Deck 20: Shorelines

Question 1

________ form when waves that approach the beach at an angle and produce a net current direction that is parallel to the shore, resulting in beach drift.

A)Refractions
B)Rip currents
C)Eddies
D)Longshore currents

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Circular orbital motion in waves will occur in ________ water.

A)still
B)deep
C)shallow
D)evaporating

Answer 2

B

Question 3

When will a deepwater wave change to a shallow water wave as it approaches shore?

A)Wave period > twice the water depth
B)Wavelength = 1/2 water depth
C)Wavelength = 2 times water depth
D)Wave period > 1/2 water depth

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Abrasion will be greatest in which part of the beach environment?

A)Offshore Zone
B)Surf Zone
C)Backshore
D)Berms

Question 5

The ________ is the line that marks the contact between land and sea.

A)beach
B)shoreline
C)interface
D)foreshore

Question 6

What is a berm?

A)A flat-topped platform of sand adjacent to dunes or cliffs
B)Area landward of the high-tide shoreline
C)Wet, sloping surface of the beach
D)Build-up of sand where a stream meets the sea

Question 7

Which of the following will not occur as the result of longshore currents?

A)Zigzag pattern of water movement
B)Transportation of sand
C)Refraction of waves
D)Periodic changes in the overall direction of flow parallel to the shore

Question 8

Defined by breaking waves in the surf zone, which two terms describe the directions of water movement associated with a wave breaking on the beach?

A)Fetch and swell
B)Emergence and submergence
C)Swash and backwash
D)Surf and beach

Question 9

As the quantity of energy transferred to the wave increases, what will happen to the height and the steepness of the wave?

A)Wave height increases and steepness decreases.
B)Wave height decreases and steepness increases.
C)Both the wave height and steepness decrease.
D)Both the wave height and steepness increase.

Question 10

Which of the following locations has a coastline famous for its erosional features such as wave-cut platforms?

A)Northern California
B)Florida
C)North Carolina
D)Louisiana

Question 11

If you happen to be caught in a rip current, what is the best way to get to safety?

A)Swim straight toward shore.
B)Swim parallel to the shore.
C)Swim further out to sea.
D)Tread water and do nothing.

Question 12

What term describes the bending of waves?

A)Reflection
B)Oscillation
C)Refraction
D)Frequency

Question 13

Which circumstance will force a wave displaying circular orbital motion to slow down at the base, which allows the wave to break?

A)The water gets deeper.
B)The seafloor is uneven.
C)The wave is refracted.
D)The wave feels bottom with shallower depth.

Question 14

What is the wave base?

A)Water depth equal to 1/2 the distance between successive waves
B)Maximum wave height based on wind velocity
C)The minimum elevation of a wave before it will start to curl
D)The distance up the shore where waves can erode

Question 15

If the distance from one wave crest to the next is 10 ft., what will the depth to the wave base be?

A)2 ft.
B)5 ft.
C)11 ft.
D)20 ft.

Question 16

________ is a strong current formed by backwash concentrated into small channels and flows rapidly away from the beach.

A)Refraction
B)Rip currents
C)Eddies
D)Longshore currents

Question 17

Which of the following scenarios is not related to wave refraction?

A)Waves approach the shore at an angle.
B)Sediment deposition will be concentrated in quiet areas such as bays and protected water.
C)Erosion is focused on the front and sides of headlands.
D)Large quantities of sand are carried from estuaries and deposited on the seacoast side of a barrier island system.

Question 18

Under which conditions will a wave be considered a deepwater wave?

A)Wavelength > 1/2 water depth
B)Wave height > water depth
C)Wavelength > 1/2 wave height
D)Water depth > 1/2 wavelength

Question 19

________ is the turbulent water created by breaking waves.

A)A swell
B)A refracted wave
C)A tombolo
D)Surf

Question 20

What is the fetch?

A)Ocean currents that move in a direction parallel to the beach
B)The area of quiet water where deposition is taking place
C)A large area of open water over which wind blows to generate waves
D)Erosion of coastal cliffs creating wave-cut benches

Question 21

Which central part of a hurricane is characterized by a calm zone where precipitation and winds cease?

