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Physical Geography > Coasts > Flashcards

Coasts Flashcards

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1
Q

How is a wave formed

A

Friction occurs between air and water. Water particles move in a circular motion. Air pressure and friction creates waves.

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2
Q

What is a sediment cell?

A

A coastline that is self-contained. Closed system bounded by headlands. There is erosion, deposition and transport of sediment. Inputs from sea , land or river. Human activity can interrupt the distribution.

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3
Q

What is a discordant coastline?

A

Where the types of rock alternate along the coastline creating headlands and bays

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4
Q

What is a concordant coastline?

A

Where rocks lie parallel to the coastline

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5
Q

What is a swell?

A

Swell are waves that originate offshore

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6
Q

What is a neap tide?

A

When the moon and the sun are at 90 degrees with the earth. The lowest of low tides

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7
Q

What is a spring tide?

A

A tide just after the full moon, when there is the greatest difference between high and low tide.

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8
Q

What is long-shore drift?

A

Where waves come in at an angle to the shoreline and retreat perpendicularly

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9
Q

What is mass movement?

A

The downhill movement of weathered material due to gravity

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10
Q

What is a simple spit?

A

A straight spit that grows out roughly parallel to the coast

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11
Q

What is a compound spit?

A

A spit that has multiple recurved hooks , resulting from several periods of growth

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12
Q

What is a sand-bar?

A

An area of sand that sits above the water, connecting the shoreline

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13
Q

How is a sandbar formed?

A

A sandbar is formed when a spit grows the whole way across the bay

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14
Q

What is isostatic change?

A

When the land rises or falls relative to the sea at a local scale

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15
Q

What is eustatic change?

A

A global change in sea level change resulting from an actual fall or rise in the level of the sea itself

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16
Q

What is a submergent coastline?

A

Where the ocean has overtaken previously low lying areas

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17
Q

What are the landforms of submergent coastlines?

A

Rias, Fjords, Estuaries

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18
Q

How are Rias formed?

A

When rising sea levels flood the lower part of the river valleys.

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19
Q

How are fjords formed?

A

Created when glaciers retreat and sea levels rise, filling valleys with sea-water.

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20
Q

How are estuaries formed?

A

Created by rising sea levels flooding river mouths

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21
Q

What is an emergent coastline?

A

When a fall in sea level exposes land previously covered by the sea

22
Q

What are the different landforms of emergent coastlines?

A

Raised Beaches, Marine platforms, caves

23
Q

How are raised beaches formed?

A

They form when tectonic forces uplift coastal areas, lifting former shorelines above the reach of the sea

24
Q

How are marine platforms formed?

A

They form through the process of erosion, where waves continually pound against the base of coastal cliffs, gradually wearing away

25
Q

How is a wave cut platforms/wave cut notches formed?

A

When the sea attacks a weakness at the base of the cliff, causing an undercut

26
Q

What are the sequences in coastal erosion?

A

Discordant coastline/Concordant coastline=> Headland=> crack=> cave=> arch=> stack=> stump

27
Q

What are the types of erosion?

A

Hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition and solution

28
Q

What is hydraulic aciton?

A

When waves hit/pound the shore

29
Q

What is abrasion?

A

When pebbles grind along a rock platform, and sediment in waves are thrown against the cliff-face

30
Q

What is attrition?

A

Where rocks/materials are carried by water and collide breaking down into smaller pieces

31
Q

What is solution?

A

Where rocks are dissolved in water/chemically

32
Q

What are the types of weathering?

A

Physical, Chemical , Biological

33
Q

What is freeze-thaw weathering?

A

Water enters cracks in rocks, freezes , expands and causes the rock to break apart

34
Q

What is hydrolysis?

A

Water reacting with rocks causing it to dissolve

35
Q

What is a tombola?

A

a bar of sand or shingle joining an island to the mainland.

36
Q

What are the 4 types of mass movement?

A

Rock fall, landslide, mudslide and slumping.

37
Q

What causes mass movement?

A

Cliffs being made out of soft rock ( boulder clay) being highly susceptible to erosion and weathering . Also caused by sub-aerial processes such as precipitation

38
Q

What is a marine platform?

A

Rock base of eroded cliffs that extends as cliffs retreat

39
Q

What is isostatic re-adjustment?

A

When the land rises due to ice melting, which was weighing the land down before

40
Q

What is a relict cliff?

A

A relict cliff is an old cliff that used to be at the coastline but is now found inland due to changes in sea level or land uplift

41
Q

What is an example of a raised beach?

A

Isle of Arran

42
Q

How is precession affecting Eustatic change?

A

Due to sea level changing due to the earth’s rotation, influencing melting of ice and global sea temperatures.

43
Q

What are the different sub-aerial processes and how do they affect the coastline?

A

Biological, Chemical and Physical weathering and mass movement

Freeze thaw- weakens cliff faces
Solution- affects clay and mass movement

44
Q

How are spits made?

A

LSD moves sediment along the coast, depositing it until the mainland ends to form a spit, which can develop a recurved hook if secondary winds shift the angle of deposition

45
Q

What is Long-shore drift?

A

Longshore (littoral) drift is the movement of material along the shore by wave action. It happens when waves approach the beach at an angle

46
Q

Outline the development of a salt-marsh

A

Occurs in low lying energy environments/ behind rivers and estuaries. Mud is deposited by river and tide=> Colonised by vegetation=> building up mud / nutrients

47
Q

Explain how sand dunes are formed?

A

Sand dunes form when onshore winds transport sand above the high-water mark, where vegetation like marram grass traps and stabilizes the sand, allowing dunes to grow over time, develop richer soils, and support diverse plant species that further anchor and protect the dunes.

48
Q

What are negative feedback loops within coasts?

A

(Destructive waves)=> Sediment eroded/ deposited offshore, forming offshore bar, waves break before reaching beach, storm calms, conditions return to dynamic equilibrium

49
Q

What are positive feedback loops within in coasts?

A

Groynes/Erosion. Groynes interrupt the sediment supply => Increasing erosion rate.

Erosion can be self-enhancing due to weaking coastal material

50
Q

What factors affect a coastal landscape?

A

weathering, transportation, deposition, erosion.

51
Q

What is a shingle

A

a mass of small rounded pebbles, especially on a seashore.

Physical Geography (5 decks)

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