Devil’s Dyke is a 100-metre deep V-shaped valley on the South Downs Way in southern England near Brighton. The Dyke is formed in the chalky rock that originated as marine sediments during the Cretaceous period.
Here are a few snaps from our recent visit to the area:
From Devil’s Dyke, Sussex, posted by David Bradley on 8/10/2012 (5 items)
Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher
It is a common misconception that the valley was formed by glaciation, but it is simply a river bed carved out by “tremendous amounts of water running off the Downs during the last Ice Age when large amounts of snow thawed and the frozen chalk prevented any further absorption”, 14,000 years ago. In essence, the Devil’s Dyke V-shaped dry valley is the result of solifluction and river erosion. When that Ice Age ended, the snowfields covering the South Downs melted, and rivers formed across Sussex. The Devil’s Dyke valley was completed by one such river.
More information here: Devil's Dyke, Sussex.