Coastal Landscapes Flashcards
What is abrasion/corrasion?
This is when rocks carried by the waves are thrown against cliffs breaking them up.
What is solution/corrosion?
This is when chemicals in seawater dissolve minerals in the rocks.
What is attrition?
When rocks and pebbles carried by the waves smash into each other, wearing each other away and gradually becoming smaller, rounder and smoother.
Explain how a wave-cut platform is formed.
The sea erodes a wave-cut notch. The cliff collapses into the sea. A wave-cut platform marks the remains of a cliff.
Formation of a wave-cut platform.
Cliffs form where there is harder, more resistant rock such as granite or chalk. The cliff is under-cut by the erosive power of the waves by the processes of hydraulic action, abrasion and corrosion. This forms a wave-cut notch. Eventually, the cliff becomes unsupported and collapses into the sea leaving behind a wave-cut platform.
What is hydraulic action?
The force of waves crashing against the shore and cliffs. The power of the waves forces air into cracks and compresses it. This compression breaks the rocks apart as the pressure is released.
The formation of caves, arches and stacks.
The waves erode along lines of weakness by hydraulic action, abrasion and corrosion. Over time, lines of weakness are enlarged to develop into small sea caves. Occasionally, waves will erode vertically inside a cave to form a blowhole. The caves are expanded on both sides of the headland until eventually, the sea cuts through, forming an arch. Eventually, the arch collapses to form a stack which is separated from the headland. The base of the stack gets eroded until it collapses into the sea, leaving a stump will disappear over time.
What is backwash?
The movement of beach material from land to the sea.
Constructive waves.
Waves that build up material on the coastline.
Destructive waves.
Waves that remove material from the coastline.
What is fetch?
The distance the wind blows over the sea.
What is longshore drift?
The process by which material is moved along a coastline.
What is swash?
Them movement of beach material from the sea to the land.
