ソレント海峡

出典: フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』

ソレント（Solent）はイギリス本土からワイト島を分ける海峡である。ヨットのメッカで、フェリーで往復する世界で最も高価な水域の一つとして知られている。ワイト島に守られ、非常に複雑な潮汐パターンを見せ、サウサンプトンが港として成功するのに大いに寄与している。ポーツマスは同じ海岸にある。ゴスポート近郊のギルキッカーポイント沖のスピットヘッドは、海軍が君主の観閲を受ける場所として知られている。

[編集] 歴史

Originally a river valley, the Solent has gradually widened and deepened for many thousands of years. The River Frome was the source of the River Solent and two other rivers called the Itchen and Test were tributaries of it. Remains of human habitation have been found from the prehistoric, Roman and Saxon eras, showing that humans retreated towards progressively higher ground over these periods.

There is an early Norman period report that much land on the south of Hayling Island was lost to sea flood. South of Hayling Island in the Solent is a deposit of stones, which scuba divers found to be the remains of a stone building, probably a church. There is an old report that that church was formerly in the middle of Hayling Island. If similar amounts of land have been lost on other parts of the Solent shore, the Solent was likely much narrower in Roman times, and it is possible to believe Julius Caesar's report that in his time men could wade to the Isle of Wight at low tide. The southeast of England, like the Netherlands, has been steadily slowly sinking through historic time.

During the late Middle Ages, Henry VIII of England built an extensive set of coastal defences at each end of the Solent, part of his Device Forts, effectively controlling access to east and west. More forts were built on land and at sea in the 19th century.

A bank in the centre of the Solent, Bramble Bank, is exposed at low water springs. This, combined with the unique tidal patterns in the area, makes navigation challenging. There is an annual cricket match on Bramble Bank during the lowest tide of the year - although it usually ends fairly quickly when the wicket is flooded!

[編集] 地理

Ten thousand years ago a band of relatively resistant Chalk rock, part of the Southern England Chalk Formation ran from the Purbeck area of south Dorset to the eastern end of Isle of Wight, parallel to the South Downs. Inland behind the Chalk were less resistant sands, clays and gravels. Through these weak soils and rocks ran many rivers, from the Dorset Frome in the west and including the Stour, Beaulieu River, Test, Itchen and Hamble, which created a large estuary flowing west to east and into the English Channel at the eastern end of the present Solent. This great estuary ran through a wooded valley and is now referred to as the Solent River.

When 氷河s covering the north of Britain melted at the end of the last ice age, two things happened to create the Solent. Firstly, a great amount of flood water ran into the Solent River and its tributaries, carving the estuary deeper. Secondly, post-glacial rebound after the removal of the weight of ice over Scotland caused the island of Great Britain to tilt about an east-west axis, because isostatic rebound in Scotland and Scandinavia is pulling mantle rock out from under the Netherlands and south England. Over thousands of years, the land sank in the south (a process still continuing) to submerge many valleys creating today's characteristic rias, such as Southampton Water and Poole Harbour, as well as submerging the Solent. The estuary of the Solent River was gradually flooded, and eventually the Isle of Wight became separated from the mainland as the chalk ridge between The Needles on the island and Old Harry Rocks on the mainland was eroded. This is thought to have happened about 7,000 years ago.

海岸変化の過程 is still continuing, with the soft cliffs on some parts of the Solent, such as Fort Victoria, constantly eroding, whilst other parts, such as Ryde Sands, accreting.

[編集] 「ソレント」の他の例

The Short Solentはしばしば単にSolentと呼ぶが、飛行艇の一種である。

[編集] 関連項目

• サウサンプトン水道
• ポーツマス港