Meneage Coastal Section

Site of Special Scientific Interest · 50.0806, -5.0809

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Also within

Cornwall County Cornwall Scenic Area King Charles Way - Penzance to St Mawes National TrailSouth West Coast Path National Trail

Condition (Natural England)

Favourable (18)
UnitFeatureConditionArea (ha)Assessed
SW780261 — Favourable 44.53 2010-04-22
SW781261 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW784252 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW784255 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW786257 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW787257 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW790252 — Favourable 44.53 2010-04-22
SW798238 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW798249 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW799231 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW799242 — Favourable 44.53 2010-04-22
SW800245 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW800246 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW803230 — Favourable 44.53 2010-04-22
SW807225 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW808219 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW809219 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14
SW809222 — Favourable 33.93 2010-01-14

Climate exposure

This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.

Coastal

Coastal habitats are exposed to sea-level rise and storm erosion. Where hard sea defences sit behind them, there's nowhere landward to retreat to — a squeeze that keeps compressing the habitat no matter how well it's managed.

Geology & landscape

Geological Period: Devonian, Ordovician, Silurian · Rock Type: Granite

Landscape processes: Coastal, Volcanic / Igneous

Description

Meneage Coastal Section SSSI Description This site covers the deposits of the Gramscatho Group and their contact with the Lizard complex. The latter is a large serpentinised peridotite body largely enclosed by amphibolites and cut by later gabbros, basic dykes and granite veins. Recent interpretations consider the complex to represent the tectonically juxtaposed remnants of a disrupted ophiolite unit, with the deformation within the Gramscatho Group being formed in part as a response to the northward thrusting of the ophiolite during the Hercynian (Variscan) Orogeny. The Devonian Gramscatho Group is one of the very few examples of a large scale subaqueous sedimentary slump deposit (olistostrome) in great Britain. The site also includes exposures of Ordovician and Silurian rocks (preserved as olistholiths). Excellent exposure along the coast between Porthallow and Porthkerris shows a range of lower crustal rocks, principally mafic and ultra mafic cumulates, forming an imbricate zone close to the northern boundary of the complex. This boundary, at Porthallow, shows the igneous rocks in over thrust contact with the sheared and locally metamorphosed sediments to the north. This coastal section provides important clues to the geological formation of the Lizard complex, and is the subject of ongoing research