Chapter 2 - Coasts

Question 1

What 5 conditions are needed to form sand dunes?

Answer 1

Large flat beach, large supply of sand, onshore wind, large tidal range and an obstacle such as driftwood

Question 2

What is the order of formation of coastal erosional features from a line of weakness to a stump?

Answer 2

Line of weakness, caves, arch, stack and then a stump

Question 3

What happens to an arch to form a stack?

Answer 3

The arch is eroded so much that leads to the arch not being able to support it’s own roof meaning that the roof falls into the sea leaving a stack

Question 4

What causes a stack to form a stump?

Answer 4

Erosional processes abrasion, solution, corrosion (and attrition) erode the stack down over time to leave only the bottom, a stump

Question 5

What are the transportation methods in the sea?

Answer 5

Solution, suspension, traction and saltation

Question 6

What is suspension?

Answer 6

Small particles are carried in water, ‘suspended’

Question 7

What is saltation?

Answer 7

Load bouncing along the bottom of the sea as the see looses and gains energy due to friction, like leaves blowing in the wind

Question 8

What is traction?

Answer 8

Large pebbles and sediment being rolled along the sea floor

Question 9

What is solution?

Answer 9

Dissolved chemicals, often from the cliff face, in the sea water

Question 10

What are the 3 types of mass movement?

Answer 10

Slides, rotational slumps and rockfalls

Question 11

What do mass movements cause coasts to do?

Answer 11

Coasts to retreat rapidly

Question 12

Which wave causes erosion? Which wave type causes beaches to form?

Answer 12

Destructive waves cause erosion, constructive waves cause beaches to be formed

Question 13

What factor makes slides and slumps more likely to happen?

Answer 13

If the material is full of water, which acts as a lubricant

Question 14

Describe destructive waves

Answer 14

They have a high frequency
They are high and steep
Their backwash is stronger than the swash
Causes material to be removed from the coastline

Question 15

Describe constructive waves

Answer 15

Long wavelength low height
Swash is more powerful than backwash
It deposits material on beach

Question 16

What is the definition of a wave?

Answer 16

A body of water moving towards a coastline at a higher than average level

Question 17

Describe the stages in a formation of a wave

Answer 17

Circular orbit of water particles in open water
Friction with seabed distort circular motion
Top of wave moves faster increasing elliptical orbit
Wave begins to break
Water from previous wave returns
Water rushes up the beach

Question 18

What causes rockfalls?

Answer 18

Cracks in the cliff face are cracked further by freeze thaw until they fall down as they can’t take their weight any longer, or they are undercut by the sea

Question 19

Define weathering

Answer 19

The breakdown of rocks at the Earths surface by action of rainwater, extremes of temperatures and biological activity

Question 20

Give some examples of biological weathering

Answer 20

Roots from plants making their way through cracks in the rock
Animals walking over surface of rock

Question 21

Give some examples of weather weathering

Answer 21

Wind blows sand grains across rock

Waves and rain hit rock

Question 22

Give some examples of chemical weathering

Answer 22

Chemical reactions in rock causes it to break down
Oxidation
Hydrolysis
Carbonation

Question 23

What factors decide the rate of erosion and cause variation in coasts?

Answer 23

Weather conditions, average wind speed, how acidic rainwater/water is, type of wave, wind direction, type of rock cliff is made from, human activity (coastline defences), shape of coastline, fetch

Question 24

What is the fetch?

Answer 24

The area of ocean or sea the wind has blown over the sea in that direction forming waves

Question 25

Name some landforms of coastal erosion

Answer 25

Bays, wave cut platforms, cliffs, caves, arches, stacks,stumps, headlands and coves

Question 26

Name some landforms formed by deposition

Answer 26

Beaches, spit, bars (where spits cross a bay,lagoons are also formed behind bars) tombolas (where a spit stretches and joins an island to the mainland) and sand dunes

Question 27

What process moves sand along the coast?

Answer 27

Longshore drift

Question 28

How is a wave cut platform formed?

Answer 28

Cracks are formed in between high and low water marks through erosion, over time it is eroded further to create a wave cut notch, this is eroded further until an overhang of rock is formed which then eventually collapses into the sea due to gravity leaving a platform. This cycle keeps happening and the platform over time gets larger

Question 29

What is the one time, the one condition, where longshore drift doesn’t occur?

Answer 29

When the wind it blowing the waves at a 90 degree angle to the beach, so the sediment just moves up and down

Question 30

What is the prevailing wind?

Answer 30

The direction of wind that is most common in a certain area

Question 31

Which direction is the prevailing wind from which hits the UK? What does this mean for the beaches on the South of the UK?

Answer 31

From the South West
That lots of beaches of the southern side of England will have destructive waves as they have had a long fetch across the Atlantic

Question 32

What direction does the backwash travel?

Answer 32

At 90 degrees to the sea front

Question 33

Where does the waves energy concentrate when the coast line isn’t straight?

Answer 33

Most energy hits/ is concentrated at the headlands as that is what they hit first

Question 34

What are the 2 types of beach? What wave type generally forms them

Answer 34

Pebble beach, destructive wave

Sandy beach, constructive wave

Question 35

What are the 3 types of sand movement? (Hint: it is similar to rivers but with one key difference)

Answer 35

Suspension, small grains
Saltation, medium grains which bounce
Creep, large rocks that are rolled along (NOT traction like in rivers)

Question 36

Name the key steps in a sand dune forming

Answer 36

At the back of a beach there is an obstacle (such as drift wood), the side of this facing the wind begins to form a crest, the heavier grains settle against the obstacle the lighter ones in the other side, this repeated movement of material up windward side and down leeward side causes dunes to migrate inland, over time these dunes get bigger until the slopes reach a gradient of 30-34 degrees and the sand becomes to steep and falls under its own weight.

Question 37

What gradient does sand stops slipping when a slope reaches it?

Answer 37

30 - 34 degrees because the sand can’t build up any higher because then it’s too steep and falls under its own weight

Question 38

Give an example of a named bay and a headland located in Bournemouth

Answer 38

Swanage Bay, Ballard point

Question 39

What does concordance mean?

Answer 39

Where bands of different rock type run parallel to the coast line so the rock is eroded at the same speed, unless there is a fault in this rock and the rock behind is softer than that is eroded quicker to wave a cove

Question 40

What does discordant mean?

Answer 40

Layers of rock run at right angles to the coast so the rock is eroded at different rates, if there is softer rock between harder rock then bays and headlands are formed

Question 41

Give some key example of a soft rock and hard rocks often found at coasts (in this example Swanage bay)

Answer 41

Clay and sands, soft

Chalk and limestone, hard

Question 42

How is a cove formed?

Answer 42

Along a concordant coastline where there is a fault in the rock which has been eroded revealing a layer of rock which is softer behind the harder rock. This is eroded quicker than the front rock creating a cove where the entrance/ neck is smaller then the width of the cove. This erosion of the inside of the cove continues until harder rock is met again then the erosion slows down to the same rate of the original coast erosion of hard rock

Question 43

Give an example of a cove

Answer 43

Lulworth cove