Coastal Landscapes And Landforms Of Erosion Flashcards
Factors affecting coastal erosion
Rock type
Wave energy
Weathering and mass movement
Seasons
Spring or neap tides
What is the difference between between landscapes and landforms
Landscapes are the bigger entirety of the sea, coast and countryside
Landforms are individual components of the landscape - cliffs, beach, wave cut platforms
Concordant coastline
Alternate layers of hard and soft lay parallel to the coastline. The sea takes a long time to erode through harder rock, finding weak points such as faults and joints in bedding planes to attack, eventually getting to the softer rock that erodes more easily
Hard
Soft
Hard
Discordant coastline
Form when rock beds lie at right angles to the coastal direction. The differential erosion of the hard and soft rock by the sea creates a distinctive coastline. The soft rock erodes rapidly and forms bays but the hard rock is more resistant to erosion and forms headlands
Formation of cave, arch, stack and stump
1 - small crack in rock
2 - hydraulic action and abrasion widen the crack to form a cave
3 - as pressure continues cave gets even bigger ans forms an arch where the cave has eroded all the way through to the other side
4 - over time the arch is widened and the roof can no longer support it so it collapses and leaves a stack
5 - as erosion continues it can completely undermine the base of the stack until it collapses to form a stump
Formation of wave cut notch and wave cut platform
1 - waves attack base of cliff through hydraulic action abrasion and solution
2 - this leads to erosion of the base of the cliff, creating a wave cut notch
3 - as this deepens, the cliff above becomes unsupported and eventually collapses
4 - this whole process repeats over time and the cliff face gradually retreats, leading a flat surface at the base where eroded material has not washed away - wave cut platform
