Processes of Transportation and Deposition

• Longshore drift may utilise all these methods of transportation to move sediment along the beach and between sediment cells
• Waves hit the beach at an angle determined by the direction of the prevailing wind

  ● The waves push sediment in this direction and up the beach in the swash

  ● Due to gravity, the wave then carries sediment back down the beach in the backwash

  ● This moves sediment along the beach over time

  
• Coastal transportation processes

  • Traction
  • Saltation
  • Suspension
  • Solution
• Coastal transportation plays a major role in the coastal system, transferring sediment from one store to another, for example, from the foot of a cliff to a spit or an offshore bar. As with coastal erosion, it is a manifestation of an energy flow, governed, controlled and determined by the power of waves, tides and currents.
• Traction- the rolling of coarse sediment along the sea bed that is too heavy to be picked up ana cal- iinced' along and carried by the sea
• Saltation-sediment 'bounced' along the seabed, light enough to be picked up or dislodged but too heavy to remain within the flow of the water
• Suspension smaller (lighter) sediment picked up and carried within the flow of the water
• Solution (dissolved load) - chemicals dissolved in the water, transported and precipitated elsewhere. This form of transportation plays an important role in the carbon cycle, transferring and redepositing carbon in the oceans.
• The key factors affecting the type of transportation are velocity (energy) and particle size (mass). In high-energy environments, larger particles will be able to be transported, whereas in low-energy environments only the finest particles (clays) will be transported.