Beachgoers Heard A Deafening Rumble And In Seconds Were At The Mercy Of A Terrifying Natural Event

It’s an overcast day on the North Wales coast, but this long, sandy stretch of beach is far from deserted. As dog walkers and pensioners soak up the sea views, something unexpected shatters the peace and quiet. A rumbling sound peaks to a threatening crescendo – leaving the beachgoers in fear for their lives. And none of them could’ve known what was in store for them next.

For decades, both locals and holidaymakers alike have flocked to the beautiful Nefyn Beach for a traditional day of seaside fun. But for all those years, a ticking time bomb has been lying in wait. Now, the unthinkable has happened, and it has transformed this peaceful idyll into something out of a Hollywood movie.

In April 2021 onlookers watched in horror as nature took a vicious turn and sent shockwaves through the sleepy community of Nefyn Beach. Though what was behind this catastrophe? And would these people – caught on the sands at the wrong time – live to tell the tale? It’s a story that reveals a terrifying truth about some of the U.K.’s most picturesque coastal towns.

Nefyn Beach had been bustling with people just a week before the shocking incident. As families across the U.K. enjoyed their Easter vacations, many of them chose to visit this spot on Wales’ northern coast. Granted, it’s not as well known as some of the country’s other seaside resorts, though it remains a popular destination nonetheless.

Yet Nefyn Beach had grown less busy by April 19, 2021. With children back at school, there were fewer families spread out across the long expanse of golden sand. And while there may have been some surfers or fishermen out in the bay, the general atmosphere was far quieter than it had been the week before.

For that, at least, the people of Nefyn Beach can be thankful. Because in the morning – when a dreadful rumble began to echo across the sands – there was only a scattering of people present to witness it. And as a result, a tragedy of potentially horrific proportions was narrowly averted.

“It’s lucky really because last week the beach was busy with it still being Easter half term in England,” one witness told the Daily Post in April 2021. “It was the busiest week we’ve had this year. So if it had happened then people could have been killed.”

But what exactly did this witness see? After all, natural disasters are not overly common in Wales – particularly ones frightening enough to send people fleeing for their lives. Might the loud rumble have been caused by an earthquake, perhaps, about to tear the peaceful sands of Nefyn Beach apart?

Although the area is not exactly a tectonic hotspot, north Wales has experienced something similar before. Back in 1984, for example, the Llŷn Peninsula where Nefyn Beach is located shook with tremors that clocked 5.4 on the Richter scale. In fact, it was the most powerful earthquake in recorded history to ever strike mainland Britain.

Or perhaps this part of the Welsh coast was about to be consumed by an incoming tsunami? After all, these terrifying waves are typically caused by earthquakes occurring off shore. Could the rumble heard by beachgoers have been the beginning of just such a disaster? Of course, such incidences are incredibly rare in the U.K – though that fact would probably have provided little reassurance to those present.

According to reports, it was around 11:00 a.m. when witnesses first heard the terrible sound. One told the Daily Post, “I was just sitting on my wall having a coffee when I heard a rumbling noise.” And another individual living nearby described the terrifying moment in an April 2021 interview with ITV News. Apparently, the noise was “like an earthquake.”

Yet it wasn’t an earthquake or a tsunami that was about to strike this sleepy Welsh beach. Down on the sands, walker Amanda Stubbs was enjoying a relaxing stroll when she spotted something strange: a cluster of stones tumbling down the side of the cliff. And as Stubbs looked up – phone in hand – she witnessed an astonishing event.

In moments, the slide of stones had picked up alarming speed – turning into a huge torrent of dirt and rocks. It was a landslide: one of the worst to strike the region in recent years. Still filming, Stubbs was forced to flee for her life as the pile of debris began to spread rapidly across the beach. Elsewhere, a dog walker looked on in horror as the cliffside fell away.

