The sea Flashcards
Waves
Waves are made from a friction between the wind and the surface of the sea
The size of the wave depends on two things:
the strength of the wind
the fetch of the sea
Destructive waves
- weak swash
- very strong backwash which wears away and carried away material from the beach
Constructive waves
They have a strong swash but a very weak backwash which does not carry much material back to sea
Swash
as the wave reaches the shore it breaks the white foamy water that flows up te beach is called the swash
Backwash
when the water runs out of speed it stops and it flows back down the beach into the sea
Cliffs
waves break onto the coast they cut a notch into the rock. when the notch gets deeper, the over-hanging notch collapes
Bay
a wide deep opening into the coastline
headland
a piece of land jutting out into the sea
sea caves
a tunnel or passage at the base of a cliff
longshore drift
waves approach the shore at an acute angle
the swash of each wave pushes material up and along the shore
each backwash drags the material straight down the shore following the slant of the beach
as the process repeat themselves, the material gradually transported along the shore in a zig-zag manor
A spit
a narrow ridge of sand
a bar
a narrow ridge of sand that which seals off the mouth of a bay
a lagoon
a small lake formed behind the bar. it was part of the bay then sealed by the bar
a tombolo
a narrow ridge of sand which joins an offshore island to the mainland
beaches
a beach is a gently sloping area of sand or shingle that occurs between high and low tide levels