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Summary Coasts located examples and facts
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A compilation of located examples and facts for the A level Edexcel geography specification
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Coasts located examples and factsEQ1
- Rocky coastline: Hangman’s cli4s, Devon – rise 318m above the Bristol Channel
- Glamorgan Heritage Coast: a 14 mile long stretch of high energy coastline in South
Wales. The Bristol Channel funnels large, destructive waves onto the coast from the
south west. A highly eroded discordant coastline which is prone to cli4 falls. Its
characterised by high vertical cli4s made of sedimentary rocks (highly carboniferous
limestone, sandstone, shale and mudstone). There are headlands at Witches Point and
Nash Point and sandy bays near Dunraven and Merthyr Mawr, there are large areas of
wave cut platforms made from limestone, especially around Nash Point – these are the
original limestone strata left behind when waves eroded the layers of softer shale in the
cli4. The southern down coast, which is part of the coastline, is a site of special
scientific interest
- Barrier beach: Start Bay, Devon – is 9km long and formed from rounded shingle deposits
- Tombolo: St Ninians’s isle to the south west Shetland mainland – the largest active sand
tombolo in the UK
- Cuspate foreland: Dungeness, Kent
- Fingal’s Cave on Sta4a Island in western Scotland has basalt rock formations
- Discordant coastline: West Cork coast, Ireland – rock strata with alternate bands of
sandstone and mudstone
- Concordant coastline: Dorset – at Lulworth Cove, marine erosion has broken through
the resistant beds and then rapidly eroded the wide coves behind and at the back of the
coves is resistant chalk which prevents erosion further inland
- Concordant coastline: Dalmatian coast, Croatia – has limestone geology that was
folded by tectonic activity into a series of anticlines and synclines that trend parallel to
the coastline, the structure of upstanding anticlines and lower syncline basins has been
drowned by the rising sea levels during the Holocene (sea level rises and climate
warming at the end of the last ice age) to from a concordant coastline of long, narrow
islands arranged in lines o4shore
- Concordant coastline: Ha4 coasts, Baltic sea – long sediment ridges topped by sand
dunes run parallel to the coast just o4shore, creating lagoons (ha4s) between the ridges
and shore
EQ2
- The UK’s largest waves are generally experienced in Cornwall – the prevailing wind is
from the southwest and the fetch from Florida to Cornwall is over 4000km
- Sediment cell: Portland Bill to Selsey Bill – has a strong south-westerly prevailing wind.
Erosive processes dominate a large part of the coast on the western side of the cell
è Eroded material from the isle of Purbeck moves into the west of Poole Bay and
accumulates around the entrance to Poole Harbour
è At Poole Harbour, a spit has formed on its southern edge. Another spit has formed
on the northern edge of the harbour. Further spits are located at the Hengistbury
head and near hurst castle
, è Minor currents emerging from the estuary at Southampton move into the Solent and
prevent hurst spit from joining up to the Isle of Wight
è The northeast side of the Isle of Wight has calmer waters. These protect the inlets
around Portsmouth and allow accretion to take place there
- The Old Man of Hoy is the UK’s tallest stack at 137m high – in 1750 the location was a
headland but by 1820, an arch had formed and today only a stack remains
- St Oswald’s bay, Dorset 2013 – a large rockfall occurred overnight without warning, an
80-100 long section of cli4 collapsed with it. It left a landslide scar – an area of
unvegetated fresh chalk with older vegetated cli4 face to the left and the right, a fan
shaped talus scree slope and the debris from the rockfall has caused the e4ective
coastline to protrude further out to sea than normal
EQ3
- Sea level has risen 21-24cm since 1880
- Since the last ice age around 12,000 years ago, it is estimated that sea levels have risen
by 120m and if Antarctica completely melted, sea levels could rise by a further 50m
- Post glacial isostatic adjustment: Scotland is rebounding upward, in some places by up
to 1.5mm a year and in contrast England and Wales are subsiding at up to 1mm per year
- Fossil cli4s and raised beaches in Fife, Scotland (emergent)
- Ria: Plymouth Sound
- Fjord: Scotland, Norway, New Zealand, Chile
- Dalmatian Coast: Croatia – drowned coast at the end of the last ice age
- The east coast of the USA is dominated by a complex coastline landform called a barrier
island – can be found from Florida all the way north to Connecticut
è Ongoing debate as to how they are formed but may be due to the lines of coastal
sand dunes attached to the shore. Subsequent sea level rises flooded the land
behind the dunes forming a lagoon, but the dunes were not eroded and become
islands and as the sea level continued to rise the dune systems slowly moved
landward
è Barrier islands are a natural form of coastal defence – they force ocean waves to
break out at sea, protecting the true coastline landward of the lagoon
è In the USA, they form a natural protective barrier against hurricanes on the Gulf of
Mexico coast and Eastern seaboard
- The Holderness Coast: since Roman times they have retreated by 4km and at least 29
villages have been lost to the sea
- Erosion rates are around 1.25m per year, which has wide varied from 0 to 11m per year
along the coastline. The variations have occurred due to:
è Coastal defences at Hornsea, Mappleton and Withernsea which have stopped
erosion – but these defences have starved places further south of sediment as
groynes have interrupted longshore drift and trapped sediment
è Beaches further south are increasingly sediment starved – erosion rates generally
increase from north to south
è Made from boulder clay, deposited by glaciers after last ice age – which is
structurally weak
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