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Chesil Beach , sometimes called Chesil Bank, in Dorset, southern England is one of three major shingle structures in Britain.〔A. P. Carr and M. W. L. Blackley, "Investigations Bearing on the Age and Development of Chesil Beach, Dorset, and the Associated Area" ''Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers'', No. 58 (March 1973) pp. 99-111.〕 Its toponym is derived from the Old English ''ceosel'' or ''cisel'', meaning "gravel" or "shingle". The beach is often identified as a tombolo, although research into the geomorphology of the area has revealed that it is in fact a barrier beach which has "rolled" landwards, joining the mainland with the Isle of Portland, giving the appearance of a tombolo.〔() 〕 The shingle beach is long, wide and high. The beach and the Fleet are part of the Jurassic Coast, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the location for a 2007 novel, ''On Chesil Beach'' by Ian McEwan. At the eastern end of the beach at the village of Chiswell, against the cliffs of the Isle of Portland, the beach curves round sharply to form Chesil Cove. This part of the beach protects the low-lying village from flooding. The beach has been the scene of many shipwrecks, and as such was named by Thomas Hardy as "Dead Man's Bay". Westwards the shingle forms a straight line along the coast, enclosing the Fleet, a shallow〔The lagoon is 3m at its deepest (Carr and Blackley 1973:99.〕 tidal lagoon. The beach provides shelter from the prevailing winds and waves for the town of Weymouth and the village of Chiswell on Portland. Varying with the Bank's unbroken increase in height, to , above mean high water, the size of the flint and chert shingle varies from pea-sized at the north-west end (by West Bay) to orange-sized at the south-east end (by Portland). It is said that smugglers who landed on the beach in the middle of the night could judge "exactly where they were" by the size of the shingle.〔(Portland history )〕 There are three owners of the beach; the Crown Estates own the beach from Portland to its boundary stone at Littlesea. The bed of the lagoon and Chesil Beach adjacent to the Fleet, as well as the majority of the land of Upper Fleet to West Bexington, is owned by the Ilchester Estates, who are based north of Dorchester, but also have a local office in Abbotsbury.〔http://www.chesilbeach.org/cfatoz/cfatoz_IN.html〕 Finally from West Bexington to West Bay it is owned by the National Trust.〔http://www.chesilbeach.org/cfatoz/cfatoz_OR.html〕 The whole of Chesil Beach south from the Portland Bound Stone is registered common land over which there is a right of public access on foot. ==Origin== The origin of Chesil Beach has been argued over for some time.〔The extensive literature was reviewed by W.J. Arkell, "the geology of the country around Weymouth,Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth," ''Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain'', 1947, and again, briefly, by Carr and Blackley, 1977.〕 Originally it was believed that beach material was from the Budleigh Salterton pebble beds to the west and later from Portland to the south east. The differences between the pebbles on the beach and nearby sources is now put down to the Flandrian isostatic sea level rise, so the feature could also be considered a barrier beach or bar, that happens to connect the mainland to an island rather than a 'true' tombolo. Normally, tombolos are created due to the effects of the island on waves (through refraction) and to sediment transport, which usually produces a beach perpendicular to the mainland rather than parallel to it. Fossils occur all along the landward shore of the Fleet and along the landward side of Chesil Beach from Abbotsbury to West Bay. The main site is at Burton Bradstock.〔http://www.chesilbeach.org/cfatoz/cfatoz_EH.html〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Chesil Beach」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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