4 January 2016 Last updated at 13:13 GMT
More than 5,000 tonnes of oil were spilt when a large oil tanker, Eleni V, capsized off the Norfolk coast in 1978, polluting more than 20 miles of the coastline.
Trenches were dug to sink the oil below Gorleston beach, but recent stormy weather has eroded more than a mile of coastline, exposing the oil deposits.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council plans to skim some oil away but said the rest is expected to be covered by sand when the tide turns "within the next few days".
Oil that appeared on a beach in Norfolk was buried there almost 40 years ago and exposed by coastal erosion, it has emerged.