Geography Unit 1: Rivers,

Coasts and Glaciation —

Study Notes
1. Landscape, Weathering and
Erosion
Landscape = the general scenery of a place
(mountainous, flat, spectacular, etc.). Examples:
Mount Everest (mountainous), Monument Valley USA
(desert rock towers), Guilin China (limestone peaks).
The Earth's surface is always changing.
Weathering = the breakdown/attack of rocks in
place by the weather (rain, sun, wind, frost).
Erosion = the wearing away and removal of the
loosened material by rivers, sea, ice or wind.
Weathering and erosion work together:
weathering breaks up and weakens rock; erosion
wears it away and carries it off.

2. Types of Weathering
a) Freeze–thaw weathering (frost
shattering)
Water enters a crack in a rock and freezes.
As it freezes it expands, widening the crack.
When it thaws, the ice melts back to water.
Repeated freezing and thawing weakens the rock
until it splits into jagged pieces.
Common in mountainous areas where
temperatures are often around freezing point.
b) Onion-skin weathering (exfoliation)
Happens when a rock is repeatedly heated and
cooled.
Heat makes the outer layer expand slightly;
cooling makes it contract.
Repeated expansion/contraction causes thin
layers to peel off, like the skin of an onion.
Common in deserts, where it is very hot by day
and cool at night.
c) Biological weathering
Caused by the action of plants and animals.
Seeds fall into cracks; as they grow into
plants/trees, roots widen the cracks and force the
rock apart.
 Burrowing animals (rabbits, moles, earthworms)
also help break down rock.
d) Chemical weathering
Caused by the action of water, since rainwater
contains small amounts of acid.
The acid attacks rock, making it rot and crumble.
Seen on buildings and gravestones where stone
has worn/pitted away.
Faster in places that are warm and wet (heat +
water speed it up).
Summary: Weathering is the breakdown of rock by
water, frost and temperature change. Rock can also
be broken down by the effects of plants and animals.

3. What Is Erosion? (Agents of

Erosion)
Erosion = the wearing away of the land and removal of
loosened material. Main agents:
Agent How it erodes
Rivers Wear away tiny bits of rock from the
bed, and eat into the banks. Material is
carried downstream and dropped when
 Agent How it erodes
the water slows. Floods can loosen and
roll large boulders.
Waves attack coastlines constantly;
storm waves hit rock with the weight of
Sea several tonnes, weakening and breaking
off pieces. Currents carry loose material
away and deposit it elsewhere.
A glacier is a tongue of ice moving
down a valley. Stones/boulders frozen
Ice into the ice act like sandpaper on the
rock beneath, wearing away the valley
bottom and sides as the glacier moves.
Picks up sand particles and blasts them
Wind against rock/objects — a "sandblasting"
effect — eroding desert rocks into
strange shapes.
Bulldozers and lorries dig out and move
Humans soil/rock; removing vegetation can also
let water, wind and ice erode land more
easily.

Erosion, Transportation, Deposition

Using the analogy of gardeners moving soil with a
wheelbarrow:
 Erosion = digging out material
(loosening/removing it from where it lies).
Transportation = moving material from one place
to another.
Deposition = dropping/dumping the material
somewhere else.
On a large scale, mountains, valleys, plains and coasts
are all shaped by water, ice and wind through this
same three-stage process.
Summary: Erosion is the wearing away of rock and its
removal by streams, ice, waves and wind. Erosion,
transportation and deposition together help shape the
land.

4. How Rivers Shape the Land (V-

shaped Valleys)
Running water alone has little erosive power — it is the
boulders, stones and rock particles pushed along by
the river that do the work, scraping the bed and banks
and loosening more material (this loose material is
carried and called the river's load).
How a V-shaped valley forms (upper course of a
river):
 1. The river erodes downwards as
boulders/stones/rock particles scrape the channel
bed.
2. As the river cuts down, the steep valley sides are
attacked by weathering, which loosens soil and
rock.
3. Slope transport: loosened material creeps down
the slope due to gravity, or is washed into the river
by rain.
4. End result: a steep-sided valley shaped like the
letter "V".
Key river valley vocabulary
Term Meaning
Source Where a river starts
Spurs Ridges of land around which a
(interlocking river winds
spurs)
Valley sides The slopes on either side of a
river
V-shaped valley The typical shape of a valley in
the river's upper course
Channel The course of a river
 Term Meaning
River banks The sides of a river channel
River bed The bottom of a river channel
Load Material carried/moved by the
river

