younger rocks forming the cliffs further east.

• see also List of places on the Jurassic Coast

Geology

There are two rock sequences along the coast at Budleigh Salterton, these are the Pebble Beds and the "Otter Sandstone Formation". In the cliff face it is very apparent that both dip eastward. The "Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds" are overlain by the Sandstones that form the cliffs at Danger Point. Both sediments are markedly red, which indicates that they were formed in a desert in the hot dry climate of in the Triassic Period about 225 Million years ago.

The Coastal Path, south of the village of Otterton on the peninsula of Otter Sandstone, has many viewpoints and headlands from which the cliffs can be seen. However there is no access to the seaward shore on any of the stretch between the southern tip near Danger Point to Ladram Bay in the north. The vertical cliffs are not interrupted (cut) by streams valleys, hence the lack of shore-access. To study the coast accurately a boat is required, however Fossils from the Triassic Period are extremely rare. Despite the fact that normally only Fossil fragments are found, the Sandstones at Danger Point have yielded excellent discoveries, such as the Beaked Lizard, known as Rhynchosaur.