Lesson 1:

Coastal Locations & Processes

What you should know by the end of this lesson:

The main coastal areas of the U.K.
The key terminology you will need for this topic

Background - The U.K. Coastline

No matter where you are in the U.K. you are never more than 70 miles from the coast. Roughly a 2-hour drive. Most likely though you live a lot closer to the coast than that. The U.K. coastline is one of the longest in the world, although we can't put a specific number on it as it really depends on how you measure the coastline.

If we had to measure it our coastline length is 12 500 to 19 000 km (or if we accommodate the change in coastline due to our tide it could also be 31 400km).

Using standard measurement to measure all coastlines with the same method, UK has the 12th longest coastline in the world. We are only the 78th largest by area size, you can see the Coastline of our country is a huge part of life for us.

The U.K. Coastline

To help understand some of the features we will discuss it helps to know where in the U.K. we find them.

Digital Workbook and Paper Jotter

Collect an outline map of the U.K.
Annotate the areas A-I with their location names from the word box.

Location Word Box

Antrim
Dorset
Norfolk
Northumberland
North East Scotland (Buchan/Aberdeenshire)
North West Scotland
Pembrokeshire
South East England (Dover)
South West England (Cornwall)

Key Processes & Terminology

Coastal Erosional features are formed through similar processes. When explaining how these features are formed, you must name at least 2 and fully explain how they work:

Digital Workbook and Paper Jotter

Take a note of each of the key processes below.
Be clear on the name and definition, if used appropriately this could gain you 2 marks in an explain the formation question.

Erosional Processes

Abrasion

Corrasion (also known as Abrasion) is the process of sand and rocks carried by the waves being thrown at the cliff wearing it away.

Hydraulic Action

Hydraulic action is the sheer force of waves crashing against the cliffs. The power of the waves forces air into cracks, compresses it and blows the rock apart as the pressure is released.

Corrosion

Corrosion (also known as Solution) is when chemicals in the seawater dissolve minerals in the rocks, causing them to break up.

Attrition

Attrition happens when rocks and pebbles carried by the waves smash into each other, wearing each other away and gradually becoming smaller, rounder and smoother.

Types of Waves

Waves

Waves are the result of the wind blowing over the sea. The bottom of the wave touches the sand below and slows due to increased friction. This pushes the wave up which then topples over known as "breaking".

Fetch

This is the distance over which the wind has blown uninterrupted

The longer the fetch the more powerful the waves. The Fetch normally follows the

prevailing (most common) wind.

Note: You could add the fetch to your coastal map

Swash

Swash is the flow of the wave as it moves UP the beach

Backwash

The Backwash is when the wave flows away back DOWN the beach. The Backwash is always at right angles to the beach.

Constructive Waves

Swash > Backwash

When the Swash is greater than the Backwash this will push more material onto the beach constructing the beach.

Destructive Waves

Swash < Backwash

When the Backwash is greater than the Swash this will pull more material away from the beach destroying the beach.