Physical Processes
Coastal Processes
Also Known As Coastal Erosion and Deposition
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Coastal processes are the erosion, transport and deposition that waves, currents, tides and storms carry out along a shoreline. Hydraulic action compresses air into cliff-face cracks until it splinters the rock, abrasion grinds the cliff with the debris waves already carry, and solution slowly dissolves soluble rock such as chalk or limestone. The same processes that cut arches, stacks and cliffs on a rocky coast build spits, bars and beaches on a soft one, and rising sea levels are expected to accelerate erosion on coastlines worldwide.
Facts
Process Type TimescaleDays, in a single storm surge, to centuries, in the retreat of a soft cliff line. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
Demonstrated By
The Wadden Sea is a tidal-flat and barrier-island system built and continually reworked by coastal erosion, transport and deposition.
Shaped
Sources
1. Coastal Erosion (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationDefinition sectionQuote, Definition section
the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of waves, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts of storms.
1. Coastal Erosion (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationMechanisms section, timescaleQuote, Mechanisms section, timescale
waves strike a cliff face thus compressing air in cracks on the cliff face. This exerts pressure on the surrounding rock, and can progressively splinter and remove pieces.
Great Barrier Reef (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationShaped: The Great Barrier Reef, Geology and geography sectionQuote, Shaped: The Great Barrier Reef, Geology and geography section
The land that formed the substrate of the current Great Barrier Reef was a coastal plain formed from the eroded sediments of the Great Dividing Range
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