The Estuaries of the Severn and its Tributaries; an Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of their Tidal Sediment and Alluvial Flats
Open Access
- 1 February 1883
- journal article
- Published by Geological Society of London in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
- Vol. 39 (1-4)
- https://doi.org/10.1144/gsl.jgs.1883.039.01-04.38
Abstract
The tidal channel of the Severn is notorious for its mud. At high tide it is filled with a sea of turbid water, thick and opaque with tawny-coloured sediment; as the tide ebbs a broad expanse of shining mud flats is revealed fringing the coast; but so like is the water to the mud that, seen from a distance, it is often hard to tell where the sea ends and the shore begins. It is the same with its tributaries, the Wye, the Usk, Ely, and Rhymney on the Welsh side, the Avon, Yeo, Parrot, and others on the English coast. The source of this mud has been made a subject of much dispute. That it is chiefly supplied by the rivers themselves to their respective estuaries might sound to geologists like an obvious truth ; but such is certainly not the opinion of those who have most closely inquired into the matter. Engineers like Mr. C. Richardson and Mr. Howard have long been of opinion that the sediment of the tidal Avon is furnished to it by the Severn ; the like is asserted of the Parrot, and I do not think one stands in any fear of contradiction when stating as a general truth that all the estuaries opening into the Severn derive their mud at least immediately from the main channel. This being so, whence then has the Severn obtained it? The answers given to this inquiry by engineers are various: some attribute it to theKeywords
This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: