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Coastal Landscapes

Deposition, flocculation and sediment sorting

  • 2 things to know
  • AS Unit 1

Overview

How the electrical charge on clay particles makes flocculation possible and sediment sorting.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

Define flocculation.

Key term

Why does flocculation matter in an estuary?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Under what general condition does coastal deposition occur?

    Model answer

    When the energy of the water falls below the level needed to keep a particle moving, so it settles out.

  2. 2

    Give three situations in which wave energy falls enough for deposition.

    Model answer

    Where waves are refracted into a sheltered bay, where a spit or bar makes water shallow and slow, and in the slack water of an estuary at the turn of the tide.

  3. 3

    Define flocculation.

    Model answer

    Flocculation is the clumping together of fine clay particles when fresh water meets salt water, forming larger aggregates heavy enough to settle.

  4. 4

    Why does flocculation matter in an estuary?

    Model answer

    Clay would otherwise stay in suspension almost indefinitely, so flocculation is what allows mudflats and salt marshes to build.

  5. 5

    Explain how the electrical charge on clay particles makes flocculation possible.

    Model answer

    Clay particles carry a negative charge and repel one another in fresh water, but the ions in seawater neutralise that charge so the particles can stick together.

  6. 6

    What is meant by sediment sorting?

    Model answer

    Sorting is the separation of sediment by size, so that particles of similar size are deposited together.

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