Coasts Flashcards
Littoral zone
- Ocean, beach and area of land behind it
- Offshore, nearshore, foreshore, backshore
- Area of shoreline where land is subject to wave action
Primary and secondary coasts (coastal types)
- Dominated by land processes e.g. deposition from rivers
- Dominated by marin erosion/deposition
Rocky coasts and coastal plains (coastal types)
- Cliffs, creates erosional coasts + varying geodiversity
- Gradually sloping land, deposited sediment
Constructive and destructive waves
- Low height, long wavelength, strong swash (uninterrupted + starts at nearshore) = sediment berm
- High height, short wavelength, strong backwash
Different wave types in the short term (daily)
Plunging waves become swell waves
Wave types in the long term
- Seasonally: constructive common in the summer, destructive in winter
- Annually: reduced river sediment (dams), coastal management, climate change as storms means winter beach profile
Formation of headlands and bays
- Heavy rainfall creates rivers, causing v shaped valleys in bays, as it erodes at the soft rock
- Headlands erode as waves are concentrated on it (refraction). Headlands’ sediment then fills the bays, flattening out the coastline - headlands eroded, bays filled in
- Rising sea level meets back of the bay, eroding it, so coastline is still elongated
- All of this happens at the same time, but sea level rise disrupts/overrides the balance, so more erosion than deposition
Discordant coasts
- All rock types face the coast (perpendicular to ocean)
- Alternating rock type between hard and soft rock
What are concordant coasts
- Strata run parallel to coastline so waves interact with one rock type
- Geology might fold into anticlines and synclines
Dalmatian coast
- Tectonics compress layers into anticlines and synclines (plates are made up of multiple types of rocks, so don’t move in the same way, causing deformation)
- Sub-aerial weathering on anticlines as cracks are made when it’s folded
- Rivers/glaciers erode synclines
- Sea water floods synclines, causing parallel anticline ridges (islands) on the coast
Haff coasts
- Long sediment ridges topped by sand dunes
- Runs parallel to coast offshore
- Results in series of lagoons (haffs) between ridges and shore
Types of sea level change
- Isostatic: local and usually due to rebound from ice/glaciers melting
- Eustatic: global, SL affected by tectonics as subduction thrusts the seabed
Emergent coastlines
Away from marine processes and now terrestrial instead
Raised beaches
- Above high tide
- Reflects stages of uplift due to tectonics
- Smaller particles removed, pebbles/boulders remain
Fossil cliffs
- Nearly vertical cliffs, but inland
- Can find old sea caves and wave cut platforms
What are the LT eustatic sea level changes?
- Tectonics, where crust faulting/folding causes seabed displacement
- Post glacial, SL rose approximately 100m since last glacial maximum
- Sea level now slowly rising (CC and thermal expansion)
Submergent coastlines
- Fjords: submerged U shaped valley that’s overdeepened inland, rock lip at seaward entrance
- Ria: drowned valley due to river erosion
- Dalmatian: tectonically formed, submerged valleys
Ice formation/melting causing SL change (eustatic)
- During glacial periods
- Ice sheets form on high latitude land with evaporated water locked up as ice, so less water in the sea
Thermal changes cause SL change (eustatic)
- Global temps cause thermal expansion
- Water particles move faster/take up more space, increasing volume of ocean water
Post glacial adjustment causes isostatic SL change
- Rebound after ice sheet melts, land surface lifts out of the sea, SL appears to fall
How does subsidence cause isostatic SL change?
Land compressed (by weight of sediment, buildings, glaciers) and SL appears to rise
How does accretion cause isostatic SL change?
- Ice melts leading to sediment being deposited in large river deltas
- Causes increased weight (crustal sag) and delta subsidence
- SL appears to rise
Resistant geology
- Ancient rock more resistant due to millions of years of being compressed and compacted
- Permeability = water exploiting joints, creating more pressure, reducing stability
Bedrock lithology
- Different rocks side by side causes a variety of landforms
- Igneous: cooled magma
- Metamorphic: previous rock subjected to heat + pressure
- Sedimentary: compacted sediment + minerals cemented together (permeable)
How does unconsolidated material affect rates of recession
- Much easier to erode
- Lack of strength and easily exploited by water
Types of geological structures
- Layers become twisted/distorted
- Jointing: rock fractures
- Dipping: seaward or landward tilt exposing all or only the newest layers due to tectonics or SL rise, affects types of landforms we get
- Faulting: a fracture that causes relative rock displacement
- Folding: anticlines and synclines
Influence of structure on erosion rates
- Seaward dipping makes coast vulnerable to ocean erosion and landslides
- Fissures can be exploited, leaving microfeatures (more squeezing = more joints and fissures)
History of coast formation
- The first layer / oldest sediments were deposited at the bottom of the ocean (Sandstones / mudstones / limestone)
- The second layer include coal, from when this coast was around the Equator (continental drift)
- Sea level rose to cover this – lots of microorganism settled on the ocean floor to build layers of chalk
- Sea level fell – leaving rivers to erode away the chalk
- Basaltic lava spread on top, particularly into the river valleys
- Basalt was weathered / rock breakdown – leaving laterite soil behind, and eventually (sedimentary) laterite rock.
- A second layer of basaltic lava flows over the top, cools into hexagonal columns)
- That basalt layer gets weathered / breaks down – more laterite soil and more laterite rock
- A third layer of basaltic lava flows over the top
- Ice age: glaciers eroded away the very surface of that basalt
- Tectonics distorts the layers into anticlines and synclines
- The glacier eroded material (till) is deposited in the synclines
Alternating strata
One layer’s permeability/resistance affects other layers
What are permeability and resistance?
- Permeability depends on how jointed it is
- Resistance is how compact/compressed it is (depends on age)
Complex cliff profiles
Sloping, columns, overhanging + mass movement (which influences recession)
Which erosional processes create distinctive coastal landforms?
Mainly hydraulic action and abrasion, it exploits weak points
Wave cut notches
Rock at sea level of a cliff is eroded into a curved notch
Wave cut platforms
- Result from notches as unsupported cliff collapses and retreats
- Erosion and weathering can create rock pools or ridges
Cave, arch, stack, stump sequence
- Initially was a headland but was eroded
- Stump indicates where original coastline was
How does differential erosion influence recession rate
- Basalt undercut by marine erosion causing wave cut notch and platform
- Rate of erosion and debris varies over time
- Debris/material absorb wave energy on the platform, then break down and used for attrition until it disappears
- Basalt marine erosion means recession until waves can’t reach cliff base = equilibrium until SL rise
Differential weathering affecting rate of recession
- Sub-aerial weathering at backshore of bays, lower marine energy from refraction so cliff degradation from above
- Water from rain permeates laterite, not basalt, becomes saturated and heavier, stress>strength
3 types of mechanical weathering
- Crystallisation: saltwater evaporates, salt crystals form in joints, exert pressure, rock forced apart
- Freeze thaw: water freezes in joints and expands by 9%
- Shattering: daily temperature change means rocks expand and contract
Chemical weathering
- Seaweed acid: cells break, sulphuric acid dissolves rock as its minerals aren’t bonded
- Oxidation of iron minerals
- Carbonation of limestone
- Hydrolysis forms new clay minerals
Biological weathering
Boring molluscs - live on rocks, bore holes to get food which are now weak points for weathering to act
Hydraulic action
Force of waves compresses air in cracks and opens them to allow more air in, wave retreats and pressure is released so rock shatters
Attrition
Rocks hitting each other and break into smaller, rounder rocks = more surface area for abrasion
Abrasion
Force of bits of rock carried by destructive waves thrown against cliffs