“I was here when it happened, I saw it come down, it was spectacular,” the witness told the Daily Post. Meanwhile, above the beach, one resident remained impressively stoic. He said, “I didn’t see it but I definitely heard it… I thought it was this end to begin with but it didn’t really worry me – if it hit this hut I’d be gone! It could happen to anyone along here, that’s mother nature for you.”

By the time that the dust had settled, the landslide had reportedly spread across more than 130 feet of sand. Miraculously, though, there were no reports of injuries – thanks in part to the timing of the fall. Speaking to The Sun in April 2021, local Elise Leyshon said, “It is so lucky that no one was on the beach on a Monday morning. Yesterday, it was full of people.”

“They would stand no chance if they were caught by that landslide,” Leyshon continued. “It is incredible.” Yet even though the disaster did not claim any lives, property owners were left reeling as their gardens collapsed onto the beach below. Later, witnesses spotted items of furniture poking out of the debris.

Resident Melvyn Jones has owned a property at the top of the cliff since around 2011. And the local told Yahoo! News that he’d been left “devastated” by the landslide. Now, Jones faces an uncertain future in a house that would be impossible to sell, even if he wanted to. But what exactly caused this dramatic landslide to strike Nefyn Beach – and what might the future hold?

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time that the cliffs surrounding this stretch of coast have collapsed. Back in 2001 a woman was killed when a landslide sent the car that she was traveling in tumbling off a precipice and into the water. According to experts, the Nefyn Beach area is particularly prone to such disasters thanks to its debris-lined slopes, which are often saturated with water.

Jones, meanwhile, believes that a burst pipe may have contributed to the landslide. Though whatever caused the devastating incident, the people of Nefyn Beach have struggled to pick up the pieces. With the area closed off to the public, they have been left to speculate on whether or not their own properties might also fall into the abyss.

“I wouldn’t want to scare anyone,” geologist Ashley Patton told the BBC in April 2021, “but of course, when you see events like this and of this scale, you can’t help but think ‘is that area of the cliff next?’” Yet, he added, “that happens all along that coastline, so there is the potential anywhere could go.” And he really means anywhere in the world. Just look what happened in the Grand Canyon.

To the untrained eye, this boulder in the Grand Canyon looks like any other. But it had actually fallen from the cliff face alongside the canyon’s Bright Angel Trail. The hikers and tourists who passed the rock seemingly thought nothing of it, though. Then, one day, someone with the right knowledge finally came along – and realized how telling it was.

That person was Allan Krill. And as he looked at the boulder, the geologist began to suspect that he had stumbled onto a remarkable find. He was right, too. Etched onto the stone was something amazing: a relic from before the dinosaurs walked the Earth. For someone in Krill’s line of work, he had hit the jackpot.

Now, Krill’s discovery has been acknowledged as a one-of-a-kind ancient specimen. Even better, it shines a light on the distant past. But had the rocks surrounding the Bright Angel Trail not crumbled – and had a geologist not just happened to have been walking by – this secret may well have remained hidden for generations to come.

Mind you, the Grand Canyon has been telling stories long before Krill was even born. Its history dates back nearly two billion years, in fact, to a time when the world looked very different from how it does today. Slowly, though, the supercontinents shifted, and the landscape of what is now Arizona began to emerge. Krill’s special boulder may have appeared at that time, too.

But even though academics and amateurs have spent decades combing the Grand Canyon for fossils, there are still some surprises to be had there. So when in 2016 the Norwegian geologist took a group of students hiking along the Bright Angel Trail, he probably didn’t expect to play a part in changing what we know about prehistoric life in the region.

Bright Angel Trail is pretty impressive by itself, too. Beginning on the ravine’s southern rim at Grand Canyon Village, the path runs for roughly eight miles, dropping over 4,000 feet to the Colorado River. Along the way, the trail also passes several well-known rock formations, such as Brahma Temple and the Cheops Pyramid. It was something far less showy, however, that ultimately captured Krill’s attention.