A)Typhoon
B)Eye wall
C)Pressure gradient
D)Eye

Question 22

What prevents hurricanes from developing in the band five degrees on either side of the Equator?

A)The Coriolis Effect is too weak.
B)Too much precipitation.
C)Temperatures are not high enough.
D)Lack of wind near the Equator.

Question 23

Hurricanes get their energy from ________ water.

A)cold
B)warm
C)fresh
D)still

Question 24

A(n)________ coast will be created when sea level rises or the land subsides.

A)exposed
B)emergent
C)submergent
D)eroded

Question 25

The presence of a breakwater can promote several actions along a shoreline.However, which one of the following would not result because of the presence of a breakwater?

A)Storm waves breaking on the seaward side of the structure.
B)Increased beach erosion on either side of the breakwater.
C)Quiet water on the landward side of the breakwater, resulting in deposition.
D)Increase of rip currents and longshore currents because of interference from the structure.

Question 26

Which of the following locations has a coastline famous for its depositional features such as barrier islands?

A)Northern California
B)Baja Peninsula, Mexico
C)Oregon
D)North Carolina

Question 27

Which of the following is an artificial coastal feature?

A)Baymouth bar
B)Jetty
C)Spit
D)Tombolo

Question 28

Which beach stabilization technique requires dumping many truckloads of sand on a beach to build it up?

A)Beach nourishment
B)Relocation
C)Groins
D)Seawalls

Question 29

During the last glaciation, a large tongue of glacial ice occupied Lake Michigan for thousands of years.How, several thousand years after the retreat of the ice, an emergent coastline is developing along part of the lake.What geologic process is creating an emergent coastline in Lake Michigan?

A)Lake levels are falling.
B)Rebound of a depressed crust.
C)Subsidence of the land surface around the lake.
D)Accumulation of dunes on the beach.

Question 30

What generates tides on the earth?

A)Gravitational repulsion of the sun
B)Melting of ice sheets
C)Gravitational attraction of the moon
D)Upwelling of methane gas

Question 31

What are the three categories of damage caused by hurricanes?

A)Eye, eye wall, and clouds
B)Wavelength, wave crest, and wave height
C)Storm surge, wind damage, and inland flooding
D)Shoreline erosion, flooding, and barometric pressure

Question 32

Which of the following deposition/erosion scenarios will develop when a groin is constructed on the beach?

A)Erosion on upcurrent and downcurrent sides
B)Erosion on upcurrent side and deposition on downcurrent side
C)Deposition on upcurrent and downcurrent sides
D)Deposition on upcurrent side and erosion on downcurrent side

Question 33

The shoreline represents an interface between the land, sea, and air.

Question 34

How has sea level changed over the last few thousand years?

A)It has risen 1 cm per millennium.
B)It has remain constant.
C)It has fallen 25 cm per century.
D)It has risen about 10 cm per century.

Question 35

A ________ is a hard shoreline stabilization feature, detached from the shoreline, that protects shorelines from the pounding of waves by creating an area of quiet water behind it.

A)groin
B)seawall
C)breakwater
D)jetty

Question 36

What system of measurement is used to categorize the strength of a hurricane?

A)Richter Scale
B)Mercalli Scale
C)Fujita Scale
D)Saffir-Simpson Scale

Question 37

Which of the following coastal features is not a characteristic of a submergent coastline?

A)Barrier islands
B)Estuaries
C)Wave-cut platform
D)Irregular coastlines

Question 38

The erosional retreat of a coastal cliff will lead to the enlargement of a ________.

A)wave-cut arch
B)wave-cut beach
C)wave-cut stack
D)wave-cut platform

Question 39

A(n)________ coast will be created when sea level falls or the land is uplifted.

A)exposed
B)emergent
C)submergent
D)eroded

Question 40

Which of the following areas consists of narrow beaches backed by steep cliffs and mountain ranges?

A)Pacific Coast
B)Atlantic Coast
C)Gulf Coast
D)Florida shoreline

Question 41

Explain why waves will begin to curl and fall over as they approach shore.

Question 42

Rip currents are the result of tidal variations.

Question 43

Most hurricanes form poleward of 20° latitude.

