Contents
Key Definitions (Don't we love them?)
Fetch: The distance of open water over over which the wind has blown.
Beach: A deposit of sand or shingle at the coast, often found at the head of a bay.
Crest: The top of a wave.
Swash: The forward movement of a wave up a beach.
Backwash: The backward movement of water down a beach when a wave has broken.
Constructive Wave: A powerful wave with strong swash that surges up the beach.
Destructive Wave: A wave formed by a local storm that crashes down onto a beach and has powerful backwash
Rockfall: The collapse of a cliff face or the fall of individual rocks from a cliff.
Hydraulic Power: The sheer power of the waves.
Attrition: Bits of rock and sand grinding down a cliff surface like sandpaper, making it smoother.
Corrasion: The effect of rocks being flung at a cliff by powerful waves.
Solution: The dissolving of rocks such as limestone and chalk.
Attrition: The knocking together of pebbles, making them gradually smaller and smaller.
Traction: Heavy particles rolled along the seabed.
Solution: The transport of dissolved chemicals.
Saltation: A hopping movement of pebbles along the seabed.
Suspension: Lighter particles carried (suspended) within the water.
Longshore Drift (Oh, how we love it!): The transport of sediment along a stretch of coastline caused by waves approaching the beach at an angle.
Headland: A promontory of land jutting out into the sea.
Bay: A broad coastal inlet often with a beach.
Wave-Cut Platform: A wide, gently sloping rocky surface at the foot of a cliff.
Wave-Cut Notch: A small indentation (or notch) cut into a cliff roughly at the level of high tide caused by concentrated marine erosion at this level.
Cave: A hollowed-out feature at the base of an eroding cliff.
Arch: A headland that has been partly broken through by the sea to form a thin-roofed arch.
Stack: An isolated pinnacle of rock sticking out of the sea.
Spit: A finger of new land made of sand or shingle, jutting out into the sea from the coast.
Salt Marsh: Low-lying coastal wetland mostly extending between high and low tide.
Bar: A spit that has grown across a bay.
Shoreline Management Plan (SMP): An integrated management plan for a stretch of coastline in England and Wales.
Hard Engineering: Building artificial structures such as sea walls aimed at controlling natural processes.
Soft Engineering: A sustainable approach to managing the coast without using artificial structures.
Managed Retreat: Allowing controlled flooding of low-lying coastal areas or cliff collapse in areas where the value of the land is low.
Pioneer Plant: The first plant species to colonise an area that is well adapted to living in a harsh environment.
Vegetation Succession: A sequence of vegetation species colonising an environment.
Beach: A deposit of sand or shingle at the coast, often found at the head of a bay.
Crest: The top of a wave.
Swash: The forward movement of a wave up a beach.
Backwash: The backward movement of water down a beach when a wave has broken.
Constructive Wave: A powerful wave with strong swash that surges up the beach.
Destructive Wave: A wave formed by a local storm that crashes down onto a beach and has powerful backwash
Rockfall: The collapse of a cliff face or the fall of individual rocks from a cliff.
Hydraulic Power: The sheer power of the waves.
Attrition: Bits of rock and sand grinding down a cliff surface like sandpaper, making it smoother.
Corrasion: The effect of rocks being flung at a cliff by powerful waves.
Solution: The dissolving of rocks such as limestone and chalk.
Attrition: The knocking together of pebbles, making them gradually smaller and smaller.
Traction: Heavy particles rolled along the seabed.
Solution: The transport of dissolved chemicals.
Saltation: A hopping movement of pebbles along the seabed.
Suspension: Lighter particles carried (suspended) within the water.
Longshore Drift (Oh, how we love it!): The transport of sediment along a stretch of coastline caused by waves approaching the beach at an angle.
Headland: A promontory of land jutting out into the sea.
Bay: A broad coastal inlet often with a beach.
Wave-Cut Platform: A wide, gently sloping rocky surface at the foot of a cliff.
Wave-Cut Notch: A small indentation (or notch) cut into a cliff roughly at the level of high tide caused by concentrated marine erosion at this level.
Cave: A hollowed-out feature at the base of an eroding cliff.
Arch: A headland that has been partly broken through by the sea to form a thin-roofed arch.
Stack: An isolated pinnacle of rock sticking out of the sea.
Spit: A finger of new land made of sand or shingle, jutting out into the sea from the coast.
Salt Marsh: Low-lying coastal wetland mostly extending between high and low tide.
Bar: A spit that has grown across a bay.
Shoreline Management Plan (SMP): An integrated management plan for a stretch of coastline in England and Wales.
Hard Engineering: Building artificial structures such as sea walls aimed at controlling natural processes.
Soft Engineering: A sustainable approach to managing the coast without using artificial structures.
Managed Retreat: Allowing controlled flooding of low-lying coastal areas or cliff collapse in areas where the value of the land is low.
Pioneer Plant: The first plant species to colonise an area that is well adapted to living in a harsh environment.
Vegetation Succession: A sequence of vegetation species colonising an environment.