Weathering, Erosion and Deposition

  • Gradational Forces work to smooth out the landscape

Coastal Landscapes

  • Coastal landscapes can be formed through erosion or deposition (build up of land through deposits of sand and other materials).

  • Coastal landforms-

    • arch

    • stack

    • cave

    • headland

Erosional Landforms

  • Destructive waves are waves that erode and destroy sections of a coast.

  • Their swash is weaker than their backwash, causing soil and nutrients to be drawn back into the sea rather than the land.

  • Destructive waves begin in a large, stormy ocean, building up energy unleashed on rocks and sands, carving shapes in the coastline. This process is known as erosion

  1. Cliff- Formed by waves on rock, eroding softer rock, leaving the more durable rock behind.

  2. Cave- Waves bend around headlands, attacking the side known as refraction. Waves find weak sports in the cliff, causing an opening and soon a cave.

  3. Gorge- Waves entering long caves wear away the roof, causing it to collapse and forming a deep gorge.

  4. Arch- Waves eroding the back of a cave may penetrate the headland, producing and arch.

  5. Headland- prominent point of land that juts out into the sea, often characterised by steep cliffs formed through coastal erosion and the action of waves.

  6. Bay- softer parts of coastlines wear away more quickly, becoming bays

  7. Stack- vertical columns of rock, eroded by destructive waves in arches.

Depositional Landforms

  • Constructive waves help to create landforms allowing plants and animals to survive.

  • Begin far out at sea and gently roll onto the shore, landing gently, bringing materials from the sea onto inland.

  • The most common depositional landforms are beaches

  • A beach is formed when constructive waves carry material and deposit them on the shore. These waves do not have enough energy to backwash the sand into the sea, but may bring destructive waves several times a year and wash away parts of the beach.

  • As the tide goes out, the sand dries out and the wind pick the grains and blow them inland.

  • Obstructed sand by plants and sheltered areas pile higher and higher to form sand dunes.

  • When entire dunes move further inland, they are called blowout dunes.

  • A spit is a long, curved landform that is built up at the mouth of a river, where it widens and ends.

  • A river carries soil and rocks, dumping it at a river mouth, forming a spit.

  • Over time, a river mouth may move hundreds of meters along the coast, and a lagoon is formed, a calm stretch of water behind the spit, home to plants and wading birds.

  • A tombolo is formed when waves curve around an island close to shore and deposit a bar of sand to the side closest to the mainland. Eventually, enough material is built up, and a tombolo is formed.