'Coasts' Key Words Flashcards
Abrasion
Rocks are picked up by the waves and are flung against the cliffs wearing them down.
Arch
A wave-eroded passes through a small headland. This begins as a case which is gradually widened and deepened until it cuts through.
Attrition
Rocks being carried by the coast smash together and break into smaller, smoother and rounder particles.
Backwash
Water that gloes back towards the sea after swash has moved upshore.
Bar
Where a spit grown across a bay, a bar can eventually enclose the bay to create a lagoon.
Bay
A wide coastal inlet, often with a beach, where areas of less resistant rock have been eroded by the sea.
Beach
A zone of deposited material that extends from the low water line to the limit of storm waves.
Beach nourishment
Adding new material to a beach artificially, through the dumping of large amounts of sand or shingle.
Cave
A large hole in a cliff caused by waves forcing their way into cracks in the cliff face.
Chemical weathering
The deposition (or rotting) of rock caused by a chemical change within that rock.
Cliff
A steep high rock face formed by weathering and erosion.
Coastal management
Strategies used to defend coastal environments, divided into three different approaches: hard engineering, soft engineering and managed retreat.
Constructive waves
A powerful wave with a strong swash that surges up a beach.
Deposition
Occurs when material being transported by the sea is dripped due to the sea losing energy.
Destructive waves
A wave formed by a local storm that crashes down onto a beach and has a powerful backwash.
Dune
Deposit of sand which has been blown inland by onshore winds.
Dune regeneration
Building up dunes and increasing vegetation to prevent excessive coastal retreat.
Erosion
Wearing away and removal of material by a moving force, such as a breaking wave.
Fault
A crack or line of weakness in the rock.
Fetch
The distance of open water over which the wind can blow.
Freeze-thaw weathering
A common process of weathering in a glacial environment involving repeated cycles of freezing and thawing that can make cracks in rock bigger.
Gabions
Steel wire mesh filled with boulders used in coastal defences.
Geological structure
The way that layers of rock are folded or tilted.
Groyne
A wooden barrier built out into the sea to stop the longshore drift of sand and shingle, and allow the beach to grow.
Headland
A rocky coastal promontory (highpoint of land) made of rock that is resistant to erosion: headlands lie between bays of less resistant rock where the land has been eroded by the sea.
Hard engineering
The use of concrete and large artificial structure to protect against erosion.
Hydraulic power
Process where breaking waves compress pockets of air in cracks in a cliff, the pressure may cause the cracks to widen, breaking off rock.
Landform
A physical feature of the Earth’s surface.
Longshore drift
Transport of sediment along a stretch of coastline caused by waves approaching the beach at an angle.
Marram grass
Type of grass that is adapted to windy, exposed conditions and is used in coastal management to stabilise sand dunes.
Mass movement
Downhill movement of weathered material under the force of gravity.
Mechanical weathering
Physical disintegration or break up of exposed Rick without any change in its chemical composition i.e freeze-thaw.
Mudflats
Areas of fine sediment deposits which over time can develop in Saltmarshes.
Mudflow
When saturated soil and weak rock flow down a slope.
Recurved end
Strong winds or tidal current cause the end of a spit to become curved.
Reprofiling
Increasing the height and width of beaches by dumping and shaping of dredged sand or shingle.
Rock armour
Large boulders deliberately dumped on a bench as part of coastal defences.
Rockfall
A fragment of rock breaks away from the cliff face, often due to freeze-thaw weathering.
Rotational slip
Slump of saturated spil and weak rock along a curved surface.
Saltmarshes
Important natural habitats often found in sheltered river estuaries behind spits where there is very little flow of water.
Scree
Accumulation of fragments of weathered rock.
Sea wall
Concrete wall aiming to prevent erosion of the coast by reflecting wave energy.
Sliding
Loose surface material becomes saturated and the extra weight causes the material to become unstable and move rapidly downhill.
Slumping
Rapid mass movement which involves a whole segment of the cliff moving down-slope along a saturated line of weakness is a rotation.
Soft engineering
Managing erosion working with natural processes to help restore beaches and coastal ecosystems.
Solution
The dissolving of rocks such as limestone and chalk by sea water.
Spit
Depositional landform formed when a finger of sediment extends from the shore out to the sea, often at a river mouth.
Stack
Isolated pillar of rock left when the top of an arch has collapsed.
Swash
The forward movement of a wave up a beach.
Transportation
The movement of eroded material.
Wave refraction
Wave energy is reduced in bays as the water gets shallower.
Waves
Ripples in the sequence caused by the transfer of energy from the wind blowing over the surface of the sea.
Wave-cut platform
Rocky, level shelf at or around sea level, representing the base of old, retreated cliffs.
