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S-Cool Revision Summary
- A wave is formed by the wind blowing across the surface of the water, creating ripples, which then grow into waves.
- The Fetch determines how powerful a wave may be. It is the distance that the wave has travelled.
- Destructive waves have a much stronger backwash than swash, allowing them to remove material from the beach.
- Destructive waves create a steep narrow beach.
- Constructive waves have a stronger swash than backwash, causing the beach to be built up by the deposited material.
- Constructive waves create a wide, gently sloping beach.
- Processes of coastal erosion include attrition, corrasion, corrosion, hydraulic action, wave pounding and sub-aerial processes.
- There are a number of factors which affect the rate of this erosion: rock type, jointing, coastal rock arrangement and rock angle.
- Processes of coastal transportation include long-shore drift, traction, saltation, suspension, and solution.
- Coastal deposition occurs when the waves loose energy.
- Erosional features include headlands, bays, cliffs, wave-cut platforms, stacks, stumps, arches and caves.
- Depositional features include beaches, spits, bars and tombolos.
- Caused by water freezing during the Ice-Age.
- Features of sea level change include raised beaches, rias and fjords.
- Many strategies have been tried around the world, and these can be divided into two main groups, hard and soft engineering.
- Hard engineering techniques include sea walls, wooden groynes, gabion groynes and rock armour.
- Soft engineering techniques include beach replenishment.
- The final method of coastal management is of course to do nothing and allow the sea attack the coastline naturally.
- Most of the solutions are very costly, and in many places questions are being asked as to whether they are actually worth the money.