Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A coast – also called the coastline, shoreline, or seashore – is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. [1] [2] Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape, as well as by water induced erosion, such as waves.
Collapsed Ordovician limestone bank showing coastal erosion.NW Osmussaar, Estonia.. Coastal geography is the study of the constantly changing region between the ocean and the land, incorporating both the physical geography (i.e. coastal geomorphology, climatology and oceanography) and the human geography (sociology and history) of the coast.
The coastline paradox is the counterintuitive observation that the coastline of a landmass does not have a well-defined length. This results from the fractal curve -like properties of coastlines; i.e., the fact that a coastline typically has a fractal dimension .
A marine coastal ecosystem is a marine ecosystem which occurs where the land meets the ocean. Worldwide there is about 620,000 kilometres (390,000 mi) of coastline. Coastal habitats extend to the margins of the continental shelves, occupying about 7 percent of the ocean surface area.
A ria coast is a coastline having several parallel rias separated by prominent ridges, extending a distance inland. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] The sea level change that caused the submergence of a river valley may be either eustatic (where global sea levels rise), or isostatic (where the local land sinks).
Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight is an example of an area of concordant coastline - the town of Freshwater is situated on a cove which formed in the hard chalk coastline.. In coastal geography, a concordant, longitudinal, or Pacific type coastline occurs where beds, or layers, of differing rock types are folded into ridges that run parallel to the coast. [1]
In localities where the coastline is deeply indented and cut into, or if there is a fringe of islands along the coast in its immediate vicinity, the method of straight baselines joining appropriate points may be employed in drawing the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured.
Submergent coastline are the opposite of emergent coastlines, which have experienced a relative fall in sea levels. Many submergent coastlines were formed by the end of the Last Glacial Period (LGP), when glacial retreat caused both global sea level rise and also localised changes to land height.