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Beach Landscape

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A beach landscape is a part of the coastline, and it consists of gentle flat ground where deposition occurs due to wave and marine sea currents along the coast. These landscapes are located in the intertidal zone and are a product of wave action and the associated longshore drift. When waves approach a shallow shore, the peaks become steep, and the troughs become gentler due to friction along the sea floor. The water moves back and forth, and the movement towards the shore is faster than the movement away from the shore. As a result, the seafloor material is transported towards the shore and deposited. The beach dips gently towards the sea and is mainly composed of silt and shingles. Beaches can be divided into muddy beaches, sandy beaches and gravel beaches based on the grain size. The large-scale development of beaches can result in the formation of a marine depositional plain (Fig. 13).

Fig. 13
figure 213 figure 213

Sandy, gravel and muddy beaches

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(2020). Beach Landscape. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_142

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