Geoscience Reference
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FIG 125. Lymington river, looking southeastwards towards the Isle of Wight. (Copyright
Dae Sasitorn & Adrian Warren/www.lastrefuge.co.uk)
Some scientists now believe that during the last few thousand years sea level was
briefly higher than it is today, though this is far from certain, and estimates of sea level
during earlier interglacials are even less clear. Figure 123 attempts to show the effects
of a 20 m rise in sea level, ignoring any of the effects of local bedrock rising or sinking
that may have taken place. This is relevant to today's worries over rising sea level, al-
though the extent of the contribution made by our own species to the undoubted present
warming is not clear.
AREA 6: SUSSEX
A north-south traverse through the centre of this Area runs from Crawley through Hay-
wards Heath to the coast at Brighton. The western edge of the Area adjoins Area 5, and
runs from Haslemere via Midhurst to Chichester and Selsey Bill on the coast. The east-
ern edge adjoins Area 7, and runs from Royal Tunbridge Wells via Hailsham to Beachy
Head and Eastbourne on the coast (Figs 126 and 127).
Area 6 extends across the central and southern part of the Weald of southeastern
England, an area neatly defined by the presence of the Early Cretaceous bedrock
known as the Wealden (Fig. 128). The name Weald derives from Old English, and
refers to the woodland cover that is still an obvious feature of this area, particularly
when looking across from the escarpments of younger Chalk or Greensand that form its
border to the north, west and south. This rim acts as the frame of the broad and gentle
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