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Coasts notes:
Key questions1
...
How do characteristic coastal landforms contribute to coastal
landscapes?
3
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How can coastlines be managed to meet the needs of all players?
Coast- zone of transition between the land and the sea
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The littoral zone- the wider coastal zone
- Foreshore where most wave processes occur
- Backshore above high tide level only affected by storm or spring tides
- Nearshore where most human activity occurs
- Offshore 370km from shore
Factors affecting coastlines:
- weather and climate
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- Human activity such as building on backshore could make cliffs more
saturated and susceptible to erosion
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g
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g
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Sedimentary rock formation:
- Sediment sinks to the bottom of the sea
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- This results in the type of sediment changing
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Alpine Oorogeny- 65 million years ago tectonic movement caused Africa to
collide with Europe
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Discordant coastlines- rocks run perpendicular/90 degrees to the sea
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Emergent coastlines- land is rising higher than the sea
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Landforms include
raised beaches, wave cut platforms and coastal plains
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Form as a result of
sea level rise
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Landforms include fjords, rias and small islands
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Primary coastlines- dominated by land based processes such as deposition
from rivers
Secondary coastlines- dominated by marine or depositional processes
Rocky coastline
Erosion
Emergent
High energy
Destructive waves
Coastal plain
Deposition
Submergent
Low energy
Constructive waves
Dynamic equilibrium- the balanced state of a system when outputs and inputs
balance over time
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Eustatic- when the height of the sea changes it has global impacts
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Dalmatian coasts- Formed as a result of sea level rise
- Valleys and ridges run parallel to each other
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- Limestone coastline folded by tectonic activity
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g
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Coastal recession- erosion
Lithology- physical characteristics of particular rocks
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Fault- stress causes rocks to fracture
Dip- angle at which the strata lie
Relief- the height and slope of the land
Cliff profile- the height and angle of a cliff as well as its features
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Micro features- small features such as caves and wave cut notches
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How does Geology affect rate of erosion?
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Igneous rocks such as Granite are very slow to erode as they have few
joints and strong interlocking crystals
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Porous rocks such as chalk are easy to erode as water can flow through
them and erode the rock crystals
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Unconsolidated material such as boulder clay and sand is fast to erode
as it is loose and not cemented
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- Energy moving through water
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- As they reach the shore wave height increases due to increased friction
between wave and seabed
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(Almost always
constant)
West Coast- biggest waves, highest fetch
Sand dunes- accumulations of sand grains shaped into moulds or ridges by the
wind as a result of gravity
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Zonation- the variation of species in a particular area
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Xerophytes- plants that require little water
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0-65 years old
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PH 6
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0
PH 4
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5
65-95 years old
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9-4
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3
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5
125-185 years’ old
Yellow/grey soil
Brown soil
PH 4
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It is still extremely unhospitable for plant growth
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Rainwater means it
is slightly less salty so Marram Grass is able to colonise the area
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This increases
the soils water-holding capacity and releases nutrients
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White or yellow semi-fixed dunes- if conditions remain stable mosses will
cover bare patches
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Fixed dunes, stabilised dunes- this occurs when vegetation has covered the
surface of the dune
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This can result in a fixed
dune grassland developing, which leads to the area becoming very speciesrich with many flowering plants
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Dune slack- depending on the height of the water table, areas between sandy
hills may be damp or contain standing water
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Dune scrub- without grazing animal’s succession proceeds and tall woody
plants form natural invaders
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Dune heath- if grazing animals prevents the development of scrub or
woodland then the area will eventually develop into a different area
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The vegetation is dominated by plants that can
survive in the grasslands and these are able to tolerate the dry, acid and
nutrient poor soil
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Woodland- this is where colonising trees are found
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They are often golf courses or agricultural land so the natural
woodland is disrupted
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- Recreation management by providing walkways and fencing unstable
areas
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- Wildlife protection- maintaining original plant and animal species done
in ways such as mowing
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Constructive waves 6-9 per minute
Destructive waves 11-15 per minute
Storm beach- formed from high-energy deposition of coarse sediment during
severe storms
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Berms- shingle/gravel from summer wave deposition
Why do beaches change over time?
