Coastal Landscapes | OCR A-Level Geography (H481)

Coastal Landscapes

260 questions
17 subtopics
Component 01: Physical systems, one landscape of three plus the compulsory life support systems
Component 01

Coastal Landscapes is examined in Component 01, Physical systems.

It covers the coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and material, sediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sediment, winds, fetch and the generation of waves, constructive and destructive waves, and how waves break, tides, tidal range and ocean currents, lithology, geological structure and the plan of the coast, weathering and mass movement on the coast, marine erosion, transport and deposition, bays, headlands, cliffs and shore platforms, geos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumps, beaches and the changing beach profile, spits, bars, tombolos and salt marshes, high and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapes, emergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffs, submergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beaches, coastal management and its effect on the sediment budget and ports, tourism and unintended change at the coast.

Sample questions from Coastal Landscapes

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and material

State two outputs from a coastal landscape system.

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Sediment carried out into deep water beyond the system, and wave energy dissipated as waves break on the shore.
Winds, fetch and the generation of waves

What is meant by wind frequency at a coast?

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How often the wind blows from each direction over a given period of time.
Tides, tidal range and ocean currents

Define tidal range.

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The vertical difference in sea level between high tide and low tide.
Weathering and mass movement on the coast

Explain the process of hydrolysis.

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Slightly acidic water reacts chemically with minerals such as the feldspar in granite, converting them to clay minerals and weakening the rock as a whole.
Bays, headlands, cliffs and shore platforms

Describe how a cliff retreats.

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Waves cut a notch at the base, the overhanging rock above eventually becomes unsupported and collapses, the debris is removed by the waves, and the process begins again on the new cliff face.
Beaches and the changing beach profile

Explain why a beach profile is usually gentler in winter.

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Frequent destructive storm waves comb sediment down the beach and into an offshore bar, lowering and flattening the profile until calmer constructive waves rebuild it.
High and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapes

What physical conditions make a coastline low energy?

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A short fetch, sheltered water and small constructive waves, so that deposition outpaces erosion.
Submergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beaches

What is a ria?

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A drowned river valley, formed where rising sea level flooded the lower course of a river that had been cut when sea level was much lower.

The 17 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and material	Recall questions on the coast as an open system: its energy and sediment inputs, stores, flows and outputs, the part played by waves and running water, dynamic equilibrium, negative and positive feedback, and what makes a coastline high or low energy.	14
Sediment cells, the sediment budget and the sources of coastal sediment	Recall questions on sediment cells and the eleven cells of England and Wales, why no cell is truly closed, positive and negative sediment budgets with worked budget and volume calculations, and the cliff, river, wind, offshore and nourishment sources of coastal sediment.	17
Winds, fetch and the generation of waves	Recall questions on how wind generates waves, fetch and the large waves of Britain's south-west coasts, wind speed, duration, direction and frequency, a fully developed sea, sea and swell, storm frequency, and wave height, wavelength, period and energy.	14
Constructive and destructive waves, and how waves break	Recall questions on how waves change in shallow water and when they break, wave steepness and orbital motion, swash and backwash, spilling, plunging and surging breakers, the features and effects of constructive and destructive waves, berms, and wave refraction around a headland.	15
Tides, tidal range and ocean currents	Recall questions on the causes of tides, spring and neap tides, tidal range and macrotidal and microtidal coasts, the Bay of Fundy, storm surges, the winds and gyres that drive ocean currents, the North Atlantic Drift, the cold Benguela Current and upwelling.	18
Lithology, geological structure and the plan of the coast	Recall questions on lithology and geological structure, how clay, chalk, granite and glacial till resist the sea, discordant and concordant coastlines around Swanage, how coves form, how the dip of the strata shapes a cliff profile, and why faults and joints become caves and geos.	15
Weathering and mass movement on the coast	Recall questions on freeze-thaw, salt crystallisation, wetting and drying, carbonation, hydrolysis and biological weathering of cliffs, and on rockfalls, rotational slumping on the Holderness coast, soil creep and mudflows, and how mass movement links weathering to marine erosion.	15
Marine erosion, transport and deposition	Recall questions on hydraulic action, wave quarrying, abrasion, attrition, corrosion, river and aeolian erosion at the coast, transport by traction, saltation, suspension and solution, longshore drift and its direction, why waves deposit their load, and flocculation in an estuary.	16
Bays, headlands, cliffs and shore platforms	Recall questions on how bays and headlands form, Handfast Point and Old Harry Rocks, how cliffs retreat from a wave-cut notch, shore platforms and their rock pools, bayhead beaches, bevelled cliffs, the role of subaerial weathering, and the retreat rate of the Holderness till cliffs.	15
Geos, blow holes, caves, arches, stacks and stumps	Recall questions on how geos, blow holes, sea caves, arches, stacks and stumps form, the sequence of erosional landforms on a headland, the roles of jointing and trapped air, and examples such as Durdle Door and the Needles.	14
Beaches and the changing beach profile	Recall questions on beach zones, berms, storm ridges, cusps, ridges and runnels, shingle and sand beach gradients, winter and summer profiles, swash-aligned and drift-aligned beaches, sediment sorting, and fieldwork methods for surveying profiles, pebbles and longshore drift, including Spearman's rank.	19
Spits, bars, tombolos and salt marshes	Recall questions on how spits form and recurve, Spurn Head, onshore bars and Slapton Sands, tombolos and Chesil Beach with its graded shingle, and how salt marshes develop behind them through pioneer halophytes, creeks and salt pans.	15
High and low energy coastlines as characteristic landscapes	Recall questions on high energy rocky coasts, with the Dorset coast and Lulworth Cove as the example, low energy estuarine coasts, with the barrier islands and tides of the Wadden Sea, how landforms and sediment interact in each, and coastal change over seconds, seasons and millennia.	16
Emergent coasts: raised beaches, marine terraces and abandoned cliffs	Recall questions on emergent coastlines, eustatic and isostatic change in sea level, the last glacial maximum and isostatic rebound, why raised beaches are common in Scotland, marine terraces, abandoned cliffs and their features, and how present-day sea level rise could change them.	14
Submergent coasts: rias, fjords and shingle beaches	Recall questions on submergent coastlines, thermal expansion and the Flandrian transgression, rias in Devon and Cornwall, fjords in Norway and their thresholds, how rising sea level built the shingle beaches of southern England, and coastal squeeze.	14
Coastal management and its effect on the sediment budget	Recall questions on hard and soft engineering at the coast, how groynes, sea walls and revetments alter sediment movement, the Mappleton scheme on the Holderness coast and its downdrift effects, offshore dredging, managed realignment, beach nourishment, and planning by whole sediment cell.	15
Ports, tourism and unintended change at the coast	Recall questions on how ports, tourism and land reclamation reshape coastlines, harbour breakwaters and channel dredging, the Palm Jumeirah and the World Islands off Dubai, damage to coral reefs, erosion of dune coasts by tourists, and the rising cost of defending developed shorelines.	14

Coastal Landscapes is 260 of the 3,740 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.