Landform Detective: Coasts
The landforms of the coast and how they are made: headlands and bays, caves, arches, stacks and stumps and wave-cut platforms shaped by erosion, and beaches, spits and bars built by deposition, with named examples from the Holderness coast.
Use it, the way the marks are given
Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
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Read the story in the coastline
Every cliff, arch and beach is a clue to what the sea has been doing. Where waves wear rock away you get headlands, caves, arches and stacks; where waves drop what they carry you get beaches and spits. This module works through the landforms of erosion and deposition and how each one forms, using the Holderness coast for real examples.
Coastal words to know
Learn these landforms before you play detective.
Wearing away against building up
Coastal landforms fall into two families.
Tell it as a story, name an example
In the exam, tell a landform as a story of change, not a still picture. Where the land reaches out into deeper water, the waves attack any weakness and open it up stage by stage until only a worn pillar is left. Where the water slows and drops what it carries, ridges and banks of sand build up along the shore, moved by longshore drift. Name a real stretch of coast, say whether erosion or deposition is at work, and give the stages in the right order.
Match the landform
- headland
- stack
- wave-cut platform
- spit
- hard rock that juts out into the sea
- a pillar of rock standing in the sea
- the flat rock left as a cliff retreats
- a ridge of sand grown out by longshore drift
Match how it forms
- a cave
- an arch
- a beach
- a bar
- the sea widens a weakness in a headland
- the sea breaks a cave right through the rock
- sand and shingle are dropped in a sheltered bay
- a ridge grows right across a bay
How is a stack formed?
How is a coastal stack formed?
- The top of an arch collapses
- Sand is dropped in a sheltered bay
- A crack first appears in a beach
- Longshore drift builds it up
True about coastal landforms
Select the TWO true statements about coastal landforms.
- Headlands and stacks are landforms made by erosion
- A spit is built up by longshore drift
- A beach is a landform made by erosion
- An arch forms before a cave does
Track the drift
Along one beach, longshore drift moves shingle at a steady 2 metres a day. Multiply the daily distance by 30 to find how far the shingle moves in 30 days in metres. What is the answer?
Order the headland story
Put the stages that turn a headland into a stump in order, earliest first.
- The sea widens a weakness into a cave
- The cave is cut through to form an arch
- The arch roof collapses to leave a stack
- The stack wears down to a stump
Complete the story
A piece of hard rock that sticks out into the sea is a _____. When the sea cuts a passage right through it, an _____ forms. When the top of that collapses, a _____ is left standing. A long ridge of sand grown out by longshore drift is a _____.
Spot the erosion landforms
Tap the TWO landforms made by erosion.
- a stack standing alone in the sea
- a wave-cut platform below a cliff
- a beach of sand in a sheltered bay
- a spit reaching out from the shore
Identify the landform
Read each real coastal clue and name the landform.
- At Flamborough Head, the sea has cut a passage clean through a piece of rock jutting into the sea. What landform is this?
- At Spurn Head, longshore drift has built a long ridge of sand out across the mouth of the estuary. What landform is this?
- A tall pillar of rock stands alone in the sea after an arch collapsed. What landform is this?
Explain coastal landforms
Explain how coastal erosion and deposition create landforms, using named examples.
- Name landforms made by erosion and by deposition
- Explain the sequence from headland to stump
- Give a named example of an erosional and a depositional landform