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Geography > Coastal Processes > Flashcards

Coastal Processes Flashcards

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1
Q

What is fetch?

A

-the amount of open water over which a wave has passed

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2
Q

What does the energy of the wave depend on?

A
  • strengths of the wind
  • length of time
  • fetch
  • depth of the seabed
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3
Q

What is backwash?

A

-movement of water down the beach

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4
Q

What is swash?

A

-movement of water up the beach

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5
Q

What are the prevailing winds?

A

-the wind which blows most often

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6
Q

What are constructive waves and their properties?

A
  • build up beaches
  • each wave is low
  • as the wave breaks it carries material up the beach in its swash
  • beach material is deposited as the backwash soaks into the sand or slowly drains away
  • gentle waves
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7
Q

What are destructive waves and their properties?

A
  • destroy beaches
  • waves are usually high and very frequent
  • backwash has less time to soak into the sand
  • as waves continue to hit the beach there is more running water to transport the material out to sea.
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8
Q

What is attrition?

A

-material carried by waves collide with one another and so are smoothed and broken down into smaller particles

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9
Q

What is hydraulic action?

A

-process involves the force of water against the coast
1-waves enter cracks in the coastline and compress the air within the crack
2-when the wave retreats the air in the crack expands quickly causing a minor explosion
3-process is repeated continuously

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10
Q

What is abrasion?

A
  • process by which the coast is worn down by material carried by the waves
  • waves throw these particles against the rock, sometimes at high velocities
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11
Q

What is solution?

A
  • chemical action of sea water

- acids in the salt water slowly dissolve rocks on the coast

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12
Q

How are cliffs created?

A
  • erosion: hydraulic action, abrasion, solution, attrition
  • currents generated by waves and tides
  • weathering
  • human activity: can increase runoff and erosion, sea defences
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13
Q

Where does weathering affect ?

A

-weathering affects the top of the cliff

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14
Q

What does erosion affect?

A

-erosion affects the bottom of the clim

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15
Q

What are some hard coastline features?

A
  • bays and headlands

- wave-cut notches, platforms and cliffs

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16
Q

How are bays and headlands formed?

A
  • formed when soft and hard rock are together
  • soft rock, such as clay, erodes easier than harder rocks, such as limestone
  • the hard rock will erode slower than the soft rock and the two areas of hard rock surround an area of soft rock, a bay and headland will be formed
17
Q

How are wavecut cliffs, platforms and notches created?

A

1-weather weakens the top of the cliff
2-sea attacks the base of the cliff forming a wave cut-notch, and above a wave-cut cliff
3-notch increases in size and causes the cliff to collapse
4-the backwash carries the rubble towards the sea forming a wave-cut platform
5-process repeats and the cliff continues to repeat

18
Q

How are stumps created?

A

1-hydraulic action causes faults in hard rock to become caves
2-the waves attack both sides of the headland, causing the back walls of two caves to erode and the caves to meet up, forming an arch
3-weathering and erosion continue to attack the arch and the top becomes weak and collapses, forming a stack (or pinnacle if it is very narrow)
4-over time the stack becomes smaller and smaller and will form a stump

19
Q

How does slumping occur?

A

1-dry weather causes cracks to appear
2-rainfall causes cliffs to soak up the rain and the cliff becomes saturated and heavier and unstable
3-due to gravity and the lubrication provided by the rainfall, the rocks become increasingly unstable and slump under their own weight down the slipping planes

20
Q

What is longshore drift?

A
  • prevailing winds cause the waves to swash at 45 degrees the coast and backwash at 90 degrees.
  • as the waves hit the coast, sediment is transported up and down the beach, depositing sediment on the beach before transporting it elsewhere
21
Q

What is a drift aligned beach?

A

-formed when waves approach at an angle to the coastline.
The swash moves sediment up the beach at the same angle, while the backwash move the beach under the force of gravity
-sediment is moved along the beach by a process called long shore drift
-creates an beach with an uneven profile
-can be slowed down with groynes

22
Q

What is a swash aligned beach?

A
  • formed when waves approach parallel to the coastline, and swash and backwash move sediment up and down the beach.
  • creates a wide beach with an even profile along the shore line
23
Q

How are spits formed?

A

1-are formed where large amounts of sediment are transported and where the coastline suddenly changes direction to leave a shallow area of water
2-deposition occurs in shallow water by the headland and the spit slowly builds up and extends length

24
Q

What are some uses for spits?

A
  • provides different/rare/specific habitats (salt marshes)

- attracts wild life (making e.g. bird watching possible)

25
Q

What is a recurved end?

A
  • a different angle to the spit, it is curved inland
  • formed when the wind changes direction, causing the waves to alter direction, resulting in material at the end of the spit being forced inland
26
Q

What are mudflats?

A
  • found behind the spit
  • has little or no vegetation
  • made up of the silt deposited by the river in the areas protected by the current (are not eroded because of the spits protection)
  • usually not habitatable
27
Q

What are salt marshes?

A
  • usually covers a larger area than mudflats
  • formed when the river enters the sea behind the spit
  • made from deposited silt, as the area is protected by the current and is not covered at low tide it allows plants to grow
  • usually habitable
28
Q

What determines the angle of the the swash?

A

-the angle of the prevailing wind in long shore drift

29
Q

What are the types of erosion?

A
  • hydraulic action
  • attrition
  • abrasion/corrasion
  • solution/corrosion
30
Q

What types of rock are particularly affected by solution?

A

-limestone and chalk are particularly prone to this process

31
Q

What do weathering and erosion do?

A

-help to reshape the coastline by breaking away material where it can be transported and deposited elsewhere

32
Q

What is a slipping plane

A

-lines of weakness often where previous landslides have occurred

33
Q

What can form on swash aligned beaches during storms?

A

-during storm conditions ridges of sediment (berms) can form along the beach

34
Q

Where are spits found?

A
  • where coastlines change directions or there is a river mouth
  • where there is a good supply of sand and shingle
  • waves approach the beach at an angle
  • sea is fairly shallow
  • sea is fairly calm with constructive waves
35
Q

What are bars?

A
  • when a spit foes across the bay (opening) and joins coast lands.
  • e.g. Slapton Ley Devon
36
Q

What are tombolo?

A
  • a spit or bar that links the mainland to an island

- e.g. Chesil beach

37
Q

What are spits?

A

-a long, narrow beach of sand and shingle due to wave action

38
Q

Why can’t spits form on estuaries?

A

-the river current carries the material out to sea

39
Q

What is silt?

A
  • sediment carried by the river

- sand rocks/mud

Geography (5 decks)

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