5. Waterfalls
The world's highest waterfall is Angel Falls in
South America (979 m total height — roughly four
times the height of One Canada Square, Canary
Wharf).
Britain's waterfalls are much smaller, e.g. High
Force in northern England (20 m, most impressive
during floods).
The best-known waterfall in the world is Niagara
Falls, on the Niagara River, part of the border
between Canada and the USA.
How a waterfall forms:
A band of hard rock (e.g. limestone) lies on top of
softer rock (e.g. shale/sandstone).
The river flows over the hard rock and plunges
down the step created where the soft rock has
 worn away faster.
At the bottom, swirling water and rock erode a
deep plunge pool.
Water also erodes the softer rock behind the falls,
undercutting the hard rock above.
The undercut hard rock eventually collapses into
the plunge pool.
This causes the waterfall to move back (retreat)
upstream over time.
Repeated retreat leaves behind a gorge — a
steep-sided valley carved by the river and the
retreating waterfall.
At Niagara, the falls are retreating at nearly 1 metre
per year, and the resulting gorge is about 11 km
long.
Steps in words: hard rock undercut → hard rock
collapses into plunge pool → material broken
up/washed away → waterfall position moves back,
leaving a gorge behind.
Summary: Many waterfalls result from water wearing
away soft rock faster than hard rock. As the waterfall
erodes back, it leaves a gorge behind.

6. River Bends and Meanders

 Rivers rarely flow in a straight line — they twist and
turn as they head to the sea. Straight sections
usually only occur where people have built banks
or diverted the river's course.
Bends develop mainly because of the water's
eroding power.
The force of the water is greatest towards the
outside of the bend. When it hits the bank there it
causes erosion — this deepens the channel and
wears away the bank, forming a small river cliff.
On the inside of the bend, the current is slower, so
material builds up through deposition — this
makes the bank gently sloping and the channel
shallow (a small beach may form).
Feature Outside of bend Inside of bend
Current Fastest Slowest
Process Erosion Deposition
Result River cliff, channel
deepened
Small beach,
channel shallow
The bends themselves are called meanders.
On either side of the channel lies flat land called
the flood plain, which floods when the river
overflows its banks.
 Flood plains are made up of alluvium (also called
silt) — fine muddy material left behind after
floods.
Flood plains are useful to people: they are flat and
have rich, fertile soil, making them good for
farming and building on.
Summary: A river course is seldom straight. It usually
has many bends which cause it to meander down its
valley. The outside of a bend is worn away by erosion
while the inside is built up by deposition.

7. How the Sea Shapes the Coast

The sea is never still — calm on quiet days, but
large, powerful waves crash against the shore in
stormy conditions, strong enough to drive ships
against rock or smash sea defences/piers.
The sea can erode, transport, and deposit
material, producing many coastal landforms.
Erosion landforms
In storms, the sea picks up loose rocks and throws
them at the shore. This bombardment undercuts
cliffs, opens up cracks, and breaks rock into
smaller pieces.
 Soft rock areas wear away more easily and
become bays (an opening in the coastline).
Hard rock areas resist erosion and remain as
headlands (a stretch of land jutting out into the
sea).
How a headland is eroded (step by step)
1. The sea attacks small cracks in the headland and
opens them up.
2. Cracks get larger and develop into a small cave.
3. When the cave wears right through the headland,
an arch forms.
4. Further erosion causes the arch to collapse,
leaving a pillar of rock standing away from the
coast, called a stack.
Deposition landforms
Beaches form when material worn away from one
part of the coast is carried along and dropped
somewhere else — an example of a deposition
landform.
A spit is a special type of beach extending out into
the sea — a long finger of sand/shingle that grows
out across a bay or river mouth.
Example: Spurn Head spit (5 km long), formed as:
1. Erosion of coastline north of Spurn Head.
 2. Eroded material transported down the coast
by sea currents.
3. Material dropped where the coastline changes
direction.
4. The spit grows out from the coast as more
material builds up.
5. The end of the spit is curved by wave action.
6. Marshland forms behind the spit (sheltered
water).
Summary: The coastline is always changing shape.
Some parts are worn away by erosion, while other
parts are built up by deposition.

