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Geography > Coasts > Flashcards

Coasts Flashcards

1
Q

What is swash?

A

When a wave breaks and water rushes up the beach

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2
Q

What is backwash?

A

When water runs back down the beach towards the sea under the force of gravity

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3
Q

What factors affect the amount of energy a wave has?

A
  • How far wind travelled (fetch)
  • Energy of the wind
  • The length of time the wind blew for
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4
Q

What are the features of constructive waves?

A
  • Low in height
  • Weak
  • Made in calm weather
  • Strong swash and weak backwash
  • Leaves material on the beach
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5
Q

What are the features of destructive waves?

A
  • Tall height
  • Powerful
  • Breaks downwards
  • Weak swash and strong backwash
  • Takes material from the beach
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6
Q

How are waves created?

A

Wind

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7
Q

How can you spot a destructive wave?

A

It rolls

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8
Q

What makes a wave strong?

A

Large fetch

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9
Q

What is weathering?

A

The natural process which causes the breakdown of rocks and minerals by chemical, biological or physical agents

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10
Q

What is mass movement?

A

Erosion, transport and accumulation of material that occur on both gentle and steep slopes mainly owing to gravitational forces

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11
Q

What are the 3 types of weathering?

A
  • Chemical
  • Mechanical
  • Biological
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12
Q

What is chemical weathering?

A

Carbonic acids attack rocks, changing their structure, causing them to dissolve and wash away in solution.

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13
Q

What is mechanical weathering?

A

Freeze thaw weathering happens when water enters a crack and freezes and expands, causing the crack to widen.

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14
Q

How much does water expand when it freezes?

A

9%

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15
Q

What is biological weathering?

A

Burrowing animals and plants attack rocks. For example a rabbit can burrow into a crack in a rock, expanding the crack. Or a root widening a crack.

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16
Q

What are the types of mass movement?

A
  • Rock falls
  • Rotational slumping
  • Soil creep
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17
Q

What are rock falls?

A

Fragments of rock are eroded and weathered until they separate and fall from the cliffs

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18
Q

What is rotational slumping?

A

A large area of land moving down a slope. Usually occurs on clay cliffs that become saturated during heavy rainfall

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19
Q

What is soil creep?

A

Slow, down-slope movement of materials under the influence of gravitation

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20
Q

What are the 4 erosional coastal processes?

A
  • Abrasion
  • Hydraulic action
  • Attrition
  • Solution
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21
Q

What is Abrasion?

A

The waves pick up sediment and hurl it at the cliffs, chipping away at the cliffs

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22
Q

What is hydraulic action?

A

Water is forced into the cracks into the rocks, trapping air in the cracks and compressing it. This forces the rocks apart

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23
Q

What is attrition?

A

Rocks and pebbles from the cliffs continually collide with each other and break, becoming smoother

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24
Q

What is solution? (erosion)

A

Acids in the sea dissolve rocks like chalk and limestone

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25
Q

How do waves transport material?

A
  • Solution
  • Suspension
  • Saltation
  • Traction
26
Q

What is solution? (transport)

A

Stuff moves with the water while dissolved in it

27
Q

What is suspension?

A

Stuff moves with the water currents carrying it

28
Q

What is Saltation?

A

Small bits of stuff moving along the seabed

29
Q

What is traction?

A

Big bits of stuff roll across the seabed

30
Q

What is longshore drift?

A

The zigzag movement of sediment along a shore caused by waves going up the beach at an oblique angle (Swash) and returning at right angles (backwash).

31
Q

Describe longshore drift in 4 stages

A
  1. The waves approach the beach at a 45° angle.
  2. As the waves break, the swash carries material up the beach.
  3. The backwash and some material is taken away because of gravity.
  4. This means material is moved along the beach in a zig-zag route.
32
Q

What are groynes?

A

Wooden fences that trap sediment and stop it from being transported

33
Q

What are the problems with groynes?

A

Groynes in one area stop sediment from being transported further down the beach, causing problems there

34
Q

How are stumps formed?

A

1) A crack is opened in the cliff by hydraulic action
2) The crack expands into a cave by hydraulic action and abrasion
3) The cave breaks through the headland, forming an arch
4) The arch erodes and collapses
5) This leaves a tall rock stack
6) The stack is eroded into a stump

35
Q

What is a spit?

A

A long narrow beach made from sand or shingle that is joined to the mainland but stretches out into the sea where there is a change in coastline.

36
Q

How are spits formed?

