Geography Field Trip to Cuckmere Haven to study Erosion

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Geography Field Trip to Cuckmere Haven to study Erosion

Data Analysis

Pebble Sizes

The pebble size graph shows the pebble heights of the three profiles. The pebble sizes should tell us that the closer the pebbles are to the water the more it is eroded therefore the smaller it is.

The graph shows one profile with a straight line one getting smaller as it goes away from the beach and one getting bigger as it goes further from the beach.

Only profile number two looks to be accurate number one and number three are unreliable.

This result is the only anomaly so far where it acts against the hypothesis by having three different findings.

Wind, Wave Direction

The wind and wave direction helps us to predict any long shore drift. The wind direction at the time came from the southeast with a speed of 3.336km/h. This makes the wave direction southwards. The waves came from an angle when they hit the beach. When we put a cork in the water it travelled 30m to southeast. This result shows us that there is a longshore drift moving the beach particles at Cuckmere Haven.

According to the book:

"The Wider World by David Waugh1994"

"Sand and shingle being transported along the coast by longshore drift will, in time, reach an area where the water is sheltered and the waves lack energy, e.g. a bay. The materials will temporarily be deposited to form a beach. Beaches are not permanent features as their shapes can be altered by the waves every time the tide comes in and goes out. Shingle beaches have a steeper gradient than sandy beaches."

The result supports the hypothesis because Cuckmere Haven is a bay where a beach is formed due to deposition of longshore drift.

Sketch 1

Sketch one is looking east along among the seven sisters. From this sketch we can spot the seven sisters cliffs and one cliff we can see a wave cut platform visible under the foot of the cliff.

The book:

"The Wider World by David Waugh1994"

"The gently sloping expanse of rock marking the foot of the cliff is called a wave cut platform. Wave cut platforms are exposed at low tide but covered at high tide."

From this knowledge we can tell that the sea at the time we visited is a low tide exposing the wave cut platform.
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Sketch 2

Sketch 2 is looking over the Cuckmere Haven. From this sketch we can see again another visible wave cut platform, which means a low tide. We can spot seawalls just underneath the block of houses protecting the house from erosion of the waves and to the east of the seawalls we can see three groynes. All three of the groynes have particles built up to the east side of it. This is because of longshore drift depositing the materials.

If the groynes where not placed there then a spit would have been formed ...

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