AQA Geography A Level & AS Physical Geography: Coastal Systems and Landscapes Glossary

Flashcards covering key glossary terms related to coastal systems and landscapes from AQA Geography A Level & AS Physical Geography notes.

What natural phenomenon involves earth and mud flowing downhill over unconsolidated or weak bedrock, often after heavy rainfall?

Mudflow

What are submerged or partly exposed ridges of sand or coarse sediment created by waves offshore from the coast?

Offshore bars

What term describes the first plants that colonise an area, often with special adaptations like marram grass on sand dunes?

Pioneer species

What is the result of isostatic recovery that raises wave-cut platforms and their beaches above the present sea level?

Raised beach

What is the end of a spit that has curved round, as wave refraction carries material into the more sheltered water behind it?

Recurved tip

What is a sheltered, winding inlet with an irregular shoreline created by rising sea levels?

Ria

What are strong, localised underwater currents that occur on some beaches?

Rip currents

What involves the sudden collapse or breaking away of individual rock fragments or a block of rock at a cliff face?

Rockfall

What are the dips in the foreshore area of a beach between ridges, which are drained down the beach by channels usually parallel to the coastline?

Runnels

What process describes rocks or sand that is moved in a series of leaps (bouncing) across a river, sea bed, or desert floor?

Saltation

What coastal ecosystem is formed on mudflats, largely comprising salt-tolerant plants?

Saltmarsh

: What depositional feature consists of sand that has been blown off the beach by onshore winds (an aeolian process)?

Sand dune

What is an apron of rock debris found at the bottom of cliffs, caused by weathering and slow rates of debris removal?

Scree

What is an attempt to quantify the various stores and transfers associated with sediment movement?

Sediment budget