Cliff Hazards

Abstract

Coastal cliffs are dangerous because of their height and steepness, and because of rock falls or landslides. People have been killed or injured in cliff accidents. Some accidents occur when people standing or walking along the crest of a cliff fall over the edge; others when people fall when trying to climb up or down a cliff; others when people fall, or are carried down, from the top of a cliff when it subsides or collapses; and others when people are hit by falling rocks, or buried by landslides at the base of a cliff. The first two categories are due to the height and steepness of the cliff, and occur without any geomorphological change taking place; the second two are the outcome of sudden geomorphological changes. Unfortunately there are also deaths and injuries resulting from suicide or attempted suicide by leaping from a cliff, notably from high cliffs within easy reach of large urban centres, as at Beachy Head in Sussex (where there were 26 fatalities in 1990, all recorded as suicides) and The Gap on the Sydney cliffs north of Bondi Beach.