A

When the coastline changes direction, sediment being carried by longshore drift is deposited on the seabed in the direction the coastline was pointing. This sediment eventually builds up until an extension of the coastline is formed. This continues until the sediment reaches a river estuary, which stops the spit rejoining to the coastline.

37
Q

What separates a spit from a bar?

A

A bar rejoins to the coastline

38
Q

What is an example of a spit and describe it

A

Spurn head is by the Humber estuary in NE England, near Hull.

39
Q

How does a bar form?

A

When there isn’t a river estuary to disrupt the sediment, a spit may reconnect to the coastline, this forms a bar.

40
Q

How does a lagoon form?

A

A lagoon is the area of water disconnected from the sea by a bar.

41
Q

What 3 factors are needed for a beach to develop?

A
  • Constructive waves
  • Low wave frequency
  • Low energy
42
Q

What affects the direction in which waves approach the beach?

A

Longshore drift

43
Q

What is hard engineering?

A

A more permanent solution to coastal erosion that is usually a large, manmade structure built to last a long time.

44
Q

What is soft engineering?

A

A more temporary but natural looking solution to coastal erosion.

45
Q

What is a good position for hard engineering?

A
  • Soft coastlines that have easily eroded rock
  • Valuable housing and farmland
46
Q

What is a good position for soft engineering?

A
  • Wildlife habitats
  • Tourist locations
47
Q

What are the hard engineering methods?

A
  • Sea walls
  • Rock armour / riprap
  • Gabions
  • Groynes
48
Q

What are the soft engineering methods?

A
  • Beach nourishment
  • Reprofiling
  • Dune nourishment
49
Q

What is a method of coastal management that isn’t protecting the coastline?

A

Managed retreat

50
Q

What is managed retreat?

A

Allowing the coastline to move inland in areas that aren’t worth the cost of protecting with structural engineering.

51
Q

What are sea walls? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Concrete or rock barrier built at the foot of cliffs or at the top of a beach; has a curved face to reflect waves back into the sea.

Advantages:
- Prevent erosion
-Acts as a flood barrier

Disadvantages:
- Expensive
- Needs maintaining
- Creates a strong backwash

52
Q

What are Groynes? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Timber or rock structures built out into the sea from the coast. They trap sediment being moved by longshore drift and broaden the beach; the wider beach acts as a buffer to protect the coast from waves.

Advantages:
- Build up the beach
- Cheap

Disadvantages:
- Easily destroyed
- Deprives other beaches of sediment

53
Q

What are Gabions? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Cages of boulders built into the cliff face, helping to absorb wave energy.

Advantages:
- Cheap
- Efficient

Disadvantages:
- Cages rust
- Short lifespan

54
Q

What is rock armour/riprap? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Piles of large boulders dumped at the foot of a cliff, absorbing energy from waves to protect the cliffs.

Advantages:
- Good at absorbing wave energy

Disadvantages:
- Move easily
- They need replacing

55
Q

What is beach nourishment? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Adding sand and sediment to the beach from the seafloor

Advantages:
- Creates wider beaches
- Looks natural

Disadvantages:
- Taking material can kill organisms
- Expensive
- Needs to be repeated

56
Q

What is dune regeneration? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Artificially creating new sand dunes along the coast to act as a buffer between land and sea. Grass is planted to hold the dune together.

Advantages:
- Occur naturally
- Absorb storm and wave energy

Disadvantages:
- Easily destroyed by human activity (walking on them)
- Time consuming to plant grass

57
Q

What is beach Reprofiling? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Changing the slope of beaches and coastlines to slow the rate of erosion.

Advantages:
- Easy to make

Disadvantages:
- Disrupts ecosystems
- Needs regular maintenance

58
Q

What is managed retreat? (advantages and disadvantages)

A

Allowing the coastline to move inland, rather than attempting to save it with structural engineering.

Advantages:
- Cheap (only need to relocate people)
- Doesn’t disrupt the environment

Disadvantages:
- Losing land can affect people’s lives

59
Q

Costs of coastal defence strategies

A
  • Sea wall: £6000 per meter
  • Groynes: £10,000 each at 200m intervals
  • Rock armour: £1000-4000 per meter
  • Beach nourishment: £3 per meter
  • Dune regeneration: £20 per meter
60
Q

How are wave cut platforms formed?

A

When cliffs are undercut by waves, creating a wave cut notch. Eventually, the weight of the cliff overhang becomes too much and the cliff collapses, leaving a wave cut platform.

Geography (20 decks)

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