Coastal System Flashcards
What is the coast?
a narrow zone where the land and the sea overlap. Its a dynamic environment. It experiences processes from many things
What changes happen over different time scales in the coasts
Hours: tide
Months: Erosion
Years: Land Forms
Mileliea: Sea Level Change
What are the key flows/transfers
Erosion
Mass movement
Weathering
Transportation [LSD]
Deposition
What are the sources of sediment
Weathering/Mass movement
Cliff Erosion
Rivers/Esterines
Longshore or offshore stores
What are the Sediment sinks/stores
Beaches
Spits/Bars/Tombolos
Offshore bars/ Sand bars
What are stores in the coastal system?
Deposition land forms - spits, beaches, bars etc
Erosional Land forms
What are the outputs of the coastal system?
Accumulation of sediment above the tidal limit
Currents
Waves
What are the inputs of the coastal system?
Wind/Tidal/Wave energy
Sediment
Geology
Sea level change
LSD
Currents
What is a sediment cell?
The stretch of coastline within which the processes of erosion. transportation and deposition operate and the movement of sediment is largely self-contained. They are often bordered by two prominent headlands so sediment movement is contained and in dynamic equilibrium. Considired closed system
What is a negative feedback loop
When a system, returns to equlibrium following a change in the system
How many sediment cells are in the UK
11
What is a positive feedback loop
A positive feedback is one that is magnifies a process or increases its outputs, brings further change in the same direction
Where does energy come from
Surface currents - controlled by wind in both horizontal and verticle water movement
Cascading systems - system where we are primarily focused on the flow of energy and/or matter from one element to another
Deep ocean currents - dense cold + salty - The global conveyor belt
What are horizontal surface currents
Short term
Local
rip currents
What is long-shore drift
the movement of material caused by the approach of swash at an angle to the shore and the subsequent perpendicular backwash down the beach - moves the material down drift
