The Coast That Is Disappearing
Part of Coastal Processes and Landforms — GCSE Geography
This introduction covers The Coast That Is Disappearing within Coastal Processes and Landforms for GCSE Geography. Revise Coastal Processes and Landforms in Physical Landscapes in the UK for GCSE Geography with 15 exam-style questions and 22 flashcards. This topic shows up very often in GCSE exams, so students should be able to explain it clearly, not just recognise the term. It is section 1 of 14 in this topic. Use this introduction to connect the idea to the wider topic before moving on to questions and flashcards.
Topic position
Section 1 of 14
Practice
15 questions
Recall
22 flashcards
🌊 The Coast That Is Disappearing
On the Holderness Coast in East Yorkshire, whole villages have vanished. In the village of Skipsea, a farmhouse photographed standing on clifftop ground in the 1990s is now gone — swallowed by the North Sea. Thirty villages that existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 are now underwater. The coastline here retreats by an average of 1.7 metres every year — and after storms, sections can collapse by up to 10 metres in a single night.
The coast is not a passive, stable boundary between land and sea. It is an active battlefield, where waves carrying the energy of thousands of miles of open ocean meet rock and cliffs that have been weakening for centuries. Understanding that battle — the processes, the landforms, and why some coasts retreat while others resist — is the heart of this topic.