POLAR SHORE EROSION

The processes responsible for erosion along shorelines (coastal and lacustrine) in coldclimate environments. In polar regions, these locations may be characterised by extensive coastal rock platforms and backing cliffs. Elsewhere along the shores of lakes in periglacial environments, rock platforms and boulder pavements composed of angular boulders are indicative of the efficacy of frost weathering processes in the absence of appreciable wave action. In coastal areas, the occurrence of shore platforms reflects the removal of large volumes of rock from the coastal zone and the transport of debris offshore by waves, currents and sea ice. Polar shore platforms are often well developed in sheltered fjords and they may also be protected from erosional processes in winter due to the presence of an ice foot that forms at the cliff-platform junction. Polar shore processes may therefore be dominated by the effects of frost and largely unrelated to the effects of waves. In areas affected by glacio-isostatic rebound, shore platforms produced by polar shore erosion occur above sea level.

[See alsostrandflat]