The impact of structure and lithology on coastal landforms

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Luke Tyler

The impact of structure and lithology on coastal landforms

"Use examples to explain how the combined impacts of structure and lithology affect coastal landforms"

With a combination of both structure and lithology, the coastal landforms are easily affected. Both structure and lithology affect:

- The coastline in plan

- The coastline in profile and

- The distribution of micro features

The coastline in plan

The coastline in plan is mainly determined by structure. It determines the coastal pattern of headlands, bays, islands and inlets found along the coast. These are formed by differential erosion which means the sea waves erode softer rock quicker than the harder and in time the softer rock is worn away forming gaps in the coastline as we understand and call coves or bays (Lulworth cove). When eventually the hard rock is eroded, it can cause an island of hard rock left of the main land. A key example of this is the needles off the coast of the island of Wight (see picture beneath).
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The coastline in section

The main cause of differentiations in cliff profiles and shore platforms are mostly depicted and dependent on the rock lithology. The main cause of differentiations of cliff profiles are mainly down to the fact that certain cliffs erode slower due to the rock types they consist of. The rock types can affect the rate in which the cliff erodes and so can many other factors including:

- Salt weathering

- Mechanical wave erosion aided by abrasion (pebbles)

- Bio erosion by boring organisms

- Chemical weathering

- The ...

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