User:Huligan0/Peak

Peak Hill cliff face with view to Sidmouth Beach

Peak Hill is a partially eroded hill (resulting in a cliff face) on the English Channel coast near Sidmouth, Devon, southern England.

Location

Peak Hill is the hill directly to the west of the town centre of Sidmouth. It lies with its neighbour High Peak between Sidmouth and the village of Otterton. Sidmouth lies about 20 kilometres east of Exeter, 14 kilometres south of Honiton and about 16 kilometres northeast of Exmouth.

The highest point of Peak Hill is 156 metres above sea-level.

Jurassic Coast

The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point in the west to Old Harry Rocks 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 cliff face of Peak Hill is part of the Jurassic Coast.

• see also: List of places on the Jurassic Coast

The localities along the Jurassic Coast includes a large range of important fossil zones. Within the cliffs below Peak Hill and High Peak a number of very rare fossils of Triassic fish, reptiles and amphibians have been found.

Geology

There are three rock strata in the Peak Hill cliff face. The Mercia Mudstone Group Formation consists of beds of various mudstones, siltstones and sandstones. The Mercia Mudstone form the base of the Peak Hill and were deposited about 200 Million years ago in the hot dry climates of the Triassic Period. Above these Triassic formations, the deposits in the centre of the cliff face are layers of Upper Greensand, a Cretaceous rock formation that was deposited about 80 Million years ago. The top of Peak Hill is underlain by flint gravel that was probably left behind following the solution of an original cover of chalk during the early Tertiary period about 60 to 65 Million years ago.

Bibliography

• The Jurassic Coast Trust (2003). A Walk Through Time, the Official Guide to the Jurassic Coast. Coastal Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9544845-0-7. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |unused_data= (help)