8. The Coastal Erosion Problem

(Holderness Case Study)
Coastal erosion can cause severe problems: loss
of agricultural land, destroyed buildings, and
endangered transport links.
The east coast of England has some of the
fastest-eroding coastlines in Europe.
Holderness, Yorkshire, is one of the areas in most
danger — the sea erodes the land at about 2
metres per year.
 Over the last 2,000 years, several villages/farms
have disappeared into the North Sea.
Mappleton is the latest victim: houses lost, farm
buildings unsafe, coastal road almost lost.
People worry about losing homes and livelihoods;
seaside resorts (Hornsea, Withernsea) and two
cliff-top gas plants are also at risk.
Why erosion is so bad at Holderness
1. North-east winds drive waves against the cliffs.
2. The cliffs are made of soft clay (boulder clay left
behind by glaciers ~10,000 years ago during the
last Ice Age), so they erode easily.
3. About half a million tonnes of material is eroded
each year.
4. Eroded material is carried away by the sea as fine
mud or sand.
5. Some material is deposited further down the coast
at Spurn Head spit.
Process of cliff collapse
Rain soaks into cracks, dissolving minerals and
weakening the cliff's structure.
In winter, water in the cracks freezes, and the ice
expands the cracks (freeze-thaw).
Rain makes the clay slippery and heavy, so large
sections can slide down the slope.
 Meanwhile, waves crash into the cliff base and
gradually wear away the rock; pebbles/rocks
thrown by waves undercut the cliff.
Eventually the cliff collapses, and eroded material
is washed away by the sea, leaving no protection
for the cliff behind.
Summary: Erosion is a problem for many coastal
areas. It causes land loss and may destroy property,
transport links and industries. It can also result in job
losses.

9. How Can Coastal Erosion Be

Reduced?
Protecting coasts is difficult and expensive. Since
2000, over £1 billion has been spent defending
Britain's coastline. However, protecting one part of the
coast can cause worse erosion problems further
along the same coastline (e.g., at Mappleton,
defences built in 1992 protected the village but
increased erosion of cliffs to the south).
Because of this, many people now favour schemes
that work with nature rather than against it, since
these do less damage and help retain wildlife and the
natural environment.
Coastal defence methods
Method Description Approx.
Cost
Stop waves reaching the
land by reflecting them ~£7
Sea walls back to sea; can wash million
away the beach; per km
expensive, may need
repair
Replaces sand/shingle
Beach lost from the beach; ~£2
rebuilding absorbs wave energy; million
protects land/sea wall per km
behind and looks natural
Built down the beach
and into the sea, ~200 ~£1.5
Groynes m apart; slow million
movement of material per
along the coast and help groyne
build up the beach
Rip-rap Mixture of large ~£3
boulders and concrete million
blocks; breaks up waves per km
and helps retain the
beach; doesn't protect
cliffs as well as a sea
 Method Description Approx.
Cost
wall; can look ugly and
make beach access
difficult

Possible solutions for the whole Holderness

coast
1. Build sea defences along the whole 60 km of
coastline — expensive but protects everyone;
could cut off the sand supply to Spurn Head,
threatening its survival.
2. Protect only the main towns and let the sea erode
the land between them into small bays — beaches
would form in the bays, helping protect the coast
further, while material continues down to Spurn
Head.
3. Do nothing at all and let nature take its course.
Summary: Protecting coasts is not easy. There are
arguments for and against trying to protect a coastline
from erosion.

10. How Does Ice Shape the Land?

 Glaciers form when climate is cold enough for
precipitation to fall as snow. As snow piles up, its
weight turns the lower layers into ice.
When ice moves downhill under gravity, it is called
a glacier, and it replaces rivers in valleys.
Glaciers act like powerful earth-moving machines:
dig out rock in the uplands (erosion)
move the material down the valley
(transportation)
dump it in the lowlands (deposition)
The material carried by a glacier is called moraine,
produced by three processes:
Freeze-thaw weathering — rock broken up
by water freezing/thawing in cracks.
Abrasion — wearing away of rock (like
sandpaper).
Plucking — ice freezes onto rock and pulls
pieces away as the glacier moves.
Formation of a corrie (cwm)
1. Snow collects in a shallow hollow, turns to ice, and
moves downhill.
2. Freeze-thaw above the glacier breaks off rock
pieces that fall onto the glacier.
3. Plucking behind the glacier steepens the backwall.
4. Abrasion under the ice deepens the hollow.
 5. A rock lip forms where erosion is least (may be
covered in deposited moraine).
6. When the ice melts, a bowl shape is left in which a
lake (tarn) may form.
Corries are deep, rounded hollows with a steep
backwall and sides, shaped like an armchair. Many
contain a lake or tarn.
Arêtes and pyramidal peaks
Corries often develop on more than one side of a
mountain.
As backwalls are worn away, the land between
two corries narrows until a knife-edged ridge
forms — this is an arête.
When three or more corries cut into the same
mountain, several arêtes radiate from a central
point, forming a pyramidal peak (e.g. the
Matterhorn, Switzerland).

