UK Physical Landscape - Coasts
Sub-Aerial Processes
Mass Movement - shifting of rocks and (saturated) loose material down a slope, as gravity pulls it down.
Coastal Processes
Erosion - breaking down of rocks through waves. Hydraulic Action, Abrasion, Attrition, Solution.
Transportation - moving material along the coast. Happens by Longshore Drift - Prevailing wind and gravity.
Deposition - placing of material and sediments.
Weathering - rocks being broken down by natural processes like wind, ice, and rain, or chemical processes.
Biological: plant roots or insects and small animals dig into the rocks and crack them.
Mechanical: Freeze-Thaw. 1, Sea water gets into cracks and joints. 2. Crystals evaporate and condense, forming salt crystals that do the same. 3. This adds pressure, widening the crack until it break.
Chemical: Carbonation Weathering. 1. Dissolved CO2 in water makes them carbonic acids (weak). 2, Carbonic acids with calcium carbonate in rocks, dissolving the rocks.
Slump: name describes it, fall down slope.
Rockfall: broken rocks fall down a slope.
Slide: almost like cut, material falls in a straight line.
Constructive Waves: short and long. Less frequency, less energy, Short fetch.
Traction, Saltation, Suspension, Solution
Destructive Waves: tall and short. More frequent and more energy. Longer fetch.
Fetch: how strong the wind was that created the wave, and how far it travelled for.
Coastal Landforms
Erosional Landforms
Depositional Landforms
Beaches
Spits
Bars
Bays and Headlands
Coves
Caves, Arches, Stacks
Human Impact Coast
Climate Change: more heat means higher wind speeds and more energy from the sea evaporation. Thus more storms.
Agriculture: not protected, no vegetation weakens soil so easier weathering, drained marshland no flood barrier.
Industry: quarries expose rock, extracting certain materials from beach, ports destroy natural flood barriers.
Infrastructure: settlements, roads businesses. Hard engineering protects coast, but more erosion later on. Narrow beaches = more erosion.
Coastal Flooding :D
Rising Sea Levels: flood low lying areas. More frequent tides, exponentially weaker coast, cliffs fall, narrower beaches.
Storm Frequencies: More powerful and frequent storms. Hard rocks now eroded. Areas stripped of material. More frequent storm surges.
Threats to Environment: sea water damage, salt marshes ruined (at lagoons), trees uprooted.
Threats to People: loss of housing, flooding of businesses, tourist damage, infrastructure damage.
Managing Coasts
Hard Engineering: man-made, strong ways. Expensive, ugly, unsustainable.
Soft Engineering: more natural methods. Tend to protect the ecosystem
Reasons to protect: rising sea levels, value of buildings/economy, protecting environment, more erosion elsewhere
Sea Walls, Groynes.
Beach Nourishment, Management
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