Hydraulic action - force of the water hitting the bank, breaking pieces off

Corrosion - some rocks are dissolved by the acids carried in the water

Attrition - material carried along in the river bashes into other bits of material and breaks into smaller bits

Abrasion (Corrasion) - bits of material carried in the water rubs away the banks like sandpaper

Fetch - an area of ocean or lake surface over which the wind blows, thus generating waves

Erosion - a geological process where material is being removed

Traction - large, heavy particles are rolled along the river bed

Saltation - pebbles are bounced along the river bed, most commonly near the source

Suspension - Lighter sediment is suspended within the water, most commonly near the river mouth

Solution - transport of dissolved sediment, varies along the river as it is dependent on the presence of soluble rocks

Concordant coastline - layers of rock run parallel with the coastline

Discordant coastline - layers of rock are perpendicular to the coastline

Tombolo - a bar of deposited material linking the mainland to an island. Example: Chesil Beach

Bar - a ridge of sand that blocks off a bay or river mouth, will create a lagoon behind it across a non-river bay

Coastal landscapes are open systems, meaning energy and matter can enter and leave the system

In theory, inputs, processes (throughputs) and outputs work together to create coastal equilibrium

However, in reality, human actions affect the state of equilibrium within the coastal system

Inputs: marine, energy, geological, atmospheric, people

Throughputs: stores (sediment/ beaches), flow (transfers)

Processes: deposition, erosion, weathering, mass movement

Outputs: marine and wind erosion, evaporation, landforms of erosion, landforms of deposition

When a system's inputs and outputs are equal, it reaches a state of equilibrium

When the rate of sediment being added to a beach is equal to the rate it is being removed, so the beach will remain the same size

Negative feedback - A stabilising mechanism acting to oppose changes to coastal morphology and establish equilibrium

Positive feedback - pushes a coastal system away from equilibrium by modifying its morphology until a threshold is reached, whereby a different type of response occurs

A coastal in equilibrium is able to dissipate or reflect incoming energy without the occurrence of sediment or output and change to morphology

Wave plunges onto steep beach, energy
directed downwards so does not travel far up the beach

Tides - long-period waves that roll around the planet as the ocean is 'pulled' back and forth by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun as these bodies interact with the earth in their monthly and yearly orbits

Spring (king) tide - the 'springing forth' of the tide during the new and full moon

Neap tide - seven days after the spring tide and refers to a period of moderate tides when the sun and moon are at tight angles to each other

Tidal range - the vertical difference in height between consecutive high and low waters over a tidal cycle. The range of the tide varies between locations and also varies over a range of time scales

Enclosed seas (like the Mediterranean) have a low tidal range, wave action is restricted to a narrow area of land

It influences where wave action occurs, the weathering process and the scouring effect of waves

Geology - main aspects that influence coastal landscapes are lithology and structure

LIthology - describes the physical and chemical composition of rocks. Clay has a weak lithology, little resistance to erosion, weathering and mass movement. It focuses on the bonds between the particles that make up the rock

Structure - determines if coastlines are concordant or discordant. Factors include: jointing, permeability (primary and secondary), bedding and faulting

Jointing - a joint is a break of natural origin in a layer or body of rock that lacks visible or measurable movement parallel to the surface of the fracture

Permeability - a measure of the ability of water to move through a rock

Primary permeability - chalk: pores separating the mineral particles absorb water

Secondary permeability - limestone: water seeps into joints which are enlarged by solution

Bedding (stratification) - is one of the most prominent features of sedimentary rocks, which are usually made up of piles of layers (strata) of sediments deposited one on top of another. These beds range from millimetres thick to multiple metres thick

Faulting - a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there have been significant displacements as a result of rock-mass movements

Rivers are major sources of sediment input to the coastal sediment budget. Very visible on coasts with steep gradient. Sediment delivery to the shoreline is intermittent - mostly occurs during flooding. Sediment origin is inland erosion (water, wind, sub aerial processes)

Wave erosion - another source of large amounts of sediment that contributes to coastal sediment budgets

Cliff erosion can be increased due to sea level rise and storm surge evens. In some areas cliff erosion contributes as much as 70% of material found in coastal management systems

Long-shore drift moves sediment along the coast to adjacent areas

Structure is a very important influence on the planform
of coasts at a regional scale

Rock outcrops that are uniform, or run parallel to the coast, tend to produce straight coastlines (concordant)

Where rocks lie at right angles to the coast they create a discordant planform. The more resistan rocks form headland the weaker rocks form bays

Rock outcrops are visible exposures of bedrock or other geological formations at the surface of the Earth

Beach nourishment when a coastal
sediment budget is in deficit

Constructive waves - bring sediment from offshore locations (marine deposits), tides and currents

Wind - blows sediment from other locations, has less energy than water, so it transports finer sediment and less of it

Carbonation - the process of rock minerals reacting with carbonic acid. A weak acid is formed when water combines with carbon dioxide. Carbonic acid dissolves or breaks down minerals in the rock

Hydration - a type of chemical weathering where water reacts chemically with the rock, modifying its chemical structure. Example: anhydrite to gypsum

Solution - the process by which certain minerals are dissolved by acidic solutions

Hydrolysis - the breakdown of rock by acidic water to produce clay and soluble salt

Oxidation - the breakdown of rock by oxygen and water, often giving iron-rich rocks their red colour

Eustatic changes - changes in the volume of water in the global ocean stores