Bars and Tombolos Worksheet
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Bars and Tombolos Worksheet
Coastal field briefing
Longshore drift moves sediment along a coast. Waves approach the shore at an angle, carrying sand and shingle up the beach. The swash moves material diagonally up the beach; the backwash flows straight down under gravity. Repeated movement transports sediment along the coast. Where the coast changes direction or energy falls, waves may deposit sediment. A bar is a ridge of deposited sediment that stretches across a bay, sometimes joining two headlands and cutting off a lagoon. A tombolo is a ridge of sediment joining an island to the mainland. Wave refraction around an offshore island can reduce wave energy in its sheltered lee, encouraging deposition. These landforms are not permanent: storms, changing sediment supply and sea-level change can reshape or breach them.
Investigate the process
Use the briefing to answer each question. Write in complete sentences where an explanation is requested.
- A bar joins an island to the mainland; a tombolo crosses a bay.
- A bar is a ridge across a bay; a tombolo joins an island to the mainland.
- A bar is formed only by erosion; a tombolo only by weathering.
- Both terms describe cliffs formed by hydraulic action.
- Wave energy falls.
- The sediment supply is available.
- The coast has no sediment at all.
- Waves become more powerful and remove all material.
3 printable pages
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