Page 347 - Fundamentals of Geomorphology

330 PROCESS AND FORM

Cape
Paterson 10 km
Anderson
Inlet
N
Venus
Bay

Shallow
Inlet

Waratah
Cape Bay
Liptrap

Sandy beach
Rocky shore

Figure 13.10 Zetaform beaches: Venus Bay and Waratah Bay, Victoria, Australia.
Source: Adapted from Bird (2000, 119)

Spits and forelands called ‘serpentines’. Comet-tail spits form where long-
shore movement of material down each side of an island
Barrier spits often form at the mouths of estuaries and leads to accumulation in the island’s lee, as has happened
other places where the coast suddenly changes direction. at the Plage de Grands Sables on the eastern end of the
Sediment moving along the shore is laid down and tends Île de Groix, which lies off the coast of Brittany, France.
to extend along the original line of the coast. Some spits Arrows are spit-like forms that grow seawards from a
project into the ocean and then curve round to run coast as they are nourished by longshore movement on
parallel to the coast. An example is Orfordness on the both sides. Sometimes spits grow towards one another
east coast of England, where the River Alde has been owing to the configuration of the coast. Such paired
deflected some 18 km to the south. Recurved spits have spits are found at the entrance to Poole Harbour, in
their ends curving sharply away from incoming waves Dorset, England, where the northern spit, the Sandbanks
towards the land, and compound recurved spits have a peninsula, has grown towards the southern spit, the
series of landward-turning recurved sections along their South Haven peninsula.
inner side. Blakeney Point, which lies in north Norfolk, Forelands or cuspate spits tend to be less protuberant
England, is a famous recurved spit. Spits that have twist- thanspits.Theygrowoutfromcoasts,makingthemmore
ing axes, created in response to shifting currents, are irregular.