Question 44

What are three ways barrier islands can form?

Question 45

Beaches are locations along the shoreline where excess sediment has accumulated on shore.

Question 46

A large wave generated by an earthquake off the coast of Chile can travel across the Pacific Ocean to reach the shores of Alaska.

Question 47

How does the rotation of the earth give coastlines a high tide and a low tide?

Question 48

Barrier islands are more common along the Atlantic Coast than the Pacific Coast.

Question 49

Due to the crashing of waves and the backwash of water from shore, beaches can be thought of as areas where material is in transit.

Question 50

Coastal areas undergo some of the most rapid and dynamic change due to their constant contact with the water.

Question 51

If a shoreline remains stable over time, an irregular coast will be transformed into a smoother, straighter coast.

Question 52

How would coastline composition (rocky versus sandy)differ from the coastline of the Pacific Northwest and that of the Carolinas?

Question 53

Rivers in the Pacific Northwest are heavily managed by the construction of dams and reservoirs in order to produce hydroelectric power and, in some areas, for irrigation.However, the construction of interior dams can have serious consequences for the coastal erosion of beaches and rocky bluffs along the Pacific Coast.How can the construction of these dams lead to the erosion of a rocky coastal bluff?

Question 54

What kind of wave motion is visible in this image?

A)Circular orbital motion
B)Breaking wave
C)Rip current
D)Longshore current

Question 55

Hard stabilization methods of protecting beaches from erosion are ultimately only a form of temporary protection.

Question 56

What kind of wave motion is visible in this image?

A)Circular orbital motion
B)Breaking wave
C)Rip current
D)Longshore current

Question 57

Explain how the construction of a hard stabilization feature (i.e., groin)will force the deposition of sediment on a coastline.

Question 58

Black sand beaches in Hawaii were created by the erosion and deposition of coral.

Question 59

What is the difference between the eye and eye wall of a hurricane?

Question 60

What combination of incoming waves and backwash will result in a longshore drift? Explain.

Question 61

What coastal erosion feature is visible in this image?

A)Sea stack
B)Estuary
C)Wave-cut platform
D)Sea arch

Question 62

Which of the following scenarios could result in the exposure of the feature in this image?

A)Rising sea level floods this part of the shoreline.
B)Longshore currents deposit sand.
C)Rip currents remove beach deposits.
D)Tectonic activity raises the landscape.

Question 63

In the previous question, you had to indicate where deposition and erosion were taking place in this image.Why would deposition or erosion occur at the areas you indicated?

A)Erosion occurs where there is low water velocity and deposition occurs where there is high water velocity.
B)Erosion results from circular orbital motion whereas deposition occurs from the waves feeling bottom.
C)Erosion occurs where the water is shallow and deposition occurs where the water is deep.
D)Erosion occurs where there is high water velocity and deposition occurs where there is low water velocity.

Question 64

What erosional features, marked A and B, are visible in this figure?

A)Feature A is a headland and B is a sea cave.
B)Feature A is a spit and B is a Baymouth bar.
C)Feature A is a stack and B is a sea arch.
D)Feature A is a wave-cut bench and B is a spit.

Question 65

What process is illustrated by the arrows in this image?

A)Longshore current
B)Rip current
C)Wave refraction
D)Beach nourishment

Question 66

Which areas on this image will be dominated by deposition and which will be dominated by erosion?

A)Beaches will be dominated by erosion and the headland will be dominated by deposition.
B)Both the beaches and the headland will be dominated by deposition.
C)Beaches will be dominated by deposition and the headland will be dominated by erosion.
D)Both the beaches and the headland will be dominated by erosion.

Question 67

This image contains a spit, which is identified by an arrow.(The arrow is only for identification purposes.)Using the shape of the spit, from which direction is the longshore current coming? Assume for our purposes that the top of the figure is north.

A)From west to east
B)From north to south
C)From north to west
D)From south to east

Question 68

This feature is evidence of a(n)________ coastline.

A)divergent
B)emergent
C)submergent
D)convergent

Question 69

What coastal erosion stabilizers are visible in this image?

A)Headlands
B)Jetties
C)Breakwaters
D)Groins