Uk Coastal Landscapes

Question 1

What is a wave?

Answer 1

Ripples in the sea caused by the transfer of energy blowing over the surface of the sea.

Question 2

How are waves created?

Answer 2

Wind blowing over the ocean creates friction with the water surface which creates ripples to form. Then faster moving ripples merge with slower moving ripples. The waves become more organised in straight lines called sets. The longer the fetch the more organised the waves become.

Question 3

What is a fetch?

Answer 3

How far a wave has travelled.

Question 4

What happens when waves reach the shore?

Answer 4

When a wave reaches a shallower coastline friction with the seabed causes elliptical motion and the top of the waves moves faster so it begins to break.

Question 5

What is the swash?

Answer 5

The water that rushes up the beach when a wave reaches the shore.

Question 6

What is backwash?

Answer 6

The movement of water down a beach back into the sea.

Question 7

What determines wave size?

Answer 7

• Speed of the wind
• Distance of fetch
• How long wind has been blowing

Question 8

What are constructive waves and their characteristics?

Answer 8

These are low waves that surge up a beach and gives material to the beach.

• wave crests far apart
  -results in gentle beach
  -stronger swash than backwash

Question 9

What are destructive waves and their characteristics?

Answer 9

These are formed by local storms close to the coastline and take beach material away therefore erode the coastline.

-wave crests close together
-steep wave front
-stronger backwash than swash
-results in steep beach

Question 10

What is erosion?

Answer 10

The removal of material and the shaping of landforms.

Question 11

What is transportation?

Answer 11

The movement of material across the earths surface by wind, water, ice or gravity.

Question 12

What are the four processes of erosion?

Answer 12

Hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition and solution

Question 13

What are the four processes of transportation?

Answer 13

Solution, suspension, saltation and traction.

Question 14

What is abrasion?

Answer 14

Fragments of rock and sand are hurled at the base of the cliff therefore weakening it.

Question 15

What is attrition?

Answer 15

Fragments of rock knock against each other under the water causing them to break and become smoother.

Question 16

What is saltation?

Answer 16

Turbulence and currents lift up pebbles which then bounce along the seabed.

Question 17

What is traction?

Answer 17

Large pebbles are rolled along the seabed by currents.

Question 18

What are the five factors that affect coastal processes?

Answer 18

• Rock type
• Human interference
• Weathering
• Wave energy
• Prevailing wind

Question 19

What is mass movement?

Answer 19

A large scale downward movement of rocks and material.

Question 20

What are the 4 types if mass movement?

Answer 20

Rockfall, Mudflow, Landslide, Rotational slip

Question 21

What is a wave-cut notch?

Answer 21

A recess in the base of a cliff caused by erosional processes.

Question 22

What is a wave-cut platform?

Answer 22

A gently sloping area formed by the retreat of a cliff between the high and low tide levels.

Question 23

How does a wave-cut platform form?

Answer 23

As the wave-notch goes deeper in the cliff the top of the cliff becomes unstable and collapses. The happens many times overtime eventually creating a platform where the cliff has been. The wave-cut platform is exposed during low tide.

Question 24

What is longshore drift?

Answer 24

The movement of material along a coast by waves which approach at an angle to the shore and recede directly away from it. This moves sediment along a coastline.

Question 25

What is coastal deposition?

Answer 25

Coastal deposition takes place in areas where the flow of water slows down such as in sheltered bays. When waves lose energy sediment is deposited. Beaches are found in bays where the energy of waves is reduced, this is called wave refraction.

Question 26

What is wave refraction?

Answer 26

Wave refraction is the bending of a wave as it moves into shallower water.

Question 27

What is a spit and how is it formed?

Answer 27

A spit is a depositional landform formed when a finger of sediment extends from the sea created by longshore drift.

Question 28

What is a bar and how is it formed?

Answer 28

A gap in the coastland with water in it created by longshore drift which transports sand along the coast.

Question 29

What is a tombolo and how is it formed?

Answer 29

A tombolo is a depositional landform which is an island joined to mainland by a narrow piece of land. It is formed by longshore drift.

Question 30

What is hard engineering?

Answer 30

The use of artificial structures to defend land against erosional processes.

Question 31

What does sustainable mean?

Answer 31

Long lasting, effective without damage to the environment.

Question 32

What are the 4 types of hard engineering?

Answer 32

Sea wall, groynes, rock armour and gabions.

Question 33

What characteristics does a winter beach have?

Answer 33

Destructive waves, berms and sand dunes are eroded and waves drag beach material and create an offshore bar underwater.

Question 34

What characteristics does a summer beach have?

Answer 34

Constructive waves rebuild the beach, berms are formed when high tide pushes sediment up to form a ridge.

Question 35

What is a sand dune?

Answer 35

A hill of loose sand formed by wind or water, these can be stabilised by vegetation.

Question 36

What is the order of sand dunes?

Answer 36

- Embryo dunes - Fore dune - Yellow dunes - Grey dunes - Dune slack (have standing water) - Mature dunes

Question 37

What is managed retreat?

Answer 37

Allowing erosion to occur instead of using coastal defences but still having control over which land is flooded.

Question 38

When is managed retreat appropriate?

Answer 38

- When land is low value - When the budget is low - When there is a desire to create a natural habitat - When defending the coastline becomes increasingly difficult (most important)

Question 39

Where is a place managed retreat is used?

Answer 39

Medmerry Sussex, (near Portsmouth, on the south coast. Managed retreat was used because old sea defences became difficult to maintain.)

Question 40

What is soft engineering?

Answer 40

A way of defending land against erosional processes without building artificial structures and is usually sustainable.

Question 41

What are the 4 ways of soft engineering?

Answer 41

- Beach reprofiling (the reshaping of a beach using existing beach material) - Beach nourishment (Sand and shingle, often from seabed, added to upper beach to widen it) - Dune regeneration (Restoring sand dunes by planting vegetation or nourishment) - Dune fencing (Built on sandy beaches to encourage new dunes to grow and marram grass to colonise)