Key Terms - Coasts

Question 1

Abrasion (def)

Answer 1

Erosion that involves a sandpapering effect as sediment is dragged up and down or across the shoreline, eroding and smoothing rocky surfaces.

Question 2

Accretion (def)

Answer 2

Coastal sediment being deposited on a beach, making it wider.

Question 3

Arch (def)

Answer 3

An arch-shaped rock formation created when two caves join up, or a single cave is eroded through a headland.

Question 4

Attrition (def)

Answer 4

The gradual wearing down of rock particles by impact and abrasion, as the pieces of rock are moved by waves, tides and currents.

Question 5

Barrier beach (bar) (def)

Answer 5

Where a beach or spit extends across a bay to join two headlands together.

Question 6

Barrier island (def)

Answer 6

Where a beach becomes separated from the mainland.

Question 7

Berm (def)

Answer 7

A ridge or plateau on the beach formed by the deposition of beach material by wave action.

Question 8

Biological weathering (def)

Answer 8

The breakdown of rocks by organic activity.

Question 9

Cave (def)

Answer 9

A chamber in the rock formed when joints and faults are eroded by hydraulic action and abrasion.

Question 10

Cavitation (def)

Answer 10

When a wave advances and air becomes trapped and compressed in joints in the rock or between a breaking wave and a cliff.

Question 11

Climatic climax community (def)

Answer 11

The final community of species which is adjusted to the climatic conditions of an area.

Question 12

Coastal morphology (def)

Answer 12

The origin and evolution of a coast.

Question 13

Compound spit (def)

Answer 13

A spit which has a series of barbs along it, formed where the transport processes are variable over time.

Question 14

Constructive wave (def)

Answer 14

A powerful wave with a strong swash that surges up a beach, usually forming a berm.

Question 15

Corrasion (def)

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

Cost-benefit analysis (def)

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Cusp (def)

Answer 17

Crescent-shaped beach formations with graded sediment. Coarse material collects at the ‘horns’ and finer material collects in the ‘bay’ area.

Question 18

Dalmatian Coast (def)

Answer 18

A submergent landscape of ridges and valleys running parallel to the coast.

Question 19

Destructive wave (def)

Answer 19

A wave formed by a local storm that crashes onto a beach and has a powerful backwash.

Question 20

Double spit (def)

Answer 20

When two spits extend from opposite sides of an estuary.

Question 21

Drift-aligned beach (def)

Answer 21

Formed when beach deposits (sand and pebbles) are transferred along a coastline by longshore drift and accumulate to form a wide beach at a headland where the lateral drift is interrupted.

Question 22

Emergent coastline (def)

Answer 22

A coastline created when a fall in sea level exposes land previously covered by sea.

Question 23

Environmental refugee (def)

Answer 23

Somebody who has been forced to migrate as a result of changes to the environment.

Question 24

Eustatic change (def)

Answer 24

Variations in relative sea level resulting from changes in the amount of liquid water entering the oceans (eg. glacial meltwater at the end of an ice age).

Question 25

Fjord (def)

Answer 25

Created when a rise in sea level floods a deep glacial trough.

Question 26

Halophyte (def)

Answer 26

A salt-tolerant plant species

Question 27

Hard engineering (def)

Answer 27

Human-made, artificial structures which are designed to protect the land from erosion.

Question 28

High-energy environments (def)

Answer 28

Coastlines with powerful waves where rates of erosion exceed rates of deposition.

Question 29

Hydraulic action (def)

Answer 29

The sheer force of the water as it crashes against a coastline.

Question 30

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (def)

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

Isostatic change (def)

Answer 31

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.

Question 32

Isostatic recovery (def)

Answer 32

When the land readjusts and rises as a result of the reduced weight of ice following the end of a glacial period.

Question 33

Isostatic subsidence (def)

Answer 33

When the land sinks during glacial periods because of the enormous weight of ice sheets.

Question 34

Landform (def)

Answer 34

Individual components of a landscape, for example a cliff, a beach or a wave-cut platform.

Question 35

Landscape (def)

Answer 35

A broad area usually consisting of several different landforms.

Question 36

Landslide (def)

Answer 36

When a block of rock moves very rapidly downhill along a planar surface, often a bedding plane that is roughly parallel to the ground surface.