Exam III
Study Strategies
You will need to be able to
know the definitions for the below terms and the answers to the following
questions in order to correctly answer all the
multiple choice and matching questions on the midterm exam III. Some questions (as noted) can be answered most
easily with a drawing or diagram. Be sure to LABEL the important parts of your
diagram. Drawing and labeling diagrams
and creating “concept maps” are very effective means of remembering and
understanding information, particularly science material.
Important
Processes and Features of Waves and Coastlines
Coastal
Processes and Landforms
Tides -- spring, neap, sun-moon-earth geometry, perigee, apogee
How tides affect coastal landforms, tidal range
Waves -- wave energy, fetch, how generated
Wave height, wave length, wave period, wave base
Breaker zone, surf zone, swash zone, swash and backwash
Longshore current, longshore drift
Rip currents
Wave refraction
Tsunamis
Storm surges
Sea level change
Eustatic, (world-wide sea level
change) climate change, tectonic change in ocean basins
Isostatic, (change in balance of crust over mantle)
glacial forebulge, tectonic adjustment
Beach processes
Seasonal changes, wave energy
Summer beach -- steeper beach face, net deposition
Winter beach -- flatter, offshore bar, rockier, net erosion
Sediment size, sediment source (where sed comes from)
Rocky beaches versus sandy, or mud beaches
Coastal landforms
Depositional:
Spit, baymouth
bar, lagoon, cuspate spit, pocket beach, bay and headland coast, tombolo
Erosional:
Sea cliffs, wave cut notch, wave-cut
platform or planation platform, sea arch, sea stack
Coastlines
Emergent, prograding,
regressing: due to tectonic uplift,
lowering sea level, sediment deposition, cliffs, marine terraces
Submergent, recession,
transgression: due to subsidence, sea
level rise, erosion, tend to be irregular, estuaries, bay and headland, barrier
islands
Artificial
Structures
Groin, jetty, breakwater,
seawall, rip rap, pier
Important key concept questions that you need to know the answer
to:
1) What is
an ocean wave? How do water particles move as a wave passes
by? What moves along with the wave?
2) What are wind waves? How do they
form? What are their distinct wave form
characteristics? What are the three key
factors that control wind wave size?
3) How do
swells develop out of a rough, stormy region of ocean?
4) What is
the difference between a deep water wave and a shallow water wave?
5) Describe
the process of wave “shoaling”. How
does a set of wave forms change as it approaches the shore?
6) How, why and where do waves break?
What is the difference between a breaking “whitecap” and a breaking
shore wave?
7) What is a tsunami? How do they form?
What are their distinct wave form characteristics?
8) What are
the tides? How do they form? What are their distinct wave form
characteristics?
9) What are
the three different types of daily tides found worldwide?
10) What is
an amphidromic standing rotary wave? An amphidromic point?
11) Explain
the major differences between the Equilibrium Theory and the Dynamic Theory of
Tides. Which one is best and why?
12) What is the difference between an emergent coastline and a submergent coastline? Which one would you expect to
find at “active margins?” Which at “passive margins?”
How does this relate to plate tectonics?
13) Know what longshore currents are, how they form, what direction they flow,
and how they can move sediment. (Note: the movement of sediment by
longshore current is called “littoral drift.”)
14) Know
what rip currents are, how they form, what direction they flow, and how they
can move sediment.
15) How
should a swimmer negotiate a rip current if caught in one?
16) If one builds a jetty out from a beach, how will the beach be
affected? Where will deposition occur? up-current
from the jetty (up-current is the direction the longshore current is coming
from)) or down-current? Where will erosion occur?
17) What is “wave refraction?” How does
wave refraction contribute to faster erosion of sea cliffs that jut out into
the ocean?
18) How do
waves erode coastlines?
19) Describe how the ocean attempts to straighten out a shoreline over time.
20) What
are the two major natural sources for beach sediment? How are these sources being affected by human
activities?
21) What is
the major underwater feature that permanently funnels shoreline sediment to
deep water offshore?
22) What
effect do breakwaters have on beaches?
23) What is
the difference between a jetty and a groin?
What the negative impact of building groins and jetties?
24) What
are the positive and negative effects of building seawalls along coastal
bluffs?
25) If you are going to build along the shoreline, what factors should you
consider?