‘patella’ beach

views updated May 08 2018

‘patella’ beach Old term referring to a raised beach standing about 3 m above the present high-water mark and found locally on the south coast of England, in southern and western Ireland, and along the Channel coast of France. Traditionally it was given an interglacial age, but the term is now little used, owing to problems of correlations. It is named after the large number of limpets (Patella vulgata is the common limpet) it typically contains.

‘patella’ beach

views updated Jun 27 2018

‘patella’ beach An old name for a raised beach standing about 3 m above the present high-water mark and found locally on the south coast of England, in southern and western Ireland, and along the Channel coast of France. Traditionally it was given an interglacial age, but the term is now little used, owing to problems of correlation. It is named after the large number of limpets (Patella vulgata is the common limpet) it typically contains.