4.3 and 4.4

Question 1

Concordant coastline rock type

Answer 1

Hard rock

Question 2

Discordant coast rock type

Answer 2

Hard and soft rock

Question 3

How do headlands form?

Answer 3

Headlands are formed when the sea attacks a section of coast with alternating bands of hard and soft rock.

Question 4

Feature of a discordant coastline

Answer 4

Coastlines where the geology alternates between strata (or bands) of hard rock and soft rock are called discordant coastlines.

Question 5

Features of a concordant coastline

Answer 5

A concordant coastline has the same type of rock along its length. Concordant coastlines tend to have fewer bays and headlands.

Question 6

What is the difference between hard or soft rock?

Answer 6

The bands of soft rock, such as sand and clay, erode more quickly than those of more resistant rock, such as chalk.

Question 7

What is a bay?

Answer 7

The areas where the soft rock has eroded away, next to the headland, are called bays.

Question 8

How do wave cut platforms form?

Answer 8

Wave-cut platforms form when destructive waves hit against the cliff face, causing undercutting between the high and low water marks, mainly as a result of corrosion and hydraulic power, creating a wave-cut notch. This notch then enlarges into a cave.

Question 9

How is an arch formed?

Answer 9

If the cave is formed in a headland, it may eventually break through to the other side forming an arch.

Question 10

How does a cave form?

Answer 10

Caves occur when waves force their way into cracks in the cliff face. The water contains sand and other materials that grind away at the rock until the cracks become a cave. Hydraulic action is the predominant process.

Question 11

How is a stump formed?

Answer 11

The arch will gradually become bigger until it can no longer support the top of the arch. When the arch collapses, it leaves the headland on one side and a stack (a tall column of rock) on the other.
The stack will be attacked at the base in the same way that a wave-cut notch is formed. This weakens the structure and it will eventually collapse to form a stump.

Question 12

What three factors affect wave energy?

Answer 12

First, the wind speed must be blowing faster than the transfer of energy from wave crest to wave crest. The second factor is the amount of time the wind blows, or wind duration. The third factor is the fetch, the uninterrupted distance over the sea for which the wind blows without a change in direction.

Question 13

What is a destructive wave?

Answer 13

A wave that has a weak swash and a strong backwash.

Question 14

What is a constructive wave?

Answer 14

A wave that has a strong swash and a weak backwash.

Question 15

What is abrasion?

Answer 15

the process of scraping or wearing something away.

Question 16

What is hydraulic action?

Answer 16

When water gets pushed into cracks of rock that it splits the rock after a while.

Question 17

What is attrition?

Answer 17

Waves smash rocks and pebbles on the shore into each other, and they break and become smoother.

Question 18

What is solution?

Answer 18

Acids contained in sea water will dissolve some types of rock such as chalk or limestone.

Question 19

How do human activities have direct or indirect effect on the coast?

Answer 19

Human activities are often concentrated in coastal regions which are often least able to assimilate those activities, and where adverse effects are most apparent. Coastal zones are relatively fragile ecosystems, and disordered urbanisation and development of infrastructure, alone, or in combination with uncoordinated industrial, tourism-related, fishing and agricultural activities, can lead to rapid degradation of coastal habitats and resources. Mounting pressure on the coastal zone environment has, in several European countries, resulted in a rapid decline in open spaces and natural sites and a lack of space to accommodate coastal activities without significant harmful effects.

Question 20

Habitats

Answer 20

Humans can also affect animal habitats on coasts due to oil spills in the sea, over fishing and ocean acidification.

Question 21

What is the difference between traction, saltation, suspension and solution?

Answer 21

Solution - minerals are dissolved in the water and carried along in solution. Suspension - fine light material is carried along in the water. Saltation - small pebbles and stones are bounced along the river bed. Traction - large boulders and rocks are rolled along the river bed.

Question 22

How does longshore drift work?

Answer 22

Longshore drift. Waves that hit the beach at an angle carry sand and gravel up the beach face at an angle. When the water washes back the sediment is carried straight back down the beach face. Individual particles are moved along the beach in a zig zag pattern.

Question 23

How does a spit form?

Answer 23

Spits are also created by deposition. A spit is an extended stretch of beach material that projects out to sea and is joined to the mainland at one end. Spits are formed where the prevailing wind blows at an angle to the coastline, resulting in longshore drift.

Question 24

Characteristics of a spit

Answer 24

A spit is a stretch of sand or shingle extending from the mainland out to sea. They develop where there is a sudden change in the shape of the coastline such as at a headland. Normally, longshore drift transports beach sediment along a coastline.

Question 25

How do beaches form?

Answer 25

A beach forms when waves deposit sand and gravel along the shoreline. Some beaches are made of rocks and pebbles. Over time they are worn smooth from being rolled around by waves. The rocks usually reflect the local geology.

Question 26

Difference of spit to a bar

Answer 26

Both of these landforms are the result of longshore drift and deposition of material by the sea so there is a definite similarity in the processes of their formation and development. Spits and bars are long, narrow accumulations of sand and/or shingle. … A bar starts in a similar way, and to begin with, is a spit.