Geographical Terms

The Basic Pattern of Headlands and Bays:

Headlands and bays are made by erosion from the waves. Headlands are made when the sea attacks a section of a cliff made with hard and soft rocks. The soft rock erodes faster than the hard rock so it makes a curvy line. The rock that is left sticking out into the sea is called a headland. The areas where the rock has eroded away, next to the headlands, are called bays.


Features at the Foreland:

Caves, arches, stacks and stumps are some features at the foreland. Caves are made when the waves attack a cliff and it makes a small hole in it. The waves keep attacking it until it gets really big. Some caves like the ‘Tilly Whim Caves’ can be visited by the public. Arches are made from a crack in a headland. The crack keeps getting taller and wider until it becomes so big that it makes the shape of an arch.


Features at the Foreland:

Caves, arches, stacks and stumps are some features at the foreland. A stack is made when the top of an arch gets really close to the top of the headland and it cannot support the weight any longer so it falls into the sea. This creates two stacks. Examples of stacks are ‘Old Harry and his Wife’. A stump is made from a stack when the weathering attacks the top of a stack and the waves attack the bottom of the stack. This causes the top and bottom of the stack to crumble. There is now lots of rubble in the sea like a small stack but wider. This is a stump.


Collapsing Cliffs:

The shape of a cliff is made by erosion and weathering. The weather attacks the top of the cliff while the sea is slowly eroding the bottom of it. This makes a wave-cut notch. Cliffs are made from layers of hard rock (limestone, chalk, etc.) and soft rock (clays and sandstone).

The soft rock erodes easily and creates gently sloping cliffs but the hard rock takes longer and is harder to erode so it creates steep cliffs. The bottom of the cliff erodes quicker than the top of the cliff as the weather is only making it weaker. After a while, the bottom has an area of cliff missing from the erosion. The top of the cliff then falls down because of the weathering, which has made it weak, and so it cannot hold the rest of the cliff up any more.


Transportation and Deposition:

Transportation occurs when the movement of sediment along the coastline. Deposition occurs when the energy of waves decrease.


Long Shore Drift:

Long shore drift is the movement of sediment along the coastline. The swash comes in at an angle but the backwash always goes straight back. If there was a pebble on the beach (close to the sea) the waves pull it back, then push it up onto the beach a bit further up. This would carry on until it got to a groyne or the wave ran out of energy.


Human Interaction:

Building a sea wall – protects base of cliff from erosion, can prevent flooding.
Building groynes – prevents beach material from moving along the beach
through the process of long shore drift, builds up a beach.


Human Interaction:

Building a sea wall – expensive to build, may begin to erode after a few years.
Building groynes – unattractive?, can be costly to build and maintain.