Geography 2051 Final Exam 2025 –
Namikas Study Guide & Key Concepts
Waves (Height, length, period, steepness) - ANSWER ✨✔---wavee energy is extremely high peaks
are the crest and the low point is the trough ...
Wavelength - ANSWER ✨✔---measurement from crest to adjacent crest, with a trough in
between; longer the wave, the faster it travels
Wave Height - ANSWER ✨✔---difference in elevation from crest to a trough and is determined by
how much energy the wave is carrying
Wave Steepness - ANSWER ✨✔---wave height divided by wavelength; contributes to wave
stability; too steep and its unstable
Wave Period - ANSWER ✨✔---wave speed; the time that it takes for a wave to travel one
wavelength and 5-15 seconds is common (gulf has short period waves)
Wave Generation - ANSWER ✨✔---Wind blows along the water and as the wind moves along the
surface, it picks up small water molecules that continuously build up into waves
Fetch - ANSWER ✨✔---The distance that the wind has traveled across open water; the length of
water the wind can travel over uninterrupted
Wind Speed (Waves) - ANSWER ✨✔---the more energy trANSWERfered to the waters surface, the
larger the waves
,Duration of Waves - ANSWER ✨✔---the length of the wave event determines how much energy is
trANSWERferred to the water; a longer event will better trANSWERfer energy to the surface and result
in more energetic and powerful waves
Waves Orbital Motion - ANSWER ✨✔---circular path that each individual particle of water follows
Shoaling TrANSWERformation (change in height, length, steepness) - ANSWER ✨✔---
Wave Breaking - ANSWER ✨✔---In the open sea, waves do not interact with the bottom of the
ocean, but as they approach the land, they do. When the depth of water is about one-half the
wavelength, the wave touches the bottom. The water is slowed by friction, like in streams, and this
slowing is greatest at the bottom of the wave, the top of the wave is less affected, so it travels faster.
The result is that the wave deforms. Eventually, the wave is too steep and it breaks, collapsing on itself,
somewhat similar to a landslide. After the wave breaks, it becomes a jumbled mass of water and runs up
the beach as swash. Then it seeps into the sand of the beach and/or flows back down the beach. Then
the next wave breaks.
Wave Refraction (energy distribution at shore) - ANSWER ✨✔---As waves approach the shore,
they do so at an angle where one part of the wave is in shallower waters and the other part is in the
deeper water with the wave constantly trying to reorient to be perpendicular to the shore. High energy
erosion on headlands with less energy distributed within a bay or on the land directly on either side of a
headland
Longshore Currents - ANSWER ✨✔---ocean currents that run parallel to the shore and pull
sediments down the shoreline
Beach Drift - ANSWER ✨✔---sediment moves in a zigzag pattern along the beach face
Tsunami - ANSWER ✨✔---a giant wave usually caused by a seismic activity beneath the ocean
floor.
Primary Coasts - ANSWER ✨✔---most characteristics of this coast are caused by terrestrial
processes, with irregular coasts made up of a series of drowned river valleys (deltas, fjords)
, Secondary Coasts - ANSWER ✨✔---dominated by marine processes that shape the coastline via
waves
Cliffs (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---wave-cut cliffs where the waves create notches and
erode away the coast and coastal shelf
Wave-cut Platforms (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---waves creating notches within the coast
and is a self-limiting process
Coastal Terraces (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a raised beach that is relatively flat that is
generally an old abrasion platform that is moved up and out of the wave activity and exposed to
terrestrial erosive actions
Arches (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---cliff face erosion where waves attack a plane of
weakness which creates an arch
Stacks (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a geological landform that is steep, vertical columns of
rock within the sea or near the coast and formed by wave erosion (headlands are eroded to arches, then
stacks, and finally eroded to nothing)
Beaches (depositional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a pebbly or sandy shore between the high and low
water marks created by the waves/ocean
Longshore TrANSWERport - ANSWER ✨✔---movement of sediment by the longshore current
Spits - ANSWER ✨✔---shore parallel ridge of sediments
Tombolos - ANSWER ✨✔---a ridge of sand that connects an island to the mainland or to another
island; shore perpendicular ridge of sediments
Namikas Study Guide & Key Concepts
Waves (Height, length, period, steepness) - ANSWER ✨✔---wavee energy is extremely high peaks
are the crest and the low point is the trough ...
