2.1- coasts

• describe longshore drift

  the movement of material along a coast by waves which approach at an angle to the shore but recede directly away from it.
• define rockfall

  bits of rock falling off the cliff face
• define mudflow

  saturated soil flows down a slope
• define landslide 


  large blocks of rock slide downhill
• define rotational slump

  saturated soil slumps down a curved surface
• what are bedding planes

  layers created during rock formation
• what are joints

  cracks created in the rock formation
• what are faults

  weaknesses in the rock
• what is swash

  when a wave reaches the shore, the water that rushes up the beach
• what is backwash

  the water that flows back towards the sea
• what are characteristics of destructive waves

  wave energy is high

  erode the beach
• what are characteristics of constructive waves

  low energy

  material is depositied
• what are causes of coastal flooding

  climate change

  impermeable land
• what are impacts of coastal flooding

  lost livelyhoods

  lost homes

  lost land
• what is a wave cut platform

  a sloping rocky shelf found at the foot of a retreating cliff
• what is a spit

  an extended stretch of sand jutting out into the sea
• what is hard engineering

  unsustainable and unnatural
• what is soft engineering

  long term and sustainable
• what are the four shoreline managements

  no active intervention

  managed retreat

  hold the line

  advance the line
• what are sea walls

  concrete sections protecting land behind the beach
• what are groynes

  a wooden barrier built at a right angle to the beaches
• what are gabions

  baskets filled with various rocks or soil
• what is rock armour

  placement of angular rock
• what is beach nourishment

  sand is pumped onto an existing beach to build it up
• what is beach stabilization

  planting dead trees in the beach to stabilize it
• what is wetland creation

  creating salt marshes