GEOLOGY NEWS -

GIANT SAND DUNE SWALLOWING FRENCH COAST

 

 

OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration.  But it is BIG! 

 

It's 3 km (1.5 miles) long, 500 meters wide and 100 meters high and it is swallowing houses, roads and forests. It is located at La Teste-de-Buch on the French Atlantic coast, about 60 km south-west of Bordeaux.

 

Westerly Atlantic winds blow sand onto the shore and at this point it is 60 million cubic metres of sand and moving at a rate of five metres a year (5.46 yards).

See map and excellent pictures of the advancing giant sand dune here: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317656/The-marauding-mountain-sand-swallowing-roads-houses-forest-west-coast-France.html