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Geography > Coastal Environments > Flashcards

Coastal Environments Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a coast?

A

The transition zone between land and sea

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2
Q

What are factors that affect coasts?

A

Wind,tsunamis, tide and humans

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3
Q

How is a wave created?

A

When wind is blown over the surface of the sea/ocean, creating friction

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4
Q

What are the three factors that affect wave size?

A

Speed of wind, duration the wind is bowing for, length of fetch

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5
Q

What is fetch?

A

The length of water the wind blows over

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6
Q

What is swash?

A

The transfer of the waves energy up a beach in the direction the wind blows

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7
Q

What is backwash?

A

The transfer of the wave’s energy down the beach at a right angle to the beach due to gravity

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8
Q

When are destructive waves formed?

A

In stormy conditions with high winds

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9
Q

Characteristics of destructive waves

A

High wave height, short wave length, backwash is stronger than swash, frequent (11-15 per min), steep beach gradient

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10
Q

When are constructive waves found?

A

In calm conditions

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11
Q

Characteristics of constructive waves?

A

Long wave length, low wave height, swash stronger than backwash, 6-9 per min frequency, gentle beach gradient

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12
Q

What is a marine process?

A

A process that occurs in the sea

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13
Q

What are the three marine processes?

A

Erosion, transportation, deposition

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14
Q

What happens with deconstructive waves?

A

Erosion

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15
Q

What happens with constructive waves?

A

Deposition

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16
Q

What is erosion

A

The wearing away of rocks, stones and soil by rivers, waves, wind and glaciers

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17
Q

What are the factors that affect erosion?

A

Geology (hard/soft rock), vegetation (plants can help bind a cliff together), human activity, climate change (rising sea levels=more storms=more erosion)

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18
Q

What is hydraulic action?

A

When waves break at the bottom of cliffs and squash air into the cracks in the rock. This causes a blast as the wave moves back and air pressure is suddenly released. Chunks of rock crash off the cliff.

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19
Q

Which type of wave will have more hydraulic action?

A

Deconstructive

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20
Q

When there a higher tides what happens to the hydraulic action?

A

Higher hydraulic action

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21
Q

What is attrition?

A

When pebbles moving around in the sea collide into each other. Over time this impact wears away the jagged edges to make smooth rounded pebbles.

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22
Q

What does attrition create?

A

Sand

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23
Q

What is abrasion?

A

When destructive waves throw sand and shingle at a cliff. This scrapes and scratches the rock surface

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24
Q

What is solution/corrosion?

A

When sea water dissolves certain types of rocks.

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25
Q

Which style of cliffs are prone to solution/corrosion?

A

Akali rocks such as Chalk and limestone

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26
Q

Why does solution/attrition occur?

A

Because seawater is slightly acidic

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27
Q

What is transportation?

A

Sediment being moved in powerful water

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28
Q

What are the 4 types of erosion?

A

Hydraulic action, attrition, abrasion, solution/corrosion?

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29
Q

What are the 4 types of transportation?

A

Traction, saltation, suspension, solution

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30
Q

What is traction?

A

When larger stones and rocks get rolled along

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31
Q

What is saltation?

A

When sand grains and small stones bounce along

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32
Q

What is solution?

A

When material eroded by acidic sea water can be moved a solute. OR material dissolved by rainwater

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33
Q

What is suspension?

A

When small particles of rock and soil are carried along as a suspension

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34
Q

What is deposition?

A

When waves drop and leave behind the ‘load’ they were transporting when the water loses energy

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35
Q

What is the name for the load that is deposited during transportation?

A

Sediment

36
Q

What does deposition result in?

A

More sediment staying on the beach than is taken away from the backwash

37
Q

When does deposition occur?

A

When waves lose their energy (constructive waves)

38
Q

What are sub aerial processes?

A

Processes which operate on land to weaken the coast and prepare for erosion

39
Q

What are the 2 sub-aerial processes?

A

Weathering and mass movement

40
Q

What is weathering?

A

The breakdown of rock in its location. (In situ)

41
Q

What causes weathering?

A

The action of the weather, plants or animals

42
Q

What is mass movement?

A

The downward movement or sliding of material under the influence of gravity

43
Q

What are the 3 types of weathering?

A

Chemical weathering, biological weathering, physical/mechanical weathering (freeze-thaw weathering)

44
Q

What is chemical weathering?

A

The breakdown of rock caused by a chemical change?

45
Q

What happens during chemical weathering?

A

Rainwater absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and this makes the rainwater become slightly acidic. It chemically reacts with calcium in the rocks, causing them to dissolve (eg. Chalk, limestone)

46
Q

What is biological weathering?

A

Operation of plants, animals and birds on the surface of rocks

47
Q

What are examples of biological weathering?

A

Plant roots growing in weaknesses, animals following the same path all the time, burrowing into cliff faces

48
Q

What is physical/mechanical weathering?

