Coastal Landscapes Flashcards
Halosere
An example of a halosere is a salt marsh. In a river estuary, large amounts of silt are deposited by the ebbing tides and inflowing rivers.
Barrier Beaches
A sand or shingle bar above high tide, parallel to the coastline and separated from it by a lagoon.
Climate Change
A change in global or regional climate patterns. This is largely caused by the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
Concordant Coast
Occurs where beds, or layers, of differing rock types are folded into ridges that run parallel to the coast. The outer hard rock (for example, granite) provides a protective barrier to erosion of the softer rocks (for example, clays) further inland.
Dalmatian Coast
The best example of a Dalmatian coastline is the one from which they get their name, the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. When the valleys are flooded by the rise in sea level, the tops of the valleys remain above the surface of the sea and appear to be a series of islands that run parallel to the coastline.
Discordant Coast
Occurs where bands of different rock type run perpendicular to the coast. The differing resistance to erosion leads to the formation of headlands and bays. An example would be the North of Swanage in Norfolk.
Emergent Coastline
The opposite of submergent coastlines, which have experienced a relative rise in sea levels. The emergent coastline may have several specific landforms: Raised beach.
Environmental Refugees
An environmental refugee is a person displaced owing to environmental causes, notably land loss and degradation, and natural disaster.
Littoral Zone
The littoral zone is the near shore area where sunlight penetrates all the way to the sediment and allows aquatic plants to grow. Light levels of about 1% or less of surface values usually define this depth.
Low-energy Environment.
An aqueous sedimentary environment in which there is standing water with a general lack of wave or current action, permitting accumulation of very fine-grained sediments.
Milankovitich Cycles
A Milankovitch cycle is a cyclical movement related to the Earth’s orbit around the Sun.
Submergent Coastline
Submergent coastlines are stretches along the coast that have been inundated by the sea by a relative rise in sea levels from either isostacy or eustacy.
