Coastal FieldWork By Joshua Thurlow

Introduction: The class 8E and D went to Cape Schanck, Gunnamatta Beach and St . Andrews Beach for a geography fieldwork excursion. Mr Yarnton took both of the classes and showed use live examples of the work we have been doing in class. Now using the information that we gathered and shared to make a 'Coastal FieldWork' presentation.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Peninsula

Coastal Features

Cape Schanck Coastal Features
1.1
Stack: A stack is the left over part of an arch that sits on a 'Wave-Cut-Platform' that is connected to the headland. As you can see on the right (source 1.2), the stack has a small amount of foliage that is toping the stack. Then there is a large portion of Basalt that is the most dominant part. close to bottom there is some Sedimentary rock that is followed by a Wave-Cut-Platform that is Basalt. The stack is created by coastal erosion, the main erosion effect is hydraulic Action.

1.2

HeadLand: A headland is the main body of the coastal scene. It is the first stage of the coastal erosion (HeadLand -> Cliff ->Wave-cut notch -> etc.....). On the right (1.2) the head land can be seen with the most amount of foliage in this scene. In the middle it is shown that there is less foliage because the wind is directly hitting it and the top is getting the leftovers. Although the main body of the headland has very little eroszion (from sea), the bottom gets effected by abrasion.

1.2

Wave-Cut Platform: A Wave-cut platform is a piece of 'land' that is on the edges of the beach (normally near cliffs are or where cliffs were) that were part of a cliff or notch that have been eroded to creat a platform created by the waves. As can be seen on the right (1.3), the wave-cut platform is made out of basalt and is getting eroded every time the waves hit. Wave cut platforms are effected by abrasion.

1.3

Gunnamata Beach Coastal Features
1.4
Dunes: Dunes are large mounds of sand that protects the beach by absorbing the impact of a storm and high waves, preventing or delaying flooding to inland areas and damage. There are three types of dunes, primary, secondary and tertiary. On the right (1.5) you can see the 'primary' dune. This is the closest dune to the beach which means, sadly, people would trample and climb up it. As can be seen the 'Mattam' grass is slowly running down the dune to help keep the dune in tacked and not falling/crumbling away.

1.5

Beach: A pebbly or sandy shore, especially by the sea between high- and low-water marks. The beach (1.6) that is seen has a very low tide and is quite far out for what is seen at other beaches. On this beach there is less people on it because it is a (much) less commercial beach.

1.6

Vegetation: Vegetation is the wide variety of plants that take over an area of land. As it shown (1.7), the vegetation on Gunnamtata Beach is looking very heathy and is being prevented from people trampling on them. Due to the healthy vegetation the dunes are staying intact for a lot longer.

1.7

St Andrews Beach Coastal Features
1.8
Wave-Cut Platform: A Wave-cut platform is a piece of 'land' that is on the edges of the beach (normally near cliffs are or where cliffs were) that were part of a cliff or notch that have been eroded to creat a platform created by the waves (1.9).

1.9

Vegetation: Vegetation is the wide variety of plants that take over an area of land. As the picture shows (2.0), there is a very large amount of plants and (something that can't really be seen) animals that helps keep the dunes healthy. You can see that the where the most amount of vegetation is on the tertiary dunes then it lessens as you get closer to the beach.

2.0

Dunes: Dunes are large mounds of sand that protects the beach by absorbing the implact of a storm and high waves, preventing or delaying flooding to inland areas and damage. On the far right (2.1) the plants that can be seen are 'salt bush' and 'Hakea Bush'. The plants are seen alover the coastal scene and cant effect how your view is next time you go to the beach.

2.1

Coastal Processors

2.2
Diagram Of Longshore Drift
2.3
Cape Schanck Coastal Processes
Attrition: Attrition is a type of erosion which is where the rocks clash together and will become smooth and push up on the beach. At Cape Schanck, there is a great example of abrasion. The pebble beach has shinny black rocks from all different sizes (2.4).

2.4

Hydraulic Action: Is a type of erosion that occurs when the motion of water pushes against a rock. As the picture shows (2.5), there is very little area that can be seen which is where hydraulic action lays. Although this picture isn't the best, this was the best picture to show hydraulic action almost in action.

2.5

Abrasion: Abrasion is a form of coastal erosion, when the load is eroded by itself. Attrition is the most common to find erosion in he coastal scene. This is because you can (almost) always see (2.6) the rock eroding away at the base of the cliff or headland.

2.6

Gunnamata Coastal Processes
Longshore Drift: The movement of material along the coast by waves which move in an angle to the shore. This Longshore Drift might not seem so important, but imagine you are stuck in a rip....What are you going to do? Swim with the Longshore drift to get an extra boost of momentum to get out of the rip (2.7).

2.7

Rip: A rip is part of the coastline that has no waves braking on the water or shore. This is dangerous because it can such swimmers further out. But if you ask surfers, they have a different side. Surfers use rips to travel out further to get the better, bigger waves.

Weathering: Wear away or change the look or texture of something by long exposure to the weather. There was small creases in (2.8) the dues that are the effect of weathering. Weathering is normally rain and wind but there can be other types of weathering.

2.8

St. Andrews Beach Coastal Processes
Longshore Drift: The movement of material along the coast by waves which move in an angle to the shore. The Longshore drift at this beach is still important but not as much with the rips because this is a very low commercial beach. I would like to think, from seeing first hand, the Longshore drift would be much stronger because it was going faster then some other beaches (2.9).

2.9

Rip: A rip is part of the coastline that has no waves braking on the water or shore. At St. Andrews (3.0) There were lots of small rips that were not very close together. The one that is seen on this image was one of the smaller ones that looked like to be 1-1.5m wide and 2m upwards. This could be a real issue because there isn't any lifeguards and if you ty to swim out, you could go into another one.

3.0

Weathering: Wear away or change the look or texture of something by long exposure to the weather. I choose to use a diagram (3.1) instead of a picture because at St. Andrews Beach, the weathering is harder to find. On the day it was starting to get more windy and we sort of got to see weathering in action.

3.1

Coastal Management

Human Impacts
3.2
Coastal Management Strategies

Protect The Environment: To protect the environment at all of these places there is things that will have to be built or placed for the safety of the environment. The boardwalk and chicken wire are the biggest help for this problem. The boardwalk is quite obvious why it helps (Mainly at Cape Schanck), but the chicken wire isn't so much. The chicken wire is used to hold the ground and dunes together (at all locations).

3.3

Education Information: To teach students and visitors, the government place information boards and information perches/look outs that are placed on a the mountain. The information boards tell where you are, what animals could be living there and what plants are growing there (at Gunnamatta Beach). The information look outs have the look out machines and more information boards (at Cape Schanck).

3.4

Restrict Human Movement: To restric use trampling on the vegetation the environmental groups have to put in place paths and fences to do so. The paths are created but moving the little of the vegetation so less will be destroyed (this is at all locations, but mainly at Cape Schanck). The fences are use to restric and keep the people in so the don't fall or damage anything (this at all locations but many at Cape Schanck).

3.5

Regenerate The Environment: From past people walking and trampling on the environment and natural disasters we need to regrow our environment. One way is to replant some of the more important plants and trees that help restore the cliffs and dunes (all location but mainly at St. Andrews Beach). The other way is to mark of areas with thicker bushes that limit the ways to walk through to the other plants. (Gunnamata)

3.6

Created By
Joshua Thurlow
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