Stormcoast

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Eshaness SC north of the lighthouse – The line of big bolders may indicate a former tsunami event.

Cliff walker among uplifted stones and bolders at Eshaness lighthouse – solid rocks marked red, CTSD marked yellow.

Eshaness - Big bolders marking events of heavy storms of the last centuries

Stormcoast debris on Mousa

Stormcoasts, sometimes also called storm beaches are a striking feature at a few sites on rock coasts of the British Isles but quite common in the Northern Isles in general. The term stormcoast is the popular expression for a stretch of a cliff coast where cliff-top storm deposits (CTSD) occur. CTDS are wave-generated accumulations of stones and large boulders on the tops of cliffs. Such developments are restricted to the exposed outer coasts of Shetland where cliffs are exposed to the main wind directions: to the west on the Atlantic coast and to the south and south-east on the North Sea coast.

Mainly stones of all sizes but big bolders as well may be accumulated well above the high water mark at elevations of up to 50 metres. On active stormcoasts the debris thrown over the cliff top will be sorted depending on the size of the stones and bolders and the distance from the cliff edge respectively. Where there is a lack of sorting and frequent presence of boulders over 1 m in length such features are commonly not associated with stormcoasts but may point to affinities with tsunami deposits from the geological past of the area.

Where we have grass covered cliff tops sharp edges cut into the top layers may indicate stormcoast activities as well.

Best places to watch such features are in Shetland:

Further Reading

Research Paper but with a lot of graphics and pics and thus "easy" to understand.

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