This set mixes the five skills in coasts and marine processes: wave action, transport and deposition, hard and soft management, sourced cases and cautious wording. All numbers are invented for practice.
Work in order from easy to harder, with a calculator and a pencil. Cover the answers until you have written your own. The statistics and distribution explorer and food-web and energy-flow explorer help you check working, and the mistake log is the place to record slips.
Questions
Q1 (easy). Name the process: (a) stones thrown by waves wear the base of a cliff; (b) stones knock together and become smaller and rounder; (c) air forced into cracks loosens rock.
Show answer
(a) Abrasion. (b) Attrition. (c) Hydraulic action.
Q2. Name the transport process: (a) boulders rolled along the bed in a storm; (b) sand bouncing in short hops; (c) fine clay carried in the water.
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(a) Traction. (b) Saltation. (c) Suspension.
Q3. Wave A has 10 seconds between crests and Wave B has 5 seconds. Find the waves per minute for each, and say which is more likely to be destructive.
Show answer
Wave A: 60 ÷ 10 = 6 per minute. Wave B: 60 ÷ 5 = 12 per minute. Wave B is more likely destructive, because a high rate leaves little time for the swash to drain, and the backwash is strong.
Q4. Put these in order to describe how a wave-cut platform forms: cliff retreats; notch is cut at the base; overhang collapses; platform is left at the foot of the cliff.
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- A notch is cut at the base by hydraulic action and abrasion.
- The overhang collapses.
- The cliff retreats.
- A platform is left at the foot of the cliff.
Q5. Waves arrive from the south-west onto a south-facing coast. State the direction of longshore drift and explain it in two sentences.
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The net movement is eastward. Swash carries material up the beach toward the north-east. Backwash runs straight down the slope toward the south, so each cycle shifts the material a little east.
Q6. Five tracer pebbles move 3 m, 5 m, 4 m, 6 m and 2 m. (a) Find the mean. (b) A sixth pebble moves 9 m. Find the new mean.
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(a) 3 + 5 + 4 + 6 + 2 = 20, and 20 ÷ 5 = 4.0 m.
(b) 20 + 9 = 29, and 29 ÷ 6 = 4.83, so about 4.8 m. One large value raised the mean.
Q7. A spit is 300 m long in one survey and 420 m ten years later. Find the average growth per year, and give one limit.
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420 − 300 = 120 m, and 120 ÷ 10 = 12 m per year. Limit: two surveys cannot show whether growth was steady or uneven.
Q8. Classify each as hard or soft engineering: groynes, beach nourishment, rock armour, dune planting, sea wall.
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Hard: groynes, rock armour, sea wall. Soft: beach nourishment, dune planting.
Q9. A town protects 600 m of coast. A sea wall costs RM 5,000 per metre. Nourishment costs RM 1,200 per metre each time and is done 4 times. Which costs less, and by how much? (Invented costs; ignore maintenance.)
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Wall: 5,000 × 600 = RM 3,000,000. Nourishment: 1,200 × 600 = 720,000 each time, and 720,000 × 4 = RM 2,880,000. Nourishment costs less by 3,000,000 − 2,880,000 = RM 120,000. Write a limit too: the wall’s maintenance and the effect on neighbouring coast are not included.
Q10. A path is 24 m from a cliff edge. The cliff retreats at an average of 0.8 m per year, based on two surveys. Calculate the time at that rate, and word the answer carefully.
Show answer
24 ÷ 0.8 = 30 years. Careful wording: “If the same average rate continued, the edge would reach the path in about 30 years. The rate comes from two surveys and may change with storms or management.”
Q11 (harder). A 2022 survey found a beach stable. A student writes “The beach is safe to use.” Rewrite it, and name two things to check.
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For example: “The 2022 survey found the beach level stable, but it does not show present conditions.” Two checks: a newer survey or storm record, and current local warnings or an up-to-date assessment. For any visit, follow your school or centre risk assessment.
If you got these wrong
- Process names, wave type or diagrams (Q1, Q3, Q4): revise explaining wave action through a diagram.
- Transport, drift direction, spits (Q2, Q5, Q6, Q7): revise relating transport to a depositional feature.
- Hard and soft methods, cost comparison (Q8, Q9): revise comparing a hard and a soft management mechanism.
- Rates and dated evidence (Q7, Q10): revise using a sourced case with its date and limits.
- Wording a conclusion (Q10, Q11): revise avoiding the claim that a real site is currently safe.
If one skill keeps slipping, our teachers in online one-to-one Geography tuition can work on it with your own answers.