Landforms

• Formation of headlands and bays

  • waves erode coastline through hydraulic action and abrasion
  • softer, less resistant rock is eroded more quickly than more resistant rock
  • A bay is formed where the softer rock is eroded
  • Harder rock is left sticking out to sea as a headland
• Formation of a wave cut platform

  • Hydraulic action and abrasion erode the bottom of a cliff
  • This forms a wave cut notch
  • Cliff overhangs, when it becomes too heavy it will collapse due to gravity
  • Overtime, this causes cliff retreat
  • This leaves a a wave cut platform of harder rock
• Sand dune

  • embryo dune - Sand starts to pile up over obstacle
  • foredune - grass starts to grow and stablise the dune, more sand gets trapped
  • Yellow dune - more grass and sand stabilises the dune more
  • grey dune - as grass dies, nutrients in the dune allows more vegetation to grow
• Spit formation:

  • A spit is formed due to a change in the coastline's direction
  • As the coastline changes direction, the waves lose energy and deposit material
  • Longshore drift causes sediment to be deposited and the spit to form across a river estuary
  • If spit is formed across a river, sediment deposition causes a salt marsh to form overtime
• A bar is a spit that forms across a bay