Storm impacts on cliffed coastlines

Coastal cliffs provide some of the most spectacular landscape scenery around the world. This chapter focuses on cliffs from around the United Kingdom, developed in a variety of geological formations, to exemplify the complex and diverse impacts storms can have on cliff responses. It looks at both the impact of individual storms but also stresses the importance of sequences of storms and longer phases of storminess. Spatial variation in cliff retreat is frequently observed along the cliffed coast and recent studies are providing growing evidence for the complex nature of cliff response to storms. The example provided in the chapter illustrates this alongshore variation and suggests that, even for the largest storms, cliff response can be strongly controlled by geological composition and the way it affects the balance between marine and terrestrial processes. Both domains play an important part in determining spatial variation in cliff retreat and combine in different ways