Coastal Processes Flashcards
Abrasion
The process of scraping or wearing something away.
Attrition
The process of reducing something’s strength or effectiveness through sustained attack or pressure.
Backwash
The motion of receding waves.
Corrosion
Chemical erosion.
Fetch
The distance traveled by wind or waves across open water.
Eustatic Change
The sea level changes due to an alteration in the volume of water in the oceans. Eustatic change is always a global effect.
Hydraulic Action
erosion that occurs when the motion of water against a rock surface produces mechanical weathering. It is the ability of moving water to dislodge and transport rock particles.
Isostatic Change
It occurs when a great weight is removed from the land, e.g., the melting of an ice cap.
Longshore Drift
The movement of material along a coast by waves which approach at an angle to the shore but recede directly away from it.
Salt Crystallistaion
This is when salt crystals are deposited in cracks and over time the salt accumulates and applies pressure to the crack.
Saltation
Small pebbles and stones are bounced along the river bed and along the sea floor.
Traction
Large boulders and rocks are rolled along the river bed and along the sea floor.
Swash
The rush of seawater up the beach after the breaking of a wave. This is a forward movement.
Suspension
Fine light material is carried along in the water.
Destructive Waves
Created in storm conditions. Created from big, strong waves when the wind is powerful and has been blowing for a long time. They occur when wave energy is high and the wave has traveled over a long fetch. They tend to erode the coast. They have a stronger backwash than swash.
Constructive Waves
Constructive waves are low energy waves that deposit materials on a coast. Swash is powerful than backwash, the more materials are carried up and deposited on the coast than are removed. Over time, the coast is built up.
Saltation
Small particles are carried in water, eg silts and clays, which can make the water look cloudy. Currents pick up large amounts of sediment in suspension during a storm, when strong winds generate high energy waves - Saltation means that the load is bounced along the sea bed.
Alluvium
A deposit of clay, silt, and sand left by flowing floodwater in a river valley or delta, typically producing fertile soil.
Plant Succession
The orderly process of one plant community gradually or rapidly. replacing another. This happens over time.
Beach Morphology
The study of the interaction and adjustment of the seafloor appearance and hydrodynamic processes and sequences of change dynamics involving the motion of sediment.
