Ireland Shrinking!!

IRISHLILY24

I read in irish times today that Ireland shrinks by 750 acres every year! Due to the shoreline being eroded away by the ocean.
wow! does this scare anyone else?
should it?
Can it be true/accurate?
I mean 750acres is a lot!! Ireland isnt that big, so if this reasearcher is correct then wouldnt Ireland disappear in the very near future........that's the way the article made it sound to me anyway.

:eek:

bonkey

Originally posted by IRISHLILY24
I mean 750acres is a lot!! Ireland isnt that big, so if this reasearcher is correct then wouldnt Ireland disappear in the very near futur

750 acres = 300 hectares

Landmass of Ireland (approx) = 8,125,000 hectares

Therefore, at the current rate of erosion, we can exect your "very near future" disappearance in, say, 27,000 years or so.

Which would be not too soon to be worried about.

Of course, erosion wont remain constant, but even still....its not the most worrying figure out there.

jc

Boston

not to be worried, theres thousands or acres of land in ireland that isnt being used for anything, and even more we could reclaim from the sea if needed. maybe when we hit the 10 million mark again it will happen

IRISHLILY24

sure you are correct, the article just made it sound a bit scary was all.

azezil

That rate of errosion can't remain constant, at times the sea will come in contact with hard rock types and other times softer rock types, this will result in varying degrees of erosion. and as stated earlier we have the means to reclaim land if needs be.

mike65

Climate change will proberly speed up erosion in soft-rock coastal zones. So check what you're standing on!

As a side note Britain is tilting on the European plate, Scotland is gradually rising as the South-East of England slowly sinks into the channel. That plus chalk and sandstone soft-rock!!

Mike.

Victor

I didn't pay much attention to the piece, but how much land are we gaining each year? For example, Bull Island in Dublin is less than 200 years old, the same with Sandymount Strand (they are the result of natural dredging effect of the tides on the harbours). Likewise there are areas in Donegal and elsewhere where the sea is being polderised.

pugwall

I saw photographic evidence of this erosion off the coast of wexford. It was damn scary. The houseowners don't expect their house to be there in 10 years time. That was two years ago.

papashiv0

I've seen that erosion in Wexford. A house and garden (total area about 2 or 3 acres) on a cliff near blackwater beach i forget the name just fell into the sea and all that was left was the side of the house. This was over a period of about 5 years.Hate that!

Victor

Isn't there a quote in the bible about the guy who built his house on sand and the other guy who built on rock?

So thousands of years ago people knew the effects of erosion and these muppets are claiming ignorance?

dysfunct

It sounded scary at first, but then after bonkey posted i was ok.

But the figure of 750 can only increase, with the rising sea levels and all.

Yoda

Mmm. In five billion years or so the sun will swell to the size of a red giant and swallow the earth too.

Saruman

Then will reduce to the size of a brown dwarf and give off very little heat or light and basically we will have a dead solar system... ah well.. maybe we will have moved somewhere else by then!