2nd Year Geography Revision: The Sea, OS Maps, and Aerial Photographs

Vocabulary flashcards covering key definitions and visual patterns from 2nd Year Geography, including coastal erosion and deposition processes, coastal protection methods, settlement patterns, contour slopes, and aerial photography.

Load

The material carried by the sea, including sand, silt, mud, and pebbles.

Swash

The force of incoming waves that moves water and coastal load up the shore.

Backwash

The retreating movement of water that pulls coastal load back down the shore.

Longshore Drift

The coastal transportation process in which load is moved up the shore by the swash and pulled back down by retreating waves (backwash) in a zig-zag motion along the coastline.

Hydraulic Action

A process of coastal erosion caused by the sheer power of water as it crashes against the coast.

Abrasion

A process of coastal erosion that occurs when waves pick up stones and throw them against the coast, abrading the rock face.

Compressed Air

A process of coastal erosion where air trapped in rock cracks is compressed by incoming waves; when the water retreats, the air expands and pressure drops, repeatedly shattering the rock.

Attrition

A coastal process where stones carried by waves hit off each other, gradually becoming worn down and smoothed over time.

Solution

A coastal erosion process in which certain soluble rocks, such as limestone, are dissolved by seawater.

Differential Erosion

The process whereby softer rock along a coastline is eroded away more quickly than resistant hard rock, resulting in the formation of bays and headlands.

Headland

A coastal landform composed of hard, resistant rock (such as granite) left jutting out into the sea on either side of a bay due to differential erosion.

Bay

A coastal inlet or hollow formed where softer rock (such as sandstone) is eroded more rapidly than surrounding harder rock.

Beach

A gently sloping depositional coastal landform of sand, shingle (pebbles), or stones found between high- and low-tide levels, formed by swash and backwash.

Storm Beach

A high ridge of heavier material, including rocks and larger stones, deposited above the normal high-tide mark by powerful storm waves.

Groynes

Concrete or wooden walls or fences built out into the sea at right angles to the coastline to reduce longshore drift and trap sand to build up the beach (e.g., Rosslare, Co. Wexford).

Sea Walls

Hard coastal engineering structures built to break the power of incoming waves, curved at the top to push incoming waves back out to sea (e.g., Bray, Co. Wicklow).

Gabions

Steel wire cages filled with stones and stacked together to act like a sea wall, slowing down or preventing coastal erosion by breaking wave power (e.g., Lahinch, Co. Clare).

Rock Armour

Large boulders placed at the base of a cliff, sand dune, or sea wall to absorb incoming wave energy and reduce erosion (e.g., Strandhill, Co. Sligo).

Sand Spit

A depositional ridge of sand or shingle extending out into the sea or across a bay mouth, formed by longshore drift and wind.

Tombolo

A coastal depositional feature formed by longshore drift where a spit or ridge of sand joins an offshore island to the mainland.

Coastal Lagoon

A body of shallow coastal water cut off or separated from the open sea by a sandbar, sand spit, or barrier dune system.

Dispersed Settlement Pattern

A rural settlement pattern where individual houses or farmsteads are scattered and spread far apart across the landscape.

Linear Settlement Pattern

A settlement pattern where houses or buildings are arranged in a long continuous line along a road or transport route.

Nucleated Settlement Pattern

A settlement pattern where buildings are grouped or clustered tightly together, frequently centered around a road junction or crossroads.

Straight Slope

A slope shown on an OS map by evenly spaced contour lines, indicating a constant and uniform gradient from top to bottom.

Concave Slope

A slope that is steep at the top (contour lines close together) and becomes gentler towards the bottom (contour lines widely spaced).

Convex Slope

A slope that is gentle at the top (contour lines spaced widely apart) and steep towards the bottom (contour lines closely spaced).

Vertical Aerial Photograph

An aerial photograph taken from directly overhead an area, with the camera pointed vertically down towards the ground.

Oblique Aerial Photograph

An aerial photograph taken from an aircraft with the camera pointed at an angle rather than directly downwards.