Biography
When was Britain’s most famous coastal feature formed? What is it made of, and what’s happening to it now?
The Basics
Of all the possible ways of first sighting England, the approach from the south coast is surely the most iconic, whether by water or by air. Sparkling white cliff-faces rise sheer from the Channel, gleaming white in summer sun, streaked with grey in winter squalls, they're best seen on arrival at the port of Dover.
How the Cliffs Formed
Travel back in time, more than 100 million years, to the age when the white cliffs were forming. Our planet was much warmer than it is today. With little polar ice, water levels were high and a warm sea covered what would later become southern England. It was in this sea that the chalk of the white cliffs was created.
