Lesson Y8-U02-L03

Y8-U02-L03 Erosion and Longshore Drift Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 8

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U02-L03, Erosion and Longshore Drift: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 Geography (National Curriculum), Unit 8: Year 8: Coasts: A Changing Landscape, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What are the four processes by which the sea erodes the coast?

    • Fetch, swash, backwash and longshore drift
    • Hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition and solution
    • Solution, sorting, deposition and shrinking
    • Hydraulic action, abrasion, freeze-thaw and slumping

  2. What is hydraulic action?

    • The force of water and trapped air hammering into cracks in the rock
    • Rocks knocking together until they become smaller and rounder
    • Sand and pebbles hurled at the cliff like sandpaper
    • Weak acid in seawater dissolving chalk and limestone

  3. What is abrasion?

    • Rocks knocking together in the water and becoming smoother as they bump along
    • Waves hurling sand and pebbles at the cliff, wearing it away like sandpaper
    • Weak acid in seawater dissolving chalk and limestone, leaving the surface pitted
    • Water and trapped air forcing open cracks in the rock, widening them over time

  4. What is attrition?

    • Sand and pebbles hurled against a cliff face, grinding the rock away over time
    • Trapped air forcing open cracks in the rock, splitting it apart piece by piece
    • Rocks knocking together in the water and slowly becoming smaller and rounder
    • Seawater slowly dissolving chalk and limestone, carrying the dissolved rock away

  5. Which erosion process involves weak acids in seawater dissolving rocks such as chalk and limestone?

    • Attrition
    • Abrasion
    • Hydraulic action
    • Solution

  6. What is the prevailing wind?

    • The wind that blows only during winter nights
    • The wind that always blows straight onto the cliff face
    • The strongest wind recorded in a single storm
    • The most common wind direction for that coast

  7. What is longshore drift?

    • The zigzag movement of sand and pebbles along a beach
    • Sand carried straight out to sea by the backwash
    • Waves building up a wall of rock along the coast
    • Water rushing into cracks in the cliff face

  8. What is a groyne?

    • A channel dug to drain water off a beach so the sand stays dry and firm
    • A sea wall built along the top of a cliff to stop waves reaching the rock face
    • A wooden or rock barrier built across a beach to trap moving material
    • A steep bank of pebbles built behind the high tide line to stop flooding

  9. A storm damages a seawall where waves squeeze air into cracks and blast them wider. Which erosion process is at work?

    • Solution
    • Attrition
    • Hydraulic action
    • Abrasion

  10. During storms, sand is flung at the base of a cliff and scrapes it away. Which erosion process is this?

    • Solution
    • Hydraulic action
    • Abrasion
    • Attrition

  11. A groyne is built and sand piles up on one side. Which side is that?

    • The side the drift comes from, the up-drift side
    • The down-drift side where the drift leaves
    • Both sides equally, because the drift stops
    • Out at sea, beyond the far end of the groyne

  12. Waves hit a beach at an angle because of the prevailing wind. Which description is correct?

    • Both swash and backwash move straight up and down
    • The swash moves material out to sea while the backwash moves it inland
    • The backwash moves material up at an angle, and the swash returns it straight down
    • The swash moves material up at an angle, and the backwash returns it straight down

  13. Which sequence correctly describes longshore drift?

    • The wave arrives straight on, the swash and backwash both go straight up and down, and the pebble does not move
    • The wave arrives at an angle, the pebble sinks into the sand, and it is buried by the next wave before it moves
    • The backwash carries material up diagonally, the swash pulls it straight down, and it stays put on the beach
    • The wave arrives at an angle, the swash carries material up diagonally, the backwash pulls it straight down, and it moves along

  14. A groyne is built on a beach. What happens to the beach further along the coast?

    • It gets more sand, because the groyne pushes sand towards it
    • It stays the same, because groynes do not affect drift
    • It gets less sand, because the drift is trapped before it arrives
    • It grows, because the backwash deposits sand along it

  15. A pupil says the backwash moves pebbles along the beach. What is the best correction?

    • Nothing is wrong, because the backwash is the only process that moves material along the beach
    • The backwash drags material straight back down, and the zigzag along the beach comes from the angled swash
    • The backwash only works during summer storms, so it rarely moves pebbles along the coast
    • The backwash should carry material up the beach at an angle, so it builds the shore higher

  16. Groynes at Mappleton hold sand, but beaches further along lose it. Why?

    • The groynes trap drift, so less sand reaches the beaches down-drift
    • The prevailing wind blows the sand inland past the groynes
    • The groynes add sand to the sea, so beaches further along are lower
    • The groynes stop waves from breaking on any beach

  17. Why is the backwash straight down the beach while the swash is angled?

    • The prevailing wind pushes the