Hurd's Deep

File:Hurd Deep from cropped Admiralty Chart No 2649 English Channel Western Portion Published 1955.jpg

Hurd Deep running from bottom left to top right of an extract from a 1955 Admiralty Chart

File:Admiralty Chart No 2649 English Channel Western Portion Published 1955.jpg

1955 Admiralty Chart No 2649 showing Hurd Deep in the context of the English Channel

Hurd's Deep (or Hurd Deep) is an underwater valley in the English Channel, northwest of the Channel Islands. Its maximum depth is about 180 m (590 ft; 98 fathoms), making it the deepest point in the English Channel.

Toponym

The feature was named after the British Royal Naval Captain Thomas Hurd (1747–1823), who was the second Hydrographer of the Navy. It was chosen by the RN marine cartographer Admiral Martin White.

Geology

Hurd's deep began to form in the Pleistocene of the late Quaternary period (in the last 750,000 - 500,000 years). Successive melting periods after ice ages caused water to gouge out a deep water trench through a river valley system that now forms the seabed in the eastern part end of the English Channel. At some point a catastrophic flood from the southern North Sea basin created Hurd's Deep. It's believed that the collapse of a chalk ridge that once dammed the Strait of Dover let flood waters from a huge proglacial lake flow through the former river systems scouring down to the bedrock forming the trench.

During the Last Glacial Period, which ended 11,700 years ago, sea levels dropped again to the point that the English Channel became an area of river valleys. Due to its depth, Hurd's Deep likely remained flooded by seawater. It might have been a glacial refugium.

Hurd's Deep has an approximate length of Template:Convert with a width of between Template:Convert. It terminates abruptly at the western end. The seafloor around the trench is typically flat with a depth range of Template:Convert. But within the trench the maximum depth is Template:Convert. Hurd's Deep is the deepest point in the English Channel.Template:Sfnp

History

Deep sea ordnance disposal

Following the First World War, Hurd's Deep was used by the British Government as a dumping ground for both chemical and conventional munitions. Following the Second World War, it was used to dump military equipment, munitions and weaponry left behind by the ousted German invaders of the Channel Islands. Routine dumping of British munitions carried on until 1974.Template:Efn

Between 1946 and 1973 the area was also used for the dumping of low- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes. 28,500 barrels of waste – including plutonium, which has a half-life of 24,100 years – were disposed of into the Deep during this period.

Wrecks

Template:SMS was scuttled there in 1921.Template:Sfn The British submarine Template:HMS sank in Hurd's Deep in 1951 with the loss of 75 lives.

In popular culture

In Harry Collingwood's science fiction stories about the Flying-Fish airship-submarine, the Flying-Fish is hidden in Hurd's Deep between adventures.Template:Efn

Further reading

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