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Year 7

Erosional coastal landforms

I can explain erosional processes and describe the coastal landforms they create.

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New
New
Year 7

Erosional coastal landforms

I can explain erosional processes and describe the coastal landforms they create.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. There are four types of erosion: abrasion, hydraulic action, attrition and solution.
  2. The geology of a coastline will have an impact on the rate of erosion.
  3. Coastal landforms, such as arches, are formed through erosional processes over millions of years.
  4. The sequence from a headland to a stump is: headland, cave, arch, stack, stump.

Keywords

  • Erosion - the process of Earth’s surface, e.g. rock or soil, being worn away and transported from its original site

  • Landform - landforms are natural features created by processes such as erosion or deposition

  • Geology - the geology of an area is its physical structure and the rocks and minerals that exist there

  • Rate - a measure of the quantity, frequency or speed at which something happens or occurs

Common misconception

Students may think that soft rock is physically soft to the touch, like a pillow.

Geologically soft is not the same as being soft like a pillow. All rock feels solid when touched, even soft rocks. Rock that is classified as soft, like clay, can crumble and break more easily than rock which is classified as hard, like granite.


To help you plan your year 7 geography lesson on: Erosional coastal landforms, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

If you have some small samples of different types of hard and soft rock to pass around the room, students can feel how they are all 'solid', even though some of them are 'hard' and some of them are 'soft'.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

6 Questions

Q1.
What is a landform?
a man-made structure
Correct answer: a natural feature of Earth's surface
a type of farming
Q2.
What is the difference between erosion and weathering?
1 - erosion
2 - involves the process of moving materials
3 - weathering
4 - is the breaking down of rock in place
Q3.
Match the key words to their definition.
Correct Answer:landform,natural features created by processes such as erosion or deposition
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natural features created by processes such as erosion or deposition

Correct Answer:erosion,the process of Earth’s surface being worn and transported away
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the process of Earth’s surface being worn and transported away

Correct Answer:geology,the physical structure, rocks and minerals that exist in an area
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the physical structure, rocks and minerals that exist in an area

Correct Answer:rate,a measure of the quantity, frequency or speed
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a measure of the quantity, frequency or speed

Q4.
What is an erosional coastal landform?
a feature created by the movement of sand
Correct answer: a feature formed by the action of waves and currents wearing away rock
a feature formed by the deposition of sediment
a feature created by volcanic eruptions
Q5.
What is a headland?
a small island
a sandy area at the bottom of a cliff
Correct answer: an area of harder rock that sticks out into the sea
Q6.
Why is rock described as being 'soft'?
Correct answer: soft rock is easy to erode
Correct answer: soft rock can be crumbly like clay
soft rock is difficult to erode
soft rock is squashy like a pillow

4 Questions

Q1.
Which term refers to rock being worn away?
deposition
Correct answer: erosion
formation
transportation
Q2.
The four types of erosion are:
Correct Answer:abrasion,rock carried by waves knock against a cliff face and wear it down
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rock carried by waves knock against a cliff face and wear it down

Correct Answer:hydraulic action,waves force air into cracks on a cliff face weakening the rock
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waves force air into cracks on a cliff face weakening the rock

Correct Answer:solution,rock is dissolved by seawater
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rock is dissolved by seawater

Correct Answer:attrition,rocks carried by waves knock against each other
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rocks carried by waves knock against each other

Q3.
Put the coastal landforms in the order that they are formed.
1 - headland
2 - cave
3 - arch
4 - stack
5 - stump
Q4.
tells us about the type of rock at a coastline.
Correct Answer: Geology
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