Investigating the Length of Long Shore Occurence

Investigating the Length of Long Shore Occurence

Reason for study: to find out if long shore drift occurs and if it

does, to find defences to prevent any hazards

The place of my study was porlock bay in Somerset. This is a picture

of the porlock bay.

[IMAGE]

Aim:

1. To find out the beach material is moved by long shore drift

2. To work out a sort of defence mechanism used in porlock bay to stop

the flooding in the marshes.

Evidence of long shore drift:

· Without long shore drift there would not be any groynes, but the

beach would be completely flat

· The way the cliffs and headlands have eroded shows us some sense of

direction.

· Attrition and abrasion play a big role in long shore drift. The

pebbles would be smaller and rounder in the direction of long shore

drift if it id occur. On the other side of the beach, the pebbles

would be bigger and jagged.

Other info about porlock bay:

· Porlock bay is 8m under sea level in most places

· It is mainly used for farming with the fertile land

· There is about 4km of shingle beach in between the two main

headlands

· Porlock bay is co-owned. The west half is owned by Porlock Manor

Estate which is owned by Mark Blathwayt. The east half s owned by the

National Trust, a charity protecting certain area and is run with

membership funding.

Hypothesis: We would use all of the evidence given above. We have used

OS maps with a 20 year gap and it shows that there is considerable

erosion from west to east

This shows that it is eroded at one end more which is a sign of long

shore drift. I also believe that the pebbles would have got smaller

and rounder due to abrasion and attrition.

Method and Data collection:

Firstly I need to find out the beach profile which is the beach