Coastal deposition

Question 1

What are depositional landforms?

Answer 1

Coastal landforms created primarily due to processes of transportation and deposition

Question 2

What are example of depositional landforms?

Answer 2

Spit, beach, barrier beach, tombolo, sand dunes

Question 3

What are depositional landscapes?

Answer 3

Low-energy coastlines where rates of transportation exceed rates of erosion

Question 4

What is an example of a depositional landscape?

Answer 4

Estuarine coast

Question 5

How many of the world’s coastlines are depositional in nature?

Answer 5

Almost 20%

Question 6

Where do depositional coastlines generally occur?

Answer 6

In low energy environments, where the effects of waves, storms and tides are much reduced

Question 7

What is a drift-aligned beach?

Answer 7

1. Sediment is transferred along the coast by longshore drift
2. These beaches tend to be longer and have graded material (i.e. sediment becomes finer further along the beach)

Question 8

What is an example of a drift-aligned beach?

Answer 8

Mappeton, Holderness coast

Question 9

What is a swash-aligned beach?

Answer 9

Sediment moves up and down the beach with little lateral transfer

Question 10

Where to swash-aligned beaches occur?

Answer 10

In tight bays and so are protected from the effects of LSD

Question 11

What is an example of a swash-aligned beach?

Answer 11

Barafundle Bay, Pembrokshire Coast

Question 12

What is an offshore bar?

Answer 12

1. Destructive waves erode sand and coarse sediment from the beach
2. The strong backwash pulls it offshore and then deposits it as a bar
3. These cause waves to break further out to sea

Question 13

What is a cuspate foreland?

Answer 13

1. Longshore drift occurs in opposite directions
2. Sediment is deposited at the point where they meet
3. Vegetation then grows and stabilises these landforms

Question 14

What is an example of a cuspate foreland?

Answer 14

Dungeness, Kent

Question 15

What is a tombolo?

Answer 15

1. Longshore drift creates a beach between an island and the mainland
2. Sometimes they are covered at high tide

Question 16

What is an example of a tombolo?

Answer 16

St Ninians, Shetland

Question 17

What is a spit

Answer 17

1. Longshore drift carries material along a beach
2. A sudden change in coastal shape will initiate a deposition of material
3. The presence of a river, or extension to water currents will prevent the spit from extending
4. Can form recurved and double spits

Question 18

What is an example of a spit?

Answer 18

Hurst Spit, Hampshire

Question 19

What is a barrier beach?

Answer 19

1. Longshore drift extends a spit between two headlands
2. These barrier beaches trap water behind as a lagoon
3. When it becomes separated from the mainland, it forms a barrier island

Question 20

What is an example of a barrier beach?

Answer 20

Slapton Sands, Devon

Question 21

What is gravity settling?

Answer 21

When the energy of transporting water becomes too low to move sediment; large sediment will be deposited first followed by smaller sediment

Question 22

What is flocculation?

Answer 22

Important for very small particles, such as clay, which are so small they remain suspended in water. Clay particles clump together due to electrical or chemical attraction and become large enough to sink

Question 23

What is a littoral cell system?

Answer 23

A simplified model that examines coastal processes and patterns in a given area. It operates at a variety of scales, from a single bay, to a regional scale