As he was hiking, Krill spotted a boulder resting alongside the trail. Then, when he took a closer look at the rock, he realized that its surface was marked by a series of strange patterns. And the source of the boulder was evident. Clearly, it had come from an exposed section of cliff known as the Manakacha Formation.

Part of the layer of rock known as the Supai Group, the Manakacha Formation is a mudstone and limestone cliff that runs through the Grand Canyon. And for millions of years, it has formed part of the complex geological cocktail that makes up the Colorado Plateau. Eventually, though, a portion of the Manakacha Formation had crumbled, sending the boulder in question into Krill’s path.

Intrigued by the marking that he had spotted, Krill then snapped a photograph and sent it to Rowland, a University of Nevada paleontologist. Looking at the image, the American researcher subsequently confirmed what his colleague had suspected: the patterns were fossilized footprints from long ago. And two years later, the awe-inspiring find was announced at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

However, it would take another couple of years before the true details of Krill’s ground-breaking discovery were revealed. On August 19, 2020, Rowland and his colleagues Zachary Jensen and Mario Caputo published a paper in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. And in the work, the trio discussed fossilized trackways from the Grand Canyon – including the Bright Angel Trail find.

By looking at previous studies of the Manakacha Formation as well as geological maps of the region, the researchers had been able to pinpoint the age of the tracks with surprising precision. And as it turned out, Krill had been right to stop and take a closer look at the innocuous boulder that he had found at the side of the trail.

You see, after studying the footprints, Rowland had concluded that they were roughly 313 million years old, dating back to the Carboniferous Period. And this made them record-breakers. Apparently, they’re believed to be the oldest fossilized vertebrate footprints ever found in the Grand Canyon.

Amazingly, though, that’s not all. Although experts are unsure exactly what type of organism made the footprints, they are confident that it was some kind of reptile. And as Rowland explained in an August 2020 statement from the NPS, this makes them really special. “They are among the oldest tracks on Earth of shelled-egg-laying animals and the earliest evidence of vertebrate animals walking in sand dunes,” he said.

According to reports, the tracks were formed back when the land we today know as Arizona was a plain located close to the Equator. Then at some point, Rowland believes, two prehistoric creatures walked diagonally across the ground that would go on to become part of the Manakacha Formation, leaving their footprints behind.

Not everyone assumes that two separate creatures were responsible for leaving the historic tracks behind. There’s been speculation, for instance, that they could have been created by the same vertebrate crossing the area at different times. But whatever the truth, it is clear that the two sets of prints reflect journeys conducted at varying speeds.

It also appears that at least one of the creatures moved using what is known as a lateral-sequence walk. In an August 2020 interview with The Arizona Republic, Rowland described this gait as being “where the left rear foot moves and then the left front, and then the right rear and the right front and so on.”

“Living species of tetrapods – dogs and cats, for example – routinely use a lateral-sequence gait when they walk slowly,” Rowland explained in the statement. “The Bright Angel Trail tracks document the use of this gait very early in the history of vertebrate animals. We previously had no information about that.”

But just how had the footprints managed to stay in such incredible condition for so long? Well, they were most likely preserved by being covered with water and sand. Then, as time passed, the impression remained in the rock. And for millions of years, this remarkable treasure lay hidden within the Manakacha Formation, waiting to reveal its secrets to the world.

That all said, it seems as though Rowland’s findings are far from conclusive. And they may yet stir up controversy within the paleontological world. Speaking to the Associated Press in August 2020, the Grand Canyon’s Mark Nebel explained, “There’s a lot of disagreement in the scientific community about interpreting tracks [and] interpreting the age of rocks – especially interpreting what kind of animal made these tracks.”

But for now at least, the Bright Angel Trail boulder remains an object of fascination for paleontologists and geologists visiting the Grand Canyon. “A lot of people walk by and never see it,” Nebel continued. “Scientists, we have trained eyes. Now that they know something’s there, it will draw more interest.” And Krill’s monumental discovery will likely become yet another draw to one of America’s most celebrated attractions.