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Concordant coastline

 

 
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Concordant coastline
 
 
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A concordant coastline occurs where the bands of differing rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 types run parallel to the coast
Coast

The coast is defined as that part of the land adjoining or near the ocean or its saltwater arms. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides....
. The outer hard rock (for example, granite
Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of Intrusion , felsic, igneous rock rock . Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as Porphyry ....
) provides a protective barrier to erosion of the softer rocks (for example, clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
s) further inland.






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Lulworth Cove, Dorset (aerial)
A concordant coastline occurs where the bands of differing rock
Rock (geology)

In geology, rock is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock....
 types run parallel to the coast
Coast

The coast is defined as that part of the land adjoining or near the ocean or its saltwater arms. A precise line that can be called a coastline cannot be determined due to the process of tides....
. The outer hard rock (for example, granite
Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of Intrusion , felsic, igneous rock rock . Granite has a medium to coarse texture, occasionally with some individual crystals larger than the groundmass forming a rock known as Porphyry ....
) provides a protective barrier to erosion of the softer rocks (for example, clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
s) further inland. Sometimes the outer hard rock is punctured, allowing the sea to erode the softer rocks behind. This creates a cove
Cove

A cove is a circular or oval coastal inlet with a narrow entrance. Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered headlands and bays....
, a circular area of water with a relatively narrow entrance way from the sea.

Lulworth Cove
Lulworth Cove

Lulworth Cove is a cove near the village of West Lulworth, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site in Dorset, southern England. The cove is one of the finest examples of such a landform in the world, and is a tourist location, with over 1 million visitors a year....
 in Dorset
Dorset

Dorset , is a Counties of England in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester, Dorset, situated in the south of the county at ....
 is situated on a concordant coastline. The outer hard rock is Portland limestone. The sea has broken through this barrier and easily eroded the clay
Clay

Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
s behind it. A chalk
Chalk

Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. It forms under relatively deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....
 cliff face at the back of the cove slows further erosion. Erosion is just starting to the west, where the sea has again broken through the Portland limestone barrier at Stair Hole
Stair Hole

Stair Hole is a relatively new cove that is forming just to the west of Lulworth Cove in Dorset, southern England. In a few hundred thousand years it will be just as large and spectacular as Lulworth Cove ....
.

The converse of concordant coastline is a discordant coastline
Discordant coastline

A discordant coastline occurs where bands of differing Rock type run perpendicular to the coast.The differing resistance to erosion leads to the formation of headlands and bays....
.