Coastal Erosion (March 29)
The Roberts family bought the famous Belle Tout lighthouse at Beachy Head, UK, in 1996 as a bed and breakfast. At that time, it was 300 feet from the high chalk cliffs. Four years later, the couple fled in the middle of the night as the cliff started to fall away leaving the lighthouse precariously perched just 10 feet from the edge. On average, six inches of the cliff erode away every year, keeping the white cliffs white by preventing shrubs, grasses, and trees from growing. Most people don’t realize that significant erosion is happening along coastlines. In recent history entire, English coastline villages have been lost into the ocean.
On the Outer Banks of North Carolina, USA, Cape Hatteras Lighthouse was built in 1872 and sat about 1,800 feet from the shore. In just 130 years, the coastline had eroded 1,680 feet such that the light house sat only 120 feet from the sea. The lighthouse has since been moved. The amount of coastal erosion we observe does not match the evolutionary timeline, but it is consistent with the Bible’s timeline. About 4400 years ago, there was a global flood, and the continents’ coastlines have been eroding ever since. Coastal erosion is a world-wide problem, causing beaches to vanish and houses to toppling. Fast coastal erosion points to the world being young.