Definition
Littoral notches are more or less horizontal erosion features close to sea level into steeper coastal slopes. They prove that processes of destruction around the surf level are more intensive than in subtidal or supratidal positions. Their relation to tidal levels and their shape may differ from one type of notch to the other, because there are several genetic types of notches around the coastlines of the world (Trenhaile 2014, 2015, 2016).
Notches Caused by Melting
At ice cliffs of shelf ice, or along drifting icebergs, sharply incised notches occur at sea level, caused by melting processes of warm surficial waters in Arctic or Antarctic environments during summer. These forms develop in a very short time (several days), but they are usually rapidly dislocated (uplifted above sea level or tilted) by the moving of ice margins or tilting of icebergs during the melting process, when the point of gravity will shift. Notches caused by melting processes also occur in sediments of...
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Kelletat, D.H. (2019). Notches. In: Finkl, C.W., Makowski, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93806-6_231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93806-6_231
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