Exam 14: Waves, Beaches, and Coasts

Estuaries, such as Chesapeake Bay, are drowned glacial-cut valleys.

The steepest part of a beach is the ____.

Winter beaches build up underwater sandbars that serve as a storage facility for next summer's sand supply.

The horizontal distance between two wave crests is called the ______.

U.S. coasts with gently sloping plains, such as those along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, are ____.

Coastal straightening occurs because of ____.

Wavelength is the horizontal distance between two wave crests or two troughs.

The greater part of the sand from most beaches comes from ____.

For the past 3000 years sea level has been rising at a rate of _______.

A tombolo is a bar of sediment connecting a former island to the mainland.

The net effect of wave ____ is to move sand in a series of arcs along the beach face.

The height and length of a wave is a function of _____.

____ coasts are common because sea level has been rising for the past 15,000 years.

Seawalls are constructed perpendicular to the shore to prevent wave erosion.

Drowned coasts may be marked by ___, glacially cut valleys flooded by rising sea level.

A _____ is a ridge of sediment that cuts a bay off from the ocean.

A _____ is a structure built to absorb the force of large, offshore breaking waves and provide quiet water near shore.

The diameter of the orbital path of a water particle near the surface is equal to _____.

You can get out of a rip current easily by swimming ____ to the beach instead of struggling against the current.

Waves breaking along the shore are known as ____.