Skip to main content

Landforms by sea water and groundwater

Short answer

Seawater erosion forms cliffs, wave-cut platforms, caves, arches, stacks, and stumps; deposition builds beaches, spits, bars, tombolos, and barrier islands. Groundwater creates karst erosional features like sinkholes and caves, and deposits stalactites, stalagmites, and travertine.

Describe the landforms developed by seawater and groundwater.

Seawater (waves, tides, currents)

  • Erosional: sea cliffs, wave-cut platforms, sea caves, arches, stacks and stumps, headlands and bays.
  • Depositional: beaches, spits, bars (baymouth bars), tombolos, barrier islands, lagoons and deltas.

Groundwater

  • Erosional: sinkholes, caves, karst valleys, lapies and springs (in limestone areas).
  • Depositional: stalactite, stalagmite, travertine and tufa.
  Sea cliff section
       |  cliff
       |   \
  _____|    \___ wave-cut platform
  notch ^ wave erosion

✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)

Related questions

All Engineering Geology I chapter 6 questions →