Good Learning Co.
SavannahYear 8
← Geography
GeographyGCSE UK coastal landscapes30 min★★★ difficulty

Coastal processes and erosional landforms

Waves, rock type and time. That is the whole of coastal erosion, and this lesson shows how those three produce the landforms you must be able to draw.

Lesson overview

What you'll learn in this lesson

Explain coastal processes, erosional and depositional landforms and hard and soft engineering.

Key learning points

  • • Waves and weathering
  • • Headlands, bays and the cave sequence
  • • Wave-cut platforms
  • • Depositional landforms

This lesson at a glance

  • 30 minutes
  • 16 parts to scroll through
  • 4 quick checks
  • Marked quiz at the end
  • Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses

Words to know

coastalprocesseserosionaldepositionallandforms

Scroll down — the lesson carries on below

Part 1 of 16 · Discover6%
1

Watch & discover

Part 1 of 16

Watch first

Coastal processes and erosional landforms

An English teaching video on this topic from Mr B. Watch it, then scroll down for the lesson.

In a nutshell

Explain coastal processes, erosional and depositional landforms and hard and soft engineering.

2

Learning cycle

Part 2 of 16

Learning cycle 1 of 2

Part 1 · Waves and weathering

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

3

Explore the idea

Part 3 of 16

Learn

Waves and weathering

Constructive waves have a strong swash, low frequency and build beaches; destructive waves have a strong backwash, high frequency and comb material away. Mechanical weathering such as freeze-thaw, chemical weathering such as carbonation, and mass movement including slumping and rockfall all prepare material for the sea to remove.

4

Explore the idea

Part 4 of 16

Learn

Headlands, bays and the cave sequence

Alternating hard and soft rock produces headlands and bays through differential erosion. On a headland, hydraulic action and abrasion widen a line of weakness into a crack, then a cave; the cave erodes through to form an arch; the arch roof collapses leaving a stack, and continued erosion reduces the stack to a stump.

5

Quick check

Part 5 of 16

Quick check

Which wave type builds beaches?

6

Quick check

Part 6 of 16

Quick check

Why do headlands and bays form?

7

Reset break

Part 7 of 16

Pause

That's sitting 1 of 2 done

Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.

Stop here for now
8

Learning cycle

Part 8 of 16

Learning cycle 2 of 2

Part 2 · Wave-cut platforms

A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.

9

Explore the idea

Part 9 of 16

Learn

Wave-cut platforms

Erosion concentrated between high and low tide undercuts the cliff to form a notch. The overhang collapses, the cliff retreats landwards and leaves a gently sloping wave-cut platform exposed at low tide.

10

Explore the idea

Part 10 of 16

Learn

Depositional landforms

Longshore drift moves sediment along the coast in a zig-zag: swash at the prevailing wind angle, backwash straight down the beach. Where the coast changes direction, deposition builds a spit, often curved by a secondary wind, with a salt marsh in the sheltered water behind it. Bars form where a spit crosses a bay.

11

Quick check

Part 11 of 16

Quick check

What immediately precedes a stack in the erosion sequence?

12

Quick check

Part 12 of 16

Quick check

What causes the zig-zag movement of longshore drift?

13

Explore the idea

Part 13 of 16

Worked example

Model answer: 'Explain the formation of a stack' (4 marks)

Hydraulic action and abrasion concentrate on a joint or fault in a resistant headland, widening it into a crack and then a cave. Continued erosion on both sides of the headland deepens the cave until it cuts right through, forming an arch. Weathering weakens the roof of the arch while wave erosion undercuts its base, and eventually the unsupported roof collapses. This leaves an isolated pillar of rock detached from the headland, known as a stack.

14

Challenge round

Part 14 of 16

Game · Sort it

Which of these are true?

Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.

True

Not true

15

Mastery quiz

Part 15 of 16

Marked quiz

End of lesson quiz: Coastal processes and erosional landforms

4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.

  1. 1. Which wave type builds beaches?

  2. 2. Why do headlands and bays form?

  3. 3. What immediately precedes a stack in the erosion sequence?

  4. 4. What causes the zig-zag movement of longshore drift?

16

Lesson round-up

Part 16 of 16

Lesson round-up

Ready when you are

Quiz score

Not sat

Games

Not played

Points this lesson

0

Best run

0 in a row

Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?

Ask Luna

Do the work

Your written work for this lesson

This is the part you'd do in your book at school. Pick the pieces below, write here or on paper, and photograph anything you draw or work out.

Case study

Flooding on the River Calder

The town of Harbrook sits where a steep valley opens onto a flat floodplain. In December 2015, 120 mm of rain fell in 36 hours onto ground that was already saturated. The river rose 2.4 m in five hours, and 380 homes and 54 businesses flooded. Two roads and the railway closed for eleven days.

Geographers pointed to physical causes — steep slopes, impermeable rock, heavy rainfall — and human causes: moorland drained upstream, new housing built on the floodplain, and drains designed for smaller storms.

Since then the town has planted 40 hectares of woodland upstream, built leaky dams in small streams, and raised flood walls to 1.8 m. In the storm of 2020 the peak river level was 0.3 m lower and 40 homes flooded, not 380.

Written for Good Learning Co.

Reading questions

  1. List two physical and two human causes of the 2015 flood.
  2. Explain how planting woodland upstream lowers the river's peak level.
  3. Using the figures, judge how successful the scheme has been. Quote data in your answer.

  • Case study notes

    Writing

    Write the place, the facts and the figures from this lesson so you can revise them later.

    Half a page

  • Explain answer

    Writing

    Answer in full sentences, giving causes and effects. Use one figure or place name as evidence.

    8–10 sentences

  • Map or sketch

    Diagram

    Draw the map, cross-section or field sketch with a key, title and labels, then photograph it.

    1 map with a key

  • Data work

    Working out

    Plot your figures as a graph on paper and write one sentence about the pattern.

    1 graph + 1 sentence

Saved as you type.

Part 1 of 16 · Watch & discover

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