Is there any evidence of coastal erosion or deposition along this section of the north east coast?

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Is there any evidence of coastal erosion or deposition along this section of the north east coast?

In order to answer this question I must find as much evidence as I can for coastal erosion and deposition

The table below shows what I expect to find

To ensure I answer this question fully I needed some background information about coastal erosion and deposition.

Coastal erosion is the process where the sea wears away at the land.  It happens because of four processes

Hydraulic action        

Attrition action

Corrosion action

Corrasion action

(See Glossary)

A wave cut notch is where the waves wear away at the cliffs and make a notch in them.  A wave cut platform is a bit of rock which has been flattened by the waves and made into a platform.

Water gets into a crack in the cliff and expands, pushing the crack sides until they break down and it becomes a cave.

The water in the cave continues to push back and eventually all the way through into an arch.

After erosion, and storms, weathering etc the top of the arch wears away and breaks down and creates a stack which then makes a stump.

Crack-Cave-Arch-Stack-Stump

Coastal deposition is when the sea carries material and deposits them somewhere else.  They are moved by long shore drift.  (See glossary)

I had to look for evidence of coastal erosion and deposition. The following lists my methods.

We did see some evidence for coastal erosion and deposition in the form of arches, stacks, caves and cracks.  We also seen a few wave cut platforms and notches. Over the page is a list of what I identified at different points as erosional and depositional features.

At Souter lighthouse I gained an excellent sketch of many of these (see sketch)

The sketch shows an arch and a stack just off the coast, tide marks show where the water went up to. The arch was clearly made by hydraulic action. There was one quite large cave near a beach which we visited during high tide, when the water was at its highest which was quite rough.  This suggests the water made this cave; the cave nearly reached the headland.  In the future this also suggests it may also become an arch. There were many cracks in the caves in this area also.

Further on at location 3 (sketch 2) I sketched what I saw as a wave cut platform and a wave cut notch.  The tide marks near the notch were close to the height, which shows how waves had over time cut into it and on the wave cut platform (see sketch on appendix page).

There was a lot of evidence of coastal erosion at Souter light house compared to Trow point.  This also suggests the rock is less resistant at Souter lighthouse. The following pages show 1. What I seen at different locations 2. Physical features of the landscape caused by erosion or deposition.

Location 1: Lizard Point

Erosional features – wave cut notch at the foot of the cliffs, caves, arches and stacks, wave cut platforms

Depositional features – fairly narrow stony beach to the south, little beach around the headland itself

Location 2: Marsden Bay

Erosional features – Marsden rock Pompey’s pillar and stacks

Several stumps can be seen at the southern end of the bay.

A wave cut notch is found around the foot of the cliffs; undercutting and collapse of the soft yellow sands can be seen near the steps to the lifeguard post at the northern end of the bay.

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Depositional features – the sandy beach and the stony bay between Marsden rock and the mainland

Location 3: Trow point

Erosional features – the retreat of the infill shoreline along Trow quarry caves and the wave cut notch at the foot of the cliffs featuring Trow point.

Depositional Features

A small sandy beach at the Gibson’s sands and a much wider sandy beach to the north of Trow point stretching past gypsies green.

Location 4: Gypsies green to amusement park

Erosional features – only the blow out of from sand dunes

Depositional features- the large ...

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