The Coast and

Coral Reefs
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Coast
• Zone of interaction between the sea and the land •
Where waves, sea currents and winds act on the land
 Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Some terminologies of the coast

Coastline
• Highest level reached by storm waves
• Beyond the high tide shoreline
Offshore
 • Zone submerged below the low tide shoreline
Foreshore
• Zone between the low tide and high tide shorelines

Backshore
• Zone between the high tide shoreline and the coastline

Berm
• Raised part of the beach on which vegetation often grows
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs
 Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Agents of coastal change

1. Winds
• Main agent of coastal change
• Transport sand and deposit it along the coast
• Generate waves as they blow across the water surface
 2. Currents
• Bodies of water moving through the sea in a certain direction
either horizontally or vertically
• Currents formed when waves approach the coast at an angle
and break obliquely against the coast are called longshore
currents
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Swash VS Backwash
Swash
• Advance of sea water up a beach after the breaking of a wave

Backwash
• Return flow of sea water down the beach following the swash

Parts of a wave Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

• Crest : The highest part of a wave

 • Trough : The lowest part of a wave
• Wave height : The vertical distance between the crest
and the trough
• Wave length : The distance between two consecutive
wave crests
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Wave energy
• Depends on the size of the wave
• The size of the wave increases as the speed of the
wind increases
• The greater the expanse of water over which the wind
blows (termed ‘fetch’), the larger the wave

Constructive waves Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

 • Waves that result in deposition of materials
• When the swash is stronger than the backwash
• Occur on gently-sloping beaches
• When they break, they are called spilling breakers

Destructive waves • Waves that encourage erosion

 Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

• Materials on the beach are carried into the sea by the stronger backwash
• Occur on beaches with steep slopes
• Waves break violently as plunging breakers

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Constructive Waves Destructive Waves

 Long wave length Short wave length

Low wave height High wave height

Spill over when breaking Plunge over when breaking

Common on gently-sloping shores Common on steep coastal slopes

Deposit on the coast Erode the coast

Less than ten waves More than ten waves

breaking per minute breaking per minute

Characteristics of constructive and destructive waves

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Processes of wave erosion

1. Hydraulic action
• Repeated crashing of waves against the coast
• The rock structure weakens and the rocks break down
2. Solution
• Rocks may contain water-soluble minerals such as calcium
carbonate
• When these minerals dissolve upon contact with sea water,
pores are left in the rocks
• Over time, the rocks weaken and disintegrate
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

3. Abrasion
• Rock fragments carried by the water are thrown against the
coast, breaking up the coastal rocks

4. Attrition
• Rock particles carried by the water collide with each other,
becoming smaller, smoother and rounder particles
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Landforms caused by marine erosion

1. Notches, cliffs and wave-cut platforms
• Waves act on a line of weakness on the rock surface through
the processes of hydraulic action and abrasion
• This line of weakness enlarges to become a notch •
Further erosion enlarges the notch into a cave

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

• The roof of the cave eventually collapses and a steep cliff is

formed
• At the cliff base is a flat terrace called a wave-cut platform •
The wave-cut platform will extend farther inland as the cliff
 retreats

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

2. Blowholes
Waves pounding on a sea cave trap air in the cracks and joints of the
rocks
• The compressed air exerts pressure on the cracks and joints
• When the waves retreat, the air expands
• Over time, the rocks are broken down and an opening called
a blowhole is formed at the roof of the cave
 • The blowhole may
enlarge until the cave
collapses, resulting in a
deep, long and narrow
inlet called a geo
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral
Reefs

3. Headlands and
bays
• Develop along
coasts with
alternate bands
of resistant and
less resistant rocks
• The resistant rocks are eroded more slowly and protrude into
the sea to form headlands
• The less resistant rocks form bays between the headlands •
Can also develop when destructive waves erode along lines of
weakness in rocks to form bays
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs
Headland
and bay
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Wave Refraction
• Wave refraction occurs in areas where
there are headlands and bays
• Waves concentrate their energy on the
headlands by curving in on them

• At the bays, waves

curve out, resulting in
wave energy being
dispersed and thus
encouraging deposition
• Deposition in the
bay results in a
straighter shoreline
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

4. Caves, arches, stacks and stumps

• Waves attack lines of weakness in rocks along the base of
the headland cliff to form notches
• Over time, the notches enlarge to become caves
• Continued erosion of caves on two sides of the same
headland cuts through the headland, creating an
 arch

ABC
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

An arch

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

 • The arch widens and the roof eventually collapses •
This leaves an isolated pillar known as a stack • The
stack is gradually eroded down into a stump

Arch collapses

Stack
Stump

Notch
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs
A coast showing typical coastal features like stacks, stumps and cliff
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Wave transportation and deposition •

Occurs mainly through longshore drift along the coast • When waves
approach the shore at an angle, the swash rushes up the shore
 diagonally, carrying sediment up the shore
• The backwash brings
sediment back into the Direction of wind Swash zone

sea
Breake
• As a result, sediment is Longshore drift r zone
moved in a zig-zag
manner along the
shore Swash
Beach

Backwash
Movement of material by
longshore current
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Landforms caused by wave deposition

1. Beaches
• Accumulation of rock debris and sediment on or along a
wave-cut platform
• Constructive waves deposit materials on the coast •
Coarser materials

are deposited
farther inland
while finer
materials are
found nearer
the sea
 A cobblestone beach at
Georgetown, St. Vincent
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs
2. Spits
• Long, narrow low-lying strips of sand and shingle
projecting from the shore towards the sea

Formation of a spit
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs
3. Bars
• Narrow ridges of deposited material lying away from and
parallel to the coast (off-shore bar)
• A spit may grow across an estuary, a lagoon or a bay to
become a bar (bay-bar)

4. Tombolos
• Formed when a
spit or
a bar
extends to
join
an offshore
island

Recurved spit
Maria River

The Cocal Spit in Mayaro,

Trinidad
 Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

4. Human action
• In some places,
seawalls
and breakwaters
have
been built to slow
down
coastal erosion

Structures to slow down

sea erosion
5. Time
• Older rocks are more eroded since they have been exposed
to wave action longer than more recent rocks.
• The duration of a storm affect the amount of erosion
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Coastal management
1. Groynes
• Structures built out from the shore and into the sea •
Constructed at a right angle to the sea
• Effective in preventing longshore drift from moving sediments
from one point to another farther along the coastline
• While they protect one part of the coast from erosion, they
contribute to erosion of the beach behind them by cutting
off the supply of sediments to the beach

2. Replenishing the beach

⚫ Sand is sometimes added artificially to badly eroded
beaches
⚫ The sand is taken from external sources
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

3. Seawalls
• Walls constructed on the inland part of the coast to deflect
oncoming waves
• Built parallel to the coast
 • Usually made of hard rocks or concrete
• Can be sloping or vertical
• May cause erosion in the long run
• The energy of the backwash is reflected from the wall and
erodes the beach materials beneath and in front of the
wall
• Scouring occurs at the base of the seawall, weakening it
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

4. Breakwaters
• Structures built either offshore or projecting out into the sea
from the shore to dissipate the energy of oncoming waves •
Made of rocks or concrete
• Can be fixed or floating
• The erosive energy of oncoming waves is concentrated on
the breakwater
 • Materials are
deposited
behind the
breakwater
• The nearby
unprotected
section of the
coast stops
receiving fresh
supplies
of depositional materials
and becomes more
vulnerable to erosion

A breakwater protecting the coast

Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Factors affecting marine erosion

1. Hardness of the rocks
• Less resistant rocks are eroded faster
2. Structure of the rocks
• Rocks with more lines of weakness such as joints are eroded
more rapidly

3. Wave energy
• Stormy weather causes more erosion as the waves are
bigger due to the strong winds
• Larger waves usually have stronger backwash and more
erosive energy
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Corals
• Made up of the limestone skeletons of tiny marine
organisms called coral polyps

Conditions for the growth of coral

polyps • Sea temperature between 20°C
and 30°C • Shallow sea water less than
50m deep
• Clear salt water
• Polyps thrive on the seaward side of coral reefs where
waves and currents bring an abundant supply of
oxygen and food
Distribution of coral reefs

• Extensive coral formations develop between

latitudes 30°N and 30°S, on the eastern side of
land masses where there are warm currents
 Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

Types of coral reefs

1. Fringing reef
• A narrow coral platform separated from the coast by a
shallow lagoon

2. Barrier reef
 • A coral platform separated from the coast by a deep wide
lagoon

3. Atoll
• A circular coral
reef which
encloses a
lagoon
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral
Reefs

Causes of Coral Reef Degradation

1. Pollution
• Land-based sources of pollution and sediments threaten
35% of the reefs
• Waste materials from factories and holiday resorts pollute the
sea water
• Pesticides washed off farms contaminate coral colonies •
Pollution from ships threatens 15% of the reefs
 • Areas under threat are Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the
high islands of the Lesser Antilles, Belize, Costa Rica and
Panama
Chapter 16: The Coast and Coral Reefs

2. Over-fishing
• Over-fishing in reefs may result in algae blooms which inhibit
the growth of corals

3. Coastal developments and activities

• Coastal developments disrupt currents and cause sediment
damage to the fragile corals
• These include the reclamation of reef areas to build airports
and the development of marinas, groynes and causeways

• Recreational activities such as boating, windsurfing,

waterskiing and diving in reef areas also damage corals by
stirring up sediments, thus blocking out sunlight