A

When rocks are broken up by heat/cold and ice

49
Q

What is freeze-thaw weathering?

A

When rocks are porous (contain holes) or permeable (allow water to pass through)

50
Q

What are the 4 types of mass movement?

A

Rockfall, landslide, mudflow, rotational slip/slump

51
Q

What is rockfall?

A

When fragments of rock break away from the cliff face, often due to freeze-thaw weathering

52
Q

What is landslide?

A

When blocks of rock slide downhill

53
Q

What is mudflow?

A

When saturated soil and weak rocks flow down a slope

54
Q

What is rotational slip/slump?

A

Slump of saturated soil and weak rock along a curved surface

55
Q

What is the difference between sliding and slumping?

A

Sliding involves rock and debris moving downslope along a flat surface, whereas slumping usually occurs along a curved surface and as a single large unit

56
Q

What are concordant coastlines?

A

When the rocks are parallel to the coastline

57
Q

What are discordant coastlines?

A

When rocks outcrop at 90 degrees to the coastline

58
Q

What is a wave cut platform?

A

A wide gently-sloping surface found at the foot of a cliff

59
Q

How are wave cut platforms formed?

A

The sea attacks the base of a cliff between the high and low water mark. A wave cut notch forms by erosion all processes such as abrasion and hydraulic action. As the notch increases in size, the cliff becomes unstable and collapses. The backwash carries away the eroded material, leaving a wave cut platform

60
Q

What is a wave cut notch?

A

A dent in a cliff, usually at the level of high tide

61
Q

What does the wave cut platform process lead to?

A

Cliff retreat

62
Q

What type of coastline are wave cut platforms found in?

A

Concordant hard rock coastlines

63
Q

What type of coastline are headlands and bays found in?

A

Discordant coastlines

64
Q

What is a headland?

A

An area of land which juts out into the sea

65
Q

What is a bay?

A

An inlet of land surrounded by headlands

66
Q

How are headlands and bays formed?

A

Waves erode softer rock more quickly than harder rock. Where there are alternating bands of different rock along the coastline there will be different rates of erosion eg. Hydraulic action. Overtime this results in gently-sloping bays and steep-sided headlands that jut out into the sea

67
Q

What do headlands provide?

A

Shelter for bays

68
Q

Where is the wave energy concentrated, headlands or bays?

A

Headlands through the process of wave refraction

69
Q

What is wave refraction?

A

When waves in the bays have less energy so deposition occurs and wave energy is concentrated on the headlands

70
Q

What does wave refraction form?

A

Beaches

71
Q

Where are caves, arches, stacks and stumps found?

A

Headlands/discordant coastlines

72
Q

How are caves, arches, stacks and stumps formed?

A

Wave refraction concentrates erosion on the sides of headlands. Weaknesses such as joints or cracks in the rocks are exploited, forming caves. Caves are enlarged and eroded further back into the headland until eventually the caves from each side meet and an arch is formed. Continued erosion, weathering and mass movements enlarge the arch and. Cause the roof of an arch to collapse, forming a Hugh standing stack

73
Q

Where are coves found?

A

At concordant coastlines

74
Q

What is a spit?

A

A beach of sand or shingled linked to land at one end of the

75
Q

What is a bar/barrier?

A

A beach that extends across a bay (bay bar) OR is deposited in water offshore parallel to the coast (offshore bar). They block off bays and river mouths

76
Q

What is a tombolo?

A

A beach linking an an island to the mainland

77
Q

What is a beach?

A

A deposit of sand and shingle in an area where there is a large supply of material, constructive waves and/or onshore winds that carry sediments inwards during low tides

78
Q

How are spits shaped and why?

A

They are usually curved due to wave refraction

79
Q

What is the wave energy like near spits?

A

Wave energy is reduced

80
Q

What are isostatic changes?

A

The change of the land, relative to the sea- tends to be tectonic or ice rebounding

81
Q

What are ecstatic changes?

A

Changes of the sea level, relative to the land- tends to be climate related

82
Q

What happens if the sea level rises?

A

Submergent coastlines, creates ‘drowned’ features (when the existing coast and whatever’s near it goes underwater), changed the shape and extent of the coast

83
Q

What happens if the sea level falls?

A

Emergent coastlines, raised beaches and fossil cliffs form, coastal features are now high above sea level

84
Q

If the flooded areas are former glacial valleys what are they called?

A

Fjords

85
Q

If flooded areas are former river valleys what are they called?

A

Rias

86
Q

What is longshore drift?

A

The movement of sediments along a coast by waves that approach at an angle to the shore but then the swash recedes directly away from it

87
Q

How are spits formed?

A

Longshore drift occurs in the direction of the prevailing wind. This moves material along the beach. At a headland the coastline changes direction sharply. In the water sheltered by the headland material is deposited. This material builds upwards and outwards forming a spit. Behind a spit a salt marsh or mud flat is created

Geography (3 decks)

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