June 6, 1944: The Geology of D-Day
By David Bressan | June 6, 2014 |
Into the Jaws of Death, by Robert F. Sargent (1944), image in public domain
June 6, 1944 – in planning for D-Day – also geology was considered, as aerial photographs of the shores of Normandy were studied to find suitable landing sites for the invasion.
The confluence of larger rivers with the English Channel between the harbors of Le Havre and Cherbourg created sandy shorelines were a landing with amphibious vehicles was possible. In January 1944 British divers risked their lives to collect samples from selected sites; geologists had to determine if the sandy shores could in fact support the heavy equipment and modified tanks needed to overrun the local German coastal fortifications.
44 years later, June 1988, Earle F. Mc Bride and M. Dane Picard, geologists and passionate sand collectors, collected some sand from one of the most contested landing sites – "Omaha Beach". Studying the sand at first they didn´t find something unusual: the sand reflects the catchment area of the main rivers and the marine environment – and is composed of grains of quartz, feldspar, limestone and fragmented shells. However the geologists found also magnetic grains and small spheres of iron and glass, realizing that those are particles generated from the battles during D-Day: fragments of the metallic shells and quartz sand melted by the heat of explosions.
In September 2013 artists Andy Moss and Jamie Wardley, with the help of many volunteers, used the same sand to create a memorial to the fallen soldiers.
The landing of the infantry at D-Day was accompanied by a bombardment to create a breach in the coastal artillery. The scars left by the heavy fire are still visible today. In 2006 geographers Joseph Hupy and Randy Schaetzel introduced the term "bombturbation" to describe this particular soil and bedrock mixing caused by such human activity.
The rocks remain as silent eyewitnesses of human warfare…
--
__._,_.___
No comments:
Post a Comment