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Geography
coasts
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Cards (19)
Waves
Caused by
the
wind dragging
over the
surface
of the water
Fetch
The
length
of water the
wind
blows over
Stronger
wind and
longer
duration
Longer
fetch and
larger
waves
Swash
When
waves
move up towards the
coastline
Backwash
When waves move back down into the
sea
Constructive
wave
Has more
swash
than
backwash
, building up the beach and depositing material
Destructive wave
Has more
backwash
than swash,
destroying the beach
and eroding material
Processes of coastal erosion
Hydraulic action
Abrasion
Attrition
Solution
Headland
Hard resistant
rock like limestone or
granite
sticking out into the sea
Bay
Area of
softer
rock that has been
eroded
more easily
Wave cut platform formation
1. Wave cut notch forms at base of cliff
2. Land on top becomes
unstable
and
collapses
3. Wave cut
platform
is
formed
Arch, stack and stump formation
1.
Wave
action creates fault line in
hard rock
2.
Cave forms
and eventually
arch forms
3. Arch
collapses
leaving
stack
4. Bottom of stack
erodes
leaving
stump
Longshore drift
Waves come into coastline at angle of
prevailing wind
, swash at
30
degrees, backwash at 90 degrees, moving material along beach
Spit
Deposition
of material at end of coastline, forming new
land
Tombolo
Longshore drift joins mainland to an
island
Hard engineering methods
Sea walls
Rock groynes
Breakwaters
Revetments
Rock armour
Wooden groynes
Hard
engineering
Expensive, intrusive on natural environment, may impact
tourism
Soft engineering
Less effective but works with
natural environment
Doing nothing is a
natural
process, but
interventions
in one place may cause problems elsewhere