Coastal Vocab

Question 1

Littoral zone

Answer 1

The near shore area where where sunlight penetrates all the way to sediment and allows plants to grow

Question 2

Emergent coasts

Answer 2

Stretches along the coast that have been exposed to the sea

Question 3

Tidal range

Answer 3

The vertical difference between the high tide and succeeding low tide

Question 4

Marine erosion

Answer 4

The wearing away of the lan d surface by the removal of material by river and sea water, ice and water. The four main processes are hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition and solution. Action of the waves

Question 5

Wave cut notch

Answer 5

Formed when sea waves begin to undercut the base of a cliff and form a notch which then grows.

Question 6

Undercutting

Answer 6

The bottom of the cliff is eroded by the waves leaving a cliff overhang, which can eventually collapse

Question 7

Wave cut platform

Answer 7

A narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff (or shoreline of a lake, bay or sea also) that was created by the erosion by waves

Question 8

Weathering

Answer 8

The breaking down or dissolving of rock and minerals on the earth’s surface. Water, ice, acids, salt, plants, animals, and temperature changes are all agents of weathering.

Question 9

Clastic

Answer 9

Composed of fragments or pre existing minerals and rock

Question 10

Crystalline

Answer 10

Any rock composed entirely of crystalline minerals without ‘glassy’ matter

Question 11

Cliff retreat

Answer 11

I wave erosion at the base causing a wave cut notch resulting in an overhang collapse. Process is repeated and cliff moves backwards

Question 12

Coastal plain

Answer 12

Flat, low lying land adjacent to a coast

Question 13

Rock strata

Answer 13

A layer in sedimentary rock or soil

Question 14

Concordant coastline

Answer 14

Layers of differing rock types are folded into ridges that run parallel to coast

Question 15

Discordant coastline

Answer 15

Bands of differing rock type run perpendicular to the coast, causing bays and headlands.

Question 16

Headland and bays

Answer 16

Formed when the sea attacks a discordant coastline, and softer rock erodes faster that sections of hard rock, which creates eroded bays and jutting out headlands

Question 17

Igneous

Answer 17

Formed by the cooling and solidification of magma or lava.

Question 18

Metamorphic

Answer 18

Rock which has been changed by extreme heat heat and pressure, causing a chemical change.

Question 19

Sedimentary

Answer 19

Formed through deposition and solidification of sediment, building up in layers, and often contain sea creatures.

Question 20

Foliation

Answer 20

Repetitive layering in metamorphic rocks

Question 21

Unconsolidated

Answer 21

Loose materials

Question 22

Lithification

Answer 22

Where sediments compact under pressure and become solid rock

Question 23

Permeable

Answer 23

Water can travel through the rock

Question 24

Impermeable

Answer 24

Water can’t travel through the rock

Question 25

Sere/Serial stage

Answer 25

Process of succession

Question 26

Psammosere

Answer 26

A sere on newly exposed coastal sand

Question 27

Halosere

Answer 27

Plant succession in a saline environment

Question 28

Xerophyte

Answer 28

Plant that doesn’t need much water to grow

Question 29

Halophyte

Answer 29

A plant that can grown in waters with high salinity

Question 30

Algal stage

Answer 30

Algae and halophytes like gutted grow on and in the bare mud, binding it together

Question 31

Pioneer stage

Answer 31

Glasswort, a plant, that is less of a halophyte, starts to grow, stabilising the soil and allowing further mud accretion

Question 32

Establishment stage

Answer 32

Taller plant begin to colonise, building up the salt marsh towards the shore

Question 33

Stabilisation

Answer 33

The salt marsh builds up to the extent that parts are rarely submerged and more less halophilic plant colonise

Question 34

Climax vegetation

Answer 34

The vegetation may now only be submerged only once a year

Question 35

Embryo dunes

Answer 35

Dry beach features formed by the wind deposited sand

Question 36

Foredunes

Answer 36

A dune ridge that runs parallel to the shore of the ocean. They are classed as established.

Question 37

Grey dunes

Answer 37

Fixed stable dunes that are covered by a continuous layer of vegetation. 50-100m from ocean

Question 38

Dune slack

Answer 38

Linear depressions close to sea level in coastal dune systems between the ridges of dune ecosystems. At the floors of these sheltered depressions, there are often other ecosystems