Coastal landscapes

• The Holderness coastline is eroding at an average annual rate of 2 metres.

  It is located on the east coast of England, extending from Flamborough to Spurn Point.

  Approximately 5kms of land has been lost since the Roman times.
• The geology of the Holderness coastline is mainly soft boulder clay, which is being rapidly eroded.

  It is being eroded due to strong prevailing winds creating destructive waves, which erodes the cliffs rapidly when the clay is saturated.
• Flamborough Head is a headland, made up of chalk.

  Selwicks Bay is located along Flamborough Head. Here, erosional processes have led to the formation of Stack Adam, a stack.
• Hornsea is a tourist attraction where the beach is of great importance.

  The coastal management plan here was to 'hold the line'.

  Groynes have been repaired and new ones built at a cost of over £5.2 million.

  The sea wall provides effective protection from destructive waves and rock armour has been placed to increase the life span of the sea wall by absorbing the wave's energy.
• The hard engineering solutions at Hornsea have provided effective protection from coastal erosion and have provided a wide, sandy beach.

  However, where the defences end, erosion has rapidly increased as those areas are starved of beach material.
• Mappleton is a village of around 50 properties subject to an erosional rate of 2 metres per year.

  The B1242 runs through Mappleton, connecting the settlements along the Holderness coastline. Intense erosion means the coastline is only 50 metres from the main road. It was cheaper to protect the village rather than construct a new route.
• Almost £2 million was spent on 2 rock groynes and a rock revetment to protect Mappleton and the B1242 road.

  The cliffs have been reprofiled, forming gentle slopes stabilised with vegetation, which protects them from mass movement.

  Therefore this village has been protected, however erosion has increased significantly further south.
• Sue Earle is the owner of Grange Farm in Cowden (1km south of Mappleton) which has experienced increased rates of erosion since the defences were installed.

  This led to the loss of her farm and her home, which she recieved little compensation for from the local authorities.
• Spurn point is a 5.5km long spit, reaching across the Humber estuary. It is hooked due to changes in wind direction. Salt marshes have formed as silt and mud is deposited in the sheltered estuary.

  Sand dunes have formed along Spurn.
• Studland Bay is a popular tourist destination in Dorset. The nature reserve is an area of sand dunes. The beach can get very crowded in the summer months which poses a risk to the sand dunes.

  To manage this, marram grass has been planted in vulnerable areas and fenced off.

  Boardwalks have been laid through the dunes to focus tourists onto specific paths.

  Car parks have been provided along with information boards to educate visitors.
• What are the 4 coastal management strategies?


  Hold the line - retain and maintain the existing coastal defences.

  Retreat the line/managed retreat - allowing the shoreline to move position, with close monitoring and management

  Advance the line - building new defences

  Do nothing - allowing natural change to occur, no investment in coastal defences
• The Isle of Wight is an excellent example of Inter Coastal Zone Management (ICZM).

  'Hold the line' is being used from Ventnor to Bonchurch.

  'Managed retreat' is being used at St Helen's Duver (spit)/Bembridge Harbour. The groynes will not be replaced once they fail.

  The intention is to allow natural realignment to take place as it is thought that hard engineering along the Duver has reduced its ability to respond naturally.

  'Do nothing' used along the Southwest coast as it is simply not cost-effective or sustainable to protect such a large stretch of coastline.
• What and where is Hallsands?

  A ghost town found along the Devonshire coast. It had 37 houses with 159 inhabitants. There was also a pub - the London Inn. It was lost to the sea due to a combination of coastal erosion and mis-management.
• When was the storm that breached Hallsand's defences?

  26th January 1917
• What led to the beach disappearing in Hallsands?


  The naval dockyard, near Plymouth, was expanded and dredging began offshore from Hallsands to provide sand and gravel for its construction.

  They removed 600,000 tonnes of shingle from the coastline.
• What is an example of a cave,arch,stack,stump sequence?

  Durdle Door, Dorset
• What is an example of a headland and a bay?

  Flamborough Headland

  Selwicks bay
• What is an example of a cove?

  Lulworth Cove, Dorset
• Where could you find geos and blowholes?

  Selwicks Bay, Flamborough
• What are 5 depositional landforms?

  Beaches

  Spits

  Bars

  Tombolos

  Cuspate forelands
• What is an example of a bar?

  Chesil beach

  Behind there is a lagoon - The Fleet
• What is an example of a tombolo?

  Chesil beach, Isle of Portland, Dorset
• What is an example of a spit?

  Spurn Point, Holderness
• What is an example of a cuspate foreland?

  Dungeness, Kent
• What are 2 features of a geo?

  Narrow inlet in a cliff

  Formed along line of weakness
• What is physical weathering?

  The disintegration of rocks into smaller pieces.
• What is chemical weathering?

  Decomposition of rocks by chemical reaction.
• What is biological weathering?

  The result of action from plants and their roots.
• What is freeze-thaw?

  A type of physical weathering, when water that has settled into cracks in the rock, freezes. Water expands by 9% when it freezes, which exerts pressure on the surrounding rock.
• What is salt crystallisation and how does it weather the rock?

  Salt water moves into the pores in rock, water evaporates, leaving salt crystals behind to grow and aggregate, creating internal pressure within the rock.
• What is carbonation?

  Rainfall absorbs atmospheric C02 to create a weak carbonic acid, which reacts with calcium carbonate in rock (limestone and chalk).
• What is an example of rockfalls?

  White cliffs of Dover
• What is a concordant coastline?

  Bands of hard and soft rock lie parallel to the coastline.

  Produces coves.
• What is a discordant coastline?

  Bands of hard and soft rock lie at right-angles to the coastline.

  Produces headlands and bays.
• The harder a rock is, the more resistant it is.

  For example, igneous and metamorphic rocks are more resistant to erosion than sedimentary. This is as a result of the heating and compression during their formation.

  Many of the rocks forming the coastlines of Southern and Eastern Britain are 'soft rocks'.

  This is why these areas have so many erosional landforms.
• What is hydraulic action?

  Wave action causing air to become trapped in cracks in the rock, causing the rocks to break apart.
• What is abrasion?

  Rocks thrown against the coastline, causing more material to be broken off and carried away by the sea.
• What is attrition?

  Rocks carried by waves hit and knock each other, wearing them down.
• What is solution?

  When sea water dissolves certain types of rocks.
• How do constructive waves alter beach morphology?

  They cause the net movement of sediment up the beach, steepening the profile.

  Swash carries sediments of all sizes up the beach, but a weaker backwash can only transport smaller particles down the beach.

  This leads to larger, heavier shingle at the back of the beach, and sand close to the sea.