Newmead
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Climate exposure
This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.
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: Ordovician
Landscape processes: Coastal
Description
Description This is a classic site for studies of Ordovician sediments and palaeogeography. Here Jones and Pugh described a shoreline in an Upper Llanvirn sequence. Spilites of the Builth Volcanics are overlain by an ancient soil profile, formed at a time when an ancient Newmead Scar formed a cliff in the Ordovician landscape. Above the podsol are the Feldspar Sandstones of the Newmead ‘Series’, which mark a return to marine sedimentation following the period of sub-aerial exposure. This is a famous site showing unique exposures proving non-marine environments at a time of predominantly marine sedimentation