11. Landforms Resulting from

Glaciation
Before glaciation: a river valley is V-shaped, winding
around areas of higher land called interlocking spurs.
Glaciers tend to follow the easiest route — usually a
river valley — but unlike a river, a glacier fills the entire
valley and has much greater erosive power. As a
result:
The V-shaped valley is widened, deepened and
straightened into a U-shaped glacial trough — an
almost straight, trench-like valley with a wide, flat
floor and steep sides.
The glacier acts like a giant bulldozer, wearing
away the ends of interlocking spurs to leave cliff-
like truncated spurs.
Smaller tributary glaciers have less erosive
power than the main glacier, so they erode less
quickly. When the ice melts, these are left as
hanging valleys, with the tributary river
descending into the main valley as a waterfall.
The main glacier carries vast amounts of moraine.
When the ice melts, this moraine is deposited
across the valley, forming a dam-like feature.
Meltwater trapped behind it forms a long, narrow
ribbon lake.
Key glacial landforms
Landform Description
U-shaped Wide, flat-floored, steep-sided valley
valley left after a glacier has
Landform Description
(glacial widened/deepened/straightened a V-
trough) shaped valley
Truncated Ridges that have been shortened/cut
spurs off by the moving glacier
Smaller valleys that have been
Hanging eroded less than the main valley;
valleys their rivers now enter the main valley
as waterfalls
Ribbon Long, narrow lakes that form in
lakes hollows in the main valley (often
dammed by moraine)
Boulders transported by ice and
Erratics deposited, often in an area of totally
different rock type
Deep, armchair-shaped hollows on
Corries mountainsides, often containing a
lake
Arêtes Narrow, knife-edged ridges between
two corries
Pyramidal Sharp mountain peaks formed where
peaks three or more arêtes/corries meet
Summary: Ice can shape the land in many ways.
Some landforms are shaped by glacial erosion, while
others are a result of glacial deposition.

Quick Revision: Key Term Glossary

Weathering — breakdown of rock in place by
weather (frost, heat, rain, plants/animals).
Erosion — wearing away and removal of
rock/land by rivers, sea, ice, wind or humans.
Transportation — movement of eroded material
from one place to another.
Deposition — dropping of transported material to
build up new landforms.
Freeze-thaw — water freezes/expands in cracks,
splitting rock.
Onion-skin (exfoliation) — repeated
heating/cooling causes outer rock layers to peel
off.
Biological weathering — breakdown caused by
plant roots/burrowing animals.
Chemical weathering — breakdown caused by
acidic rainwater.
Load — material carried by a river.
Plunge pool — deep pool at the base of a
waterfall.
Gorge — steep-sided valley left behind as a
waterfall retreats.
Meander — a bend in a river.
Flood plain — flat land beside a river that floods,
made of alluvium/silt.
Headland / bay — hard rock juts out to sea
(headland); soft rock erodes into an inlet (bay).
Cave → arch → stack — sequence of headland
erosion.
Spit — a long finger of sand/shingle extending into
the sea from the coast.
Glacier — moving mass of ice formed from
compacted snow.
Moraine — rock material carried/deposited by a
glacier.
Corrie/cwm — armchair-shaped hollow formed
by glacial erosion, often with a lake (tarn).
Arête — narrow ridge between two corries.
Pyramidal peak — sharp peak formed where
several arêtes meet.
U-shaped valley (glacial trough) — wide, flat-
floored valley carved by a glacier.
Truncated spurs — spurs cut off by glacial
erosion.
Hanging valley — tributary valley left above the
main valley floor after glaciation.
Ribbon lake — long narrow lake in a glaciated
valley.
Erratic — boulder deposited by ice, often of
different rock type to surrounding area.