- Sediment supply from rivers is reduced/increased
- Interference from coastal management
- Climate changes
How do waves influence the shape and features of a coastline?
- Wave type
- Time of year and day
- Landforms such as berms, ridges and storm beaches
- Erosion, geology, frequency, fetch and lithology
Explain the influence of rock structure and lithology on the physical features
shown in 3B:
Rock structure- strata, joints, vertical cliff face
Lithology- sandstone sedimentary weaker rock, permeability, porosity, rock
hardness, rock type
Features- cliffs, sediment, notches, joints and horizontal strata
Salt marshes- rivers bring mud and silts and deposit them at the sides of an
estuary
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Over time plants change the conditions by trapping more sediment which
builds the salt marsh higher so other plants can colonise
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- Arch formed when a cave is eroded through a headland or 2 caves
either side of a headland join up
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- Wave-cut platform formed when erosion causes the wave-cut notch to
move inland and the cliff retreats leaving a platform behind
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- Cave formed when joints and faults are eroded by hydraulic action
- Stump formed when a stack continues to erode until it collapses and
only appears above the surface at low tide
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Solution- chemical action of sea water
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Hydraulic action- the force of the water against the coast
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Headlands- refract and bend incoming waves around them, reducing their
erosive power at one location while increasing it at another
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Gravity settling- when the energy of water is too low to transport sediment
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Flocculation- small particles like clay clump together due to
electrical/chemical attraction and then sink
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Beaches- made of rounded sand and pebbles
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Barrier beaches- plentiful supply of sand, form islands which protect
mainland’s from storms
Spits- form when material is deposited across a bay or estuary
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Cuspate foreland- low-lying headland formed when longshore drift from 2
directions forms 2 spits and these join together
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Sediment budget- the amount of sediment available in a sediment cell
Sources- fluvial sediment from rivers, artificial beach replenishment, wave cut
platform erosion
Transfers- rivers blocking longshore drift, rock particles transported to sub
cells
Stores- beaches, spits
- Allows us to study how one change can lead to another change and how
negative feedback occurs
- Shows how dynamic equilibrium works in a coastal system
Case Study- Sediment Cell 5:
Inputs- rivers, coastal erosion, deposition
Stores- Chichester tidal delta
East dominant direction of Longshore Drift
Human interference- popular tourist destination, harbours, dredging has
occurred to move sand into tourist areas, rock is used to build homes, cliffs
may be weaker due to tourist infrastructure
Negative feedback- to restore equilibrium after a change
Positive feedback- process by which change in a system is amplified so further
change is caused
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Saline water enters
pore spaces,
evaporation leaves salt
crystals which
pressurises rock and
causes granular
disintegration
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Minerals break down to
form new clay minerals
due to the effect of
water and dissolved
c02
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Biological
Rock boring
Species of clam bore
into rocks and secrete
chemicals that dissolve
it
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Weathering- in situ breakdown of rocks by chemical, mechanical and
biological agents
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Glamorgan Heritage coast- Limestone rock
- Stacks, caves and wave cut platforms
How vegetation can bring stability to coastlines:
- Low energy coastlines are made of unconsolidated material so are
vulnerable to erosion and storms
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Natural barrier against flooding
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constructive
- Type of landforms headlands, cliffs and wave cut platforms vs
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When the ice melts the land
rebounds upwards
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Isostatic- change in land
Eustatic- change in sea level
Case Study Kiribati:
- Aggregate mining
- Saltwater floods have destroyed crops
- Floods damaged a local hospital and broke sea walls
- Their water supply has been disrupted
- Environmental refugees have been created
- Homes are at threat