Glossary Flashcards
Abrasion
Erosion that involves a ‘sandpapering effect’ as sediment is dragged up and down or across the shoreline, eroding and smoothing rocky surfaces
Accretion
Coastal sediment being deposited on a beach making it wider
Arch
An arch-shaped rock formation created when two caves join up, or a single cave is eroded through a headland
Attrition
The gradual wearing down of rock particles by impact and abrasion, as the pieces of rock are moved by waves, tides and currants
Barrier beach (or bar)
Where a beach or spit extends across a bay to join two headlands
Barrier island
Where a beach becomes separated from the mainland
Berm
A ridge or plateau on the beach formed by the deposition of beach material by wave action
Biological weathering
The breakdown of rocks by organic activity
Cave
A chamber in the rock formed when joints and faults are eroded by hydraulic action and abrasion
Cavitation
When a wave advances and air becomes trapped and compressed in joints in the rocks or between a breaking wave and a cliff
Climatic climax community
The final community of species which is adjusted to the climatic conditions of an area
Coastal morphology
The origin and evolution of a coast
Compound spit
A spit which has a series of ‘barbs’ along it, formed where the transport processes are variable over time
Constructive wave
A powerful wave with a strong swash that surges up a beach usually forming a berm
Corrasion
When material (such as sand and pebbles) that has been picked up by the waves gets hurled at the cliff foot as the waves break, thus chipping away at the rock
Cost-benefit analysis (CBA)
A process by which the financial, social and environmental costs are weighed up against the benefits of a proposal in terms of social outcomes as well as in terms of profit and loss
Cusp
Crescent-shaped beach formations with graded sediment; coarse material collects at the ‘horns’ and finer material collects in the ‘bay’ area
Dalmatian coast
A submerged landscape of ridges and valleys running parallel to the coast
Destructive wave
A wave formed by a local storm that crashes onto a beach and has a powerful backwash
Double spit
When two spits extend from opposites side of an estuary
Drift-aligned beach
Formed when beach deposits (sand and pebbles) are transferred along a coastline by long shore drift, and accumulate to form a wide beach at a headland where the lateral drift is interrupted
Emergent coastline
A coastline created when a fall in sea level exposes land perviously covered by the sea
Environmental refugee
Somebody who has been forced to migrate as a result of changes to the environment
eustatic change
Variations in the relative sea level resulting from changes in the amount of liquid water entering the oceans (e.g. glacial meltwater at the end of an ice age)
fjord
Created when a rise in sea level floods a deep glacial trough
Halophyte
A salt-tolerant plant species
Hard engineering
Human-made, artificial structures which are designed to protect the land from erosion
High energy environment
Coastlines with powerful waves where rates of erosion exceed rates of deposition
Hydraulic action
The sheer force of the water as it crashes against a coastline
Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM)
A strategy designed to manage complete sections of the coast, rather than individual towns or villages, by bringing together all of those involved in the development, management and use of the coast
Isostatic change
Rising or falling of a land mass relative to the sea resulting from the release of the weight of ice after the last ice age or by the weight of sediment being deposited
Isostatic recovery
When the land readjusts and rises as a result of the reduced weight of ice following the end of a glacial periods
Isostatic subsidence
When the land sinks during glacial periods because of the enormous weight of ice sheets
Landform
Individual components of a landscape, for example, a cliff, a beach or a wave-cut platform
Landscape
A broad area usually consisting of several different landforms
Landslide
When a block of rock moves very rapidly downhill along a planar surface (a slide plane), often a bedding plane that is roughly parallel to the ground surface
Landslip (or slump)
When a block of land moves very rapidly downhill but it’s slide surface is curved rather than flat, characterised by a sharp break of slope and the formation of a scar
Lithology
The geological structure of an area
Long shore (littoral) drift
Coastlines with waves of relative low power where rates of deposition exceed rates of erosion
Mass movements
The downhill movement of material under the influence of gravity
Mudflat
Formed in low energy environments, such as river estuaries In the Lee of spits, where the very smallest clay particles drop to the seabed and build up layers of mud
Mudflow
Involves Earth and mud flowing downhill, usually over unconsolidated or weak bedrock such as clay, often after heavy rainfall
Offshore bars
Submerged (or partly exposed) ridges of sand or coarse sediment created by waves offshore from the coast
Pioneer species
The first plants that colonise an area, usually with special adaptations
Raised beaches
Raised beach the result of isostatic recovery which raises wave cut platforms and their beaches above the present sea level
Recurves tip
The end of a spit that has curved round, as wave refraction carries material round into more sheltered water behind the spit
Ria
A sheltered winding inlet with irregular shoreline
rip currents
Strong localised underwater currents that occur on some beaches
Rockfall
Involves the sudden collapse or breaking away of individual rock fragments (or a block of rock) at a cliff face
Runnels
The dips in the foreshore area of a beach between ridges. They are drained down the beach by channels that break the ridges
Saltation
Rocks or sand that is moved in a series of leaps across a river or sea bed or the desert floor
Saltmarsh
Coastal ecosystem formed on mudflats (e.g. in a river estuary) largely comprising salt-tolerant plants
Sand dune
A depositions feature consisting of sand that has been blown off the beach by onshore winds
Scree
An apron of rock debris, caused by weathering and then slow rates of debris removal
Sediment budget
An attempt to quantify the various stores and transfers associated with sediment movement
Sediment cell
A conceptual way of describing sediment movement from a source, through various transfers to a sink or output. This movement is usually cyclical
Shoreline Management Plan (SMP)
A plan that takes into consideration the risks of coastal processes and attempts to identify sustainable coastal defence and management options
Slump (or landslip)
When a block of land moves very rapidly downhill but it’s slide surface is curved rather than flat, characterised by a sharp break of slope and the formation of a scar