Wavelength - ANSWER ✨✔---measurement from crest to adjacent crest, with a trough in
between; longer the wave, the faster it travels
Wave Height - ANSWER ✨✔---difference in elevation from crest to a trough and is determined by
how much energy the wave is carrying
Wave Steepness - ANSWER ✨✔---wave height divided by wavelength; contributes to wave
stability; too steep and its unstable
Wave Period - ANSWER ✨✔---wave speed; the time that it takes for a wave to travel one
wavelength and 5-15 seconds is common (gulf has short period waves)
Wave Generation - ANSWER ✨✔---Wind blows along the water and as the wind moves along the
surface, it picks up small water molecules that continuously build up into waves
Fetch - ANSWER ✨✔---The distance that the wind has traveled across open water; the length of
water the wind can travel over uninterrupted
Wind Speed (Waves) - ANSWER ✨✔---the more energy trANSWERfered to the waters surface, the
larger the waves
,Duration of Waves - ANSWER ✨✔---the length of the wave event determines how much energy is
trANSWERferred to the water; a longer event will better trANSWERfer energy to the surface and result
in more energetic and powerful waves
Waves Orbital Motion - ANSWER ✨✔---circular path that each individual particle of water follows
Shoaling TrANSWERformation (change in height, length, steepness) - ANSWER ✨✔---
Wave Breaking - ANSWER ✨✔---In the open sea, waves do not interact with the bottom of the
ocean, but as they approach the land, they do. When the depth of water is about one-half the
wavelength, the wave touches the bottom. The water is slowed by friction, like in streams, and this
slowing is greatest at the bottom of the wave, the top of the wave is less affected, so it travels faster.
The result is that the wave deforms. Eventually, the wave is too steep and it breaks, collapsing on itself,
somewhat similar to a landslide. After the wave breaks, it becomes a jumbled mass of water and runs up
the beach as swash. Then it seeps into the sand of the beach and/or flows back down the beach. Then
the next wave breaks.
Wave Refraction (energy distribution at shore) - ANSWER ✨✔---As waves approach the shore,
they do so at an angle where one part of the wave is in shallower waters and the other part is in the
deeper water with the wave constantly trying to reorient to be perpendicular to the shore. High energy
erosion on headlands with less energy distributed within a bay or on the land directly on either side of a
headland
Longshore Currents - ANSWER ✨✔---ocean currents that run parallel to the shore and pull
sediments down the shoreline
Beach Drift - ANSWER ✨✔---sediment moves in a zigzag pattern along the beach face
Tsunami - ANSWER ✨✔---a giant wave usually caused by a seismic activity beneath the ocean
floor.
Primary Coasts - ANSWER ✨✔---most characteristics of this coast are caused by terrestrial
processes, with irregular coasts made up of a series of drowned river valleys (deltas, fjords)
, Secondary Coasts - ANSWER ✨✔---dominated by marine processes that shape the coastline via
waves
Cliffs (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---wave-cut cliffs where the waves create notches and
erode away the coast and coastal shelf
Wave-cut Platforms (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---waves creating notches within the coast
and is a self-limiting process
Coastal Terraces (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a raised beach that is relatively flat that is
generally an old abrasion platform that is moved up and out of the wave activity and exposed to
terrestrial erosive actions
Arches (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---cliff face erosion where waves attack a plane of
weakness which creates an arch
Stacks (erosional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a geological landform that is steep, vertical columns of
rock within the sea or near the coast and formed by wave erosion (headlands are eroded to arches, then
stacks, and finally eroded to nothing)
Beaches (depositional feature) - ANSWER ✨✔---a pebbly or sandy shore between the high and low
water marks created by the waves/ocean
Longshore TrANSWERport - ANSWER ✨✔---movement of sediment by the longshore current
Spits - ANSWER ✨✔---shore parallel ridge of sediments
Tombolos - ANSWER ✨✔---a ridge of sand that connects an island to the mainland or to another
island; shore perpendicular ridge of sediments
