Feature

Erosio n or Depos ition

Depositi on

Formation

Diagram

Example

Image

Spit

Longshore drift shifts sand to end of beach and headland, where the process slows down and the sand extends out to sea. This continues, built up by dry sand being blown onto the spit, and hooks occur when an opposite wind pushes the sand sideways.

Dawlish Warren, Devon

Tombolo Depositi on

Island of sand/land out to sea attached to mainland via a spit or bar. Caused by wave conversion around the mound and lateral longshore drift (reduced wave power).

Kettla Ness, Shetland Islands, Scotland

Salt marsh Depositi on

In areas of low energy, behind spits or in estuaries salt marshes may develop. The silt deposited at low tide in this zone enables plants that can tolerate salt to develop, halophytes, causing a halosere. The plants further stablise the silt with their root system and as they die the organic material builds up to form peat.
Formed about 18,000 years ago when the last Ice Age ended. As the glaciers melted and receded, the sea levels began to rise, and flooded areas behind the beach ridges at that time. The rising waters carried sediments from those beach ridges and deposited them along shallow areas just off the new coast lines. Waves and currents continued to bring in sediments that built up, forming the barrier islands.

Chichester salt marsh, West Sussex, S.E. England

Barrier Island/Lag oons

N/A

N/A

Depositi on

Sand dunes Depositi on

They are created by wind-blown sand initially deposited against an obstruction like a bush, driftwood or rock. Dunes grow as more sand deposited forming right angles to the prevailing wind direction. Vegetation like grasses begin to grow and root down the sand.

Freshwater west, Pembroks hire.

Bar Depositi on

Spit grows all the way across a bay, forming a barrier. Build up moved towards the coastline by wind, and a lagoon is formed between the land and the bar.

N/A

N/A

Cuspate Foreland

Depositi on

Created by the growth of longshore drift creating a river Delta of sand and shingle, they extend out from the shore line in a triangular shape. 2 spits merge together away from foreland.

Dungenes s,Kent, England

Estuaries Depositi on

Partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Reactions between salt and non-saline river water. Most formed during the Holocene epoch.

Blackwater estuary, Essex, S.East England.

Bay-head beaches

Depositi on

A beach formed around a bay head by storm waves; layers of sediment cover the bay floor and bare rock benches front the headland cliffs.

Swansea mumbles beach, S.Wales