EQ2: How coastal landforms contribute to coastal landscapes?

Question 1

What do different wave types (constructive/destructive) influence?

Answer 1

Beach morphology and beach sediment profiles, which vary at a variety of temporal scales from short-term (daily) through to longer periods.

Question 2

What does ‘rate of recession’ mean?

Answer 2

How fast a coastline is moving inland.

Question 3

What effect do igneous rocks have on the rate of erosion?

Answer 3

VERY SLOW
I rocks are crystalline-strong, hard erosion-resistant rocks due to interlocking crystals.
Few joints so limited weaknesses for erosion to exploit.

Question 4

Name three examples of igneous rocks

Answer 4

Granite
Basalt
Dolerite

Question 5

What effect do metamorphic rocks have on the rate of erosion?

Answer 5

SLOW
Crystalline M rocks are erosion resistant.
Many have a feature called foliation-crystals all orientated in one direction-produces weaknesses.
Often folded and fractured-weaknesses

Question 6

Name three examples of metamorphic rocks

Answer 6

Slate
Schist
Marble

Question 7

What effect do sedimentary rocks have on the rate of erosion?

Answer 7

Most are clastic so erode faster
Geologically young rocks usually weaker
Rocks with many fractures and bedding places are weaker.

Question 8

Name three examples of sedimentary rocks

Answer 8

Sandstone
Limestone
Shale

Question 9

What is the weakest coastal material?

Answer 9

Unconsolidated sediment

Question 10

How are wave cut notches formed?

Answer 10

Eroded at the base of a cliff by hydraulic action and abrasion. as notch becomes deeper, the overhanging rock becomes unstable and collapses as a rockfall.

Question 11

How are wave cut platforms formed?

Answer 11

Repeated cycles of notch cutting and collapse cause cliffs to recede inland. The former cliff position is shown by a horizontal rock platform visible at low tide.

Question 12

What is sediment transportation influenced by?

Answer 12

The angle of the wave attack, tides and currents and longshore drift.

Question 13

Which coastal landforms are produced by transportation and deposition processes?

Answer 13

Beaches, recurved and double spits, offshore bars, tombolos and cuspate forelands.

Question 14

How can these be stabilized?

Answer 14

Plant succession.

Question 15

What are cuspate forelands?

Answer 15

Land that sticks into the sea from a period of deposition.

Question 16

What are sediment cells?

Answer 16

Sediment cells are areas along the coastline and in the nearshore area where the movement of material is largely self-contained.

Question 17

What are littoral cells?

Answer 17

A littoral cell is a coastal compartment that contains a complete cycle of sedimentation including sources, transport paths, and sinks.

Question 18

Name three examples of mass movement

Answer 18

Blockfall
Rotational slumping
Landslides

Question 19

Name three examples of landforms created by mass movement processes

Answer 19

Rotational scars
Talus scree slopes
Terraced cliff profiles

Question 20

Name three examples of weathering

Answer 20

Mechanical
Chemical
Biological

Question 21

How is a spit formed?

Answer 21

Sand or shingle beach ridge extending beyond a turn in the coastline. At the turn, LSD current spreads out and loses energy leading to deposition.
EXAMPLE Spurn Head on the Holderness Coast, East Yorkshire.

Question 22

How is a bayhead beach formed?

Answer 22

A swash-aligned feature, waves break at 90 degrees to the shoreline and move sediment into a bay, where and beach forms. Due to wave refraction, erosion is concentrated at headlands and the bay is an area of deposition.
EXAMPLE Lulworth Cove, Dorset

Question 23

How is a tombolo formed?

Answer 23

Sand or shingle bar that attaches the coastline to an offshore island. They form due to wave refraction around the island which creates an area of calm water and deposition between the island and the coast.
EXAMPLE St Ninian’s tombolo, Shetland.

Question 24

How is a cuspate foreland formed?

Answer 24

Roughly triangular-shaped features extending out from a shoreline. Some suggests that they form due to the growth of two spits from opposing LSD directions.
EXAMPLES Dungeness, Kent.