1.2.

1b How do processes work together to create landform features

at different scales in coastal landscapes in Wales?

Arches to stacks
Where a coast
Erosion of cracks and faults in a is made up of hard headland
headland can, in time, alternating
Waves
lead to the formation of a cave. bands of hard and soft bay
Continued erosion soft rocks, bays form
along lines of weakness, such where erosion and
as bedding planes, can weathering happen hard SEA headland SEA
break through to the other side faster on weaker
of the headland, forming rocks, leaving behind soft Waves
an arch. Weathering of the roof headlands made of
hard rocks. bay
of the arch could lead
to a rockfall event and its hard headland

collapse leaving behind a stack

of rock.

How and why do coastal landforms change over time?

Erosion Weathering Mass Movement

Abrasion is when rocks carried in waves Freeze-thaw is when water gets into Rockfalls – the movement of a mass of
smash into cliffs, knocking bits off. cracks in the top of the cliff in the day and rocks off a cliff.
Attrition is when rocks crash together as freezes at night. As this continues rocks Landslide – a collapse of a mass of earth
they move along in the sea. break off and fall onto the beach. or rock from a cliff.
Hydraulic Action is when air is forced into Biological weathering is when the roots of
cracks in a cliff by waves, forcing them to
expand. plants growing in the cliff dislodge rocks
Solution seawater dissolves minerals in that then fall from the cliff.
the cliff.

A spit is a distinctive coastal landform that shows the link between sediment supply, transportation and deposition. Erosion, weathering and mass movement processes combine to cause
a cliff to retreat backwards, leaving behind a wave-cut platform that
contains rock pools.
Where the supply of
sediment is high, the
beach will build out and
deposit sediment into the
sea beyond a headland
Erosion, weathering
and form a spit, e.g.
and mass movement
Barmouth spit. The water
of a cliff provide the Most erosion
pressure from rivers stop
beach with material occurs between
spits from forming across
that is moved along by LSD is the zig zag movement of high and low tide,
river mouths, causing
longshore drift. swash and backwash along a beach. forming a
them to curve.
wave-cut notch.