Depositional landforms: Spurn Head, Chesil Beach, Dungeness (Kent), East coast of USA, Gibraltar point, Scolt head island

What is spurn head an example of?

A spit

What are some facts about Spurn head? (eg length and material)

Spurn head, Holderness coast, its a recurved sand and shingle spit.

The spit is 3.5 miles long here.

What are some facts about Chesil Beach (Tombolo)? (length, what territories does it connect?

18 mile long tombolo, connects the isle of Portland to the mainland of Dorset coast.

What are some facts about Dungeness, Kent (Cuspate foreland)?Can you give the age and material?

Largest Cuspate foreland in the UK, the cuspate foreland is 3000 years old and contains 40% of Britain’s coastal shingle

What is the USA’s east coast an ideal place for? and why?

Ideal conditions for barrier beaches to form

low lying coast unprotected by cliffs faces an ocean

-          Wind and waves formed sand dunes when the sea level was lower

 

-          Over the last 15,000 years, the glaciers melted and the sea level rose by 120m

 

-          As the rising sea breaks over the dunes, this forms lagoons behind the sandy ridge which divides into islands.

What is an example of a pioneer plant species at the dunes of Gibraltar point, UK? (Gibraltar point is an example of sand dune succession)

Prickly saltwort

What is a step by step recap of how salt marshes formed at Scolt Head Island? (mud, salinity, plant species, sediment, bioconstruction, height increase)

Mud and silt deposited on a sheltered area of the coast (behind the ridge), mud covered the sand,

high salinity not many plants could grow,

plants that are salt tolerant like green algae began to grow and trapped sediment from the sea, roots stabilised the sediment.

Bioconstruction (deposition triggered by vegetation) took place, gradually more plants present,

caused more mud to be present (accreditation), increased height of the land,

more plants able to grow due to favourable conditions.