Geography Term 2 Week 1

7/1/21

Topic: Coastal Landforms

Features formed by Erosion

Cliffs

Cliffs are steep rocky faces, often nearly vertical, facing the sea.

Many of them are high, although their height depends on the height of the land forming the coast at this
point.

Cliffs are formed by wave erosion of upland coast and are prominent in all Caribbean territories on both
the windward and leeward coasts.

Notches

These are incisions made by the wave at the waterline.

Notches are generally found on cliffs.

They are found on the windward coast as well as the sheltered leeward coast. They can be caused by
waves.
Wave-cut Platforms

Wave-cut platforms are eroded shelves found in front of cliffed shorelines.

The origin and development of wave-cut platforms is related to cliff recession.

Platforms are formed where cliff recession is active due to powerful waves attacking the base of the cliff.

Eroded material is generally removed by the backwash of the waves.

Headlands

Headlands are areas on the coast that juts out into the sea.

A headland often separates two bays, but they can occur anywhere on the coast where there is high
land running down into the sea. Headlands develop where there are hard rock outcrop between more
easily eroded land.
Bays

Bays are concave sections of the coast, often flank by two headlands.

They can occur at any weakness, or drop in elevation, along an otherwise, straight coast. Bays can be a
few metres across or several kilometers. Their shape often encourage deposition.

Bays generally occurs along rocky or cliffed coast. They are formed due to differential erosion.

Differential erosion that occurs at irregular or varying rates, caused by the differences in the resistance
and hardness of surface materials; softer and weaker rocks are rapidly worn away.
Sea Caves

These are eroded cavities in rocky shores created by wave action.

They are formed when waves action work on areas of weakness (faults or soft layers of rock) in the
rocky face of the shore.

They are generally found in headland.

Caves are also found in limestone islands. This includes he Bahamas, Barbados and Turks and Caicos.

Arches

Arches are short tunnels through coastal rock, through which the sea can pass.

They are formed wherever a narrow neck of rock, such as a headland, is undermined by the sea.

If a cave is formed in an exposed headland, it may be enlarged until it runs right through this headland.
The resulting feature is called an arch.
Stacks

Stacks are pinnacles of rock standing up in the sea, their main characteristics being that they have
become detached from the shore.

They are distinguished from rocks or cay by being higher than they are wide.

Stacks are formed when a projecting piece of land such as a headland is completely separated from the
shore.

Classic case for the formation of a stack is the collapse of an arch due to continued erosion.

Stump

Stump is a low rock outcrop found in the sea.

It is generally seen during low tides.

The stack will be attacked at the base in the same way that a wave-cut notch is formed. This weakens
the structure and it will eventually collapse to form a stump.
Features formed by Deposition

Beaches

Beaches are deposits of sediments laid down on the shore between high and low water levels.

Deposits can vary in size, colour, mineral content and the beach itself can be wide or narrow, long or just
a patch of sand.

Beaches are built up by suitable low-lying shores, by the actions of waves transferring sediments from
the sea bed onto the sure.

Shallow seas can be seen as factories for producing sand.

Onshore winds will carry sand further inshore to build sand dunes.

Sand beach (sand grains ranging in size between 0.5 to 2mm)

Sand Dunes

Sand dunes need vegetation to establish and maintain them.

Shingles

The term shingle beach refers to a beach along any body of water that is made up of stones, pebbles,
and other small rocks. These materials, also known as shingles, may vary in size from 2 to 200
millimeters and can also be mixed with other sediments, like sand.
Boulder Beach

Spits

A spit is a tongue of land, usually an extension of a beach, extending out from the shore but in line with
it.

These are formed when material is deposited along the coastline by longshore drift. They are usually
linear. They are connected to the land at one end and free at the other. Spits usually form where there is
a bend on the coastline.

Spits are common where river estuaries break the coastline.

Tombolo

Tombolos are deposits of sand or marine sediments that build out from the shore to attach themselves
to an offshore island or a cay.

(Tombolos connects the mainland to island or cay.

It is formed from longshore drift.

Bars

Bars are linear deposits of material which are approximately parallel to the coast.

They can form anywhere where the waves have sufficient energy to transport sediment all the way to
the shore.

Found across bays and at the mouth of the river (special cases)