The Coastal System Flashcards
What is the coast?
The coastal zone is an area where interaction of marine, terrestrial and atmospheric processes occurs.
6 reasons why coasts are important?
- Settlements (coastal erosion)
- Employment
- Resources
- Transport
- Tourism
- Flooding
4 reasons why coasts change over time
- Waves/energy
- Tides
- Coastal management
- Sea level rise
What is temporal variation
Change over time e.g. Winter storms
What are 4 components that all open systems are made up of?
- Inputs
- Outputs
- Processes
- Stores
Name 4 processes of an open coastal system
- Erosion
- Transport
- Weathering
- Deposition
Name 4 stores of an open coastal system
- Beach
- Bar
- Sand dunes
- Spits
Name 5 outputs of an open coastal system
- Sediment via submarine canyons
- Wavecut platform (erosional)
- Energy loss
- Cliffs (erosional)
- Stacks (erosional)
Name 5 inputs of an open coastal system
- Currents (energy)
- Winds (energy)
- Waves (energy)
- Tides (energy)
- Sediment from cliffs rivers and offshore
Define backshore
The furthest inland that the sea ever gets to e.g. Cliffs
Define foreshore
Between high tide line and low tide line
Define nearshore/inshore
Between the low tide line and the point where waves do not affect the sea bed
Define offshore
Beyond where waves have an effect on the sea bed
What is a wave?
A disturbance that travels through the sea from one location to another
How are waves formed?
Wind blows over the water surface. The upper layer of air sinks and friction pushes down on the surface of the water creating waves.
Why do waves break?
As the beach gets more shallow, friction slows down the bottom of the wave.
The top overtakes the bottom.
This caused the wave to rise up and eventually topple over in the surf zone.
What are the 4 factors that influence wave size?
- Wind speed
- Distance of open water that wind blows over (fetch)
- Time/duration the wind has blown over a given area
- Water depth
How does wind speed increase wave size?
The faster the wind speed, the larger the waves because more pressure is pushing down on the water surface.
How does fetch influence wave size?
The waves have a longer distance to form so they can be bigger.
How does time exposed to wind influence wave size?
The waves have a longer time to form and therefore can be bigger.
How does water depth influence wave size?
A larger depth means larger waves as there’s more water to make waves from.