Emergent coastline

Emergent coastlines are stretches along the coast that have been exposed by the sea due to a relative fall in sea levels. This occurs due to either isostasy or eustasy.

Background

Emergent coastline are the opposite of submergent coastlines which have experienced a relative rise in sea-levels.

The specific landform of an emergent coastline may be:

Raised beach or machair
Wave cut platform
Sea cave such as King's Cave, Isle of Arran

The Scottish Gaelic word machair or machar refers to a fertile low-lying raised beach found on some of the coastlines of Ireland and Scotland, in particular the Outer Hebrides.

Hudson Bay, in Canada's north, is an example of an emergent coastline. It is still emerging by as much as one cm/year. Another example of emergent coastline is the Eastern Coastal Plains of the Indian Subcontinent.

References

Coastal geography

Landforms	Anchialine pool Archipelago Atoll Avulsion Ayre Barrier island Bay Baymouth bar Bight Bodden Brackish marsh Cape Channel Cliff Coast Coastal plain Coastal waterfall Continental margin Continental shelf Coral reef Cove Dune cliff-top Estuary Firth Fjard Fjord Freshwater marsh Fundus Gat Geo Gulf Gut Headland Inlet Intertidal wetland Island Islet Isthmus Lagoon Machair Marine terrace Mega delta Mouth bar Mudflat Natural arch Peninsula Reef Regressive delta Ria River delta Salt marsh Shoal Shore Skerry Sound Stack Strait Strand plain Submarine canyon Tidal island Tidal marsh Tide pool Tied island Tombolo Windwatt

Beaches	Beach cusps Beach evolution Beach morphodynamics Beach ridge Beachrock Pocket beach Raised beach Recession Shell beach Shingle beach Storm beach Wash margin

Processes	Blowhole Cliffed coast Coastal biogeomorphology Coastal erosion Concordant coastline Current Cuspate foreland Discordant coastline Emergent coastline Feeder bluff Fetch Flat coast Graded shoreline Headlands and bays Ingression coast Large-scale coastal behaviour Longshore drift Marine regression Marine transgression Raised shoreline Rip current Rocky shore Sea cave Sea foam Shoal Spit Steep coast Submergent coastline Surf break Surf zone Surge channel Swash Undertow Volcanic arc Wave-cut platform Wave shoaling Wind wave Wrack zone

Management	Accretion Coastal management Integrated coastal zone management Submersion

Related	Bulkhead line Grain size boulder clay cobble granule pebble sand shingle silt Intertidal zone Littoral zone Physical oceanography Region of freshwater influence

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