Coasts Key Vocabulary Flashcards
Mass movement
When material falls down a slope.
Landslide
Sudden movement of layers of hard rock sliding down.
Slides
Material slips in a straight line along a slide plane.
Hydraulic action 🔴
Waves crash against rock and compresses the air in the cracks.
Abrasion 🔴
Eroded particles in the water scrape and rub against rock, removing small pieces.
Attrition🔴
Eroded particles in the water collide, and break into smaller pieces and become rounder.
Swash
When a wave washes up onto the shoreline.
Backwash
When the water from a wave retreats back into the sea.
Headland
A coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water.
Bay
A recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or another bay.
Cave
A natural opening in the ground extending beyond the zone of light and large enough to permit the entry of man.
Arch
A natural landform where an arch has formed with an opening underneath.
Stack
A geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a cost, formed by wave erosion.
Stump
The eroded remains of a sea stack, often looking like a lump of rock sticking up from its surroundings.
Wave cut notch🔴
An area of erosion at the base of a cliff formed by the waves.
Wave cut platform 🔴
Formed when the waves erode the cliff, but left a platform behind.
Corrosion
A process of chemical erosion. (Acid rain)
Constructive waves
Low energy and have stronger swashes than backwashes. (Deposits material)
Destructive waves
High energy and have stronger backwashes than swashes. (Pulls material away)
Fetch 🔴
How far the wave has travelled. (generated by wind)
Groyne
Wooden barrier built at a right angle to the beach that prevents longshore drift.
Rock armor
Large boulders used to reduce wave energy reaching the shoreline.
Hard engineering
A coastal management technique that are use to protect the coasts by absorbing the energy of the waves preventing erosion or flooding. (Groyne, sea wall, etc)
Soft engineering
A coastal management technique used to protect coasts by using the natural environment to absorb the energy of waves t prevent flooding and erosion. (dredging, beach nourishment, etc)
