UK physical landscapes

• chemical weathering


  caused by a chemical reaction when rainwater hits rock and decomposes it or eats it away
• mechanical weathering


  when rocks are disintegrated
• freeze-thaw weathering


  when water enters a crack and freezes, expanding the crack

  ( ice is 9% bigger than water )
• slumping


  • common with cliffs made from clay
  • heavy rainfall causes the clay to become saturised, making it too heavy for it to support itself
  • this means the clay falls and oozes down toward the sea
  • creates a slip plane
• rock-falls

  falling rocks which come from freeze-thaw weathering process

  • at the bottom of the cliff face, they form a scree-slope
• hydraulic action

  1. water crashes against cliffs
  2. air and water is trapped and compressed into cracks
  3. when sea moves away, air expands and weakens the rock
  4. cracks enlarge and rocks break away
• abrasion


  caused by falling rock fragments battering the land, and breaking off other pieces of rock
• attrition


  when rock fragments collide into eachother, getting smaller and smoother
• solution


  chemical action of sea and rock, dissolved rock in water (limestone)
• longshore drift occurs when waves break at an oblique angle to the shore
• traction


  larger pebbles are rolled along the sea bed
• suspension


  fine sediment is carried in the water, suspended. makes the water look murky
• saltation


  small pebbles are moved when another pebbles hits against another. causes a chain reaction
• a concordant coastline is when rocks are parrelel to the coastline
• a discordant coastline is where rocks are perpendicular to the coastline
• wave cut platform

  1. waves erode rocks through hydraulic action, abrasion and corrosion
  2. a notch is slowly formed at the high water mark
  3. the rock above the notch slowly becomes unstable, and it collapses
  4. a wave cut platform is formed as this process continues, as the base of the cliffs are left as the cliff receeds
• swash aligned beaches are where waves are directly parralel to the shore
• drift aligned beaches form when waves approach the beach at an angle