Coasts

• The land which meets the coast is called the coast. We can
also known as the land along the sea.
Today’s topic will be about:

-changing coastlines
-sand dunes and people
-building on the coast
-using the coast
 Changing coastlines
• Beaches and coastlines are constantly changing because of waves, winds and tides. This may affect to
change the shape of countries over many years.

- Longshore drift happens in places where the prevailing -Over a period of time, longshore drift can carry
wind blows the waves towards the shore at an angle. It flow the whole beach away along the coast. Harbors can
back straight down the beach. Any sand and pebbles carried be completely blocked by the sand and shingle the
by the waves travel along the shore in zig-zag pattern. longshore drift carries to them.
This is called a Longshore Drift.
 Deposition
• Close to the mouth of a river, the flow of the water slows down making it have no energy to carry sand
and shingle and they deposit the materials they were carrying.

• Overtime the sand and shingle pile so high that they form a ridge • The shallow pool of water trapped behind the bar is called
across part of the bay or river mouth. The ridge is called a spit. A spit a bar is called a lagoon.
can frow all the way across a bay. It is then called a bar.
 Sand dunes and people
• If the wind is blowing towards the land, some of the sand will be blown along and will collect
behind any kind of shelter (stones, pieces of wood and even old shoes). Eventually, the sand piles
up into small sand dunes.
• As time passes, these sand dunes may blow away • If the wind mainly blows in the same direction, it can push
Or they may grow bigger. As more sand heaps up The dunes inland, burying farmland and buildings. Once they
on them, a grass called marram grass may start to stopped growing and spreading, sand dunes are often
grow on the dunes. Later, the other plants, including Used for grazing sheep or are turned into gold course.
Shrubs and tress will grow on those dunes and sand They are important for plants and animals and it help to stop the sea
dunes will form new land. flooding inland.
 Blow-outs
• Sand dunes are very fragile. When there is a strong
wind, it may blow through the gap in the plant cover
and produce a blow-out. This is a large hole or hollow
in the dunes where sand has been blown away by the
wind.

• On the bare sand in the blow out, the marram grass

and other plants have to start the long, slow process of
colonizing the dunes all over again. Planting marram
grass on the bare sand to stop beach blowing away is a
tip people use.
 Building on the coast
• In come places, waves erode cliffs and other coastal features so quickly that it can out
the lives of people at risk and make building unsafe to use.

• Cliff made of soil or soft rock can erode very quickly. • Year after year, whole streets and buildings tumbled
About thousand years ago, Dunwich had nine and about 5000 Into the tea and by 1677 the waves had reached the
inhabitants. The local people kept erosion at bay by piling up Market place. By the middle of eighteenth century
brush wood, weighted with stones at the foot of cliff. One night, a Most of the town had fallen into the sea and in 1919
storm swept away three of the churches and 400 houses. About The last of the original churches also fell into the sea.
one million tones of sand and shingle piled up across the mouth of Sometimes after a cliff fall, human bones from one of
the harbor cutting it off from the sea. The old graveyards can be seen on the beach.
 Land reclamation
• People sometimes reclaim land that was covered by the sea.
• In the Netherlands large areas of farmland were once under the sea. • Palm Jumeriah in Dubai is the world’s largest
The Dutch people cut off sections of delta of river Rhine from the sea, man-made island. It stretches into the Arabian Gulf in
using walls of bricks and stone called dykes. they used pupms to lift The shape of a palm tree. It consists of a trunk and a
the water into canals. The fields reclaimed from the sea are called Crown with sixteen fronds. Surrounding it is a curve of
polders. They are fertile and the Dutch grow wheat, barley, sugar Rock that forms an 11km long breakwater. This
beet and other crops on them. Island area is equal to about 800 football pitches. And
Was built on sand dredged from the bottom of the
Arabian Gulf and rock from local quarries.
 Using the coast
• Besides being used for holidays and leisure, coast also provide us with some of our food and electricity
and certain fuels and minerals.

• Seafood are important human foods. Many of them are caught in the shallow • Much of the world’s oil and natural gas is pumped
Waters along coast. Fish are caught using small nets or lines with baited hooks. From the rocks of the seabed. Special platforms or
Shellfish are caught in baited traps on the bottom of the sea. Large fishing boats or rigs are used to drill wells down to the oil or gas.
trawlers catch some of the fish from deep oceans. Some fish are farmed in sheltered It is then taken ashore by pipeline or tanker ship.
bays. Inlets and estuaries in special fish farms. It is send to a refinery where it is processed into
Shellfish are farmed in different parts of the worlds. Different kinds of oil and materials.
Electricity and salt
• Northern France built the power station to use tidal energy which
produce electricity/ there are power stations that use coal, oil, gas or
nuclear fuels to produce electricity along the coast of many countries.
They use seawater to cool their machine and make steam that turns the
generators and produce electricity.

• Sea water contains valuable minerals, most importantly, salt. In some countries with a
warm climate, sea water is pumped into large open-air ponds called salt pans. The
seawater then evaporate in the sun leaving the salt behind. The salt can then be
collected and sold.
Conclusion!
• Coast are very important to us, it give us many valuable minerals and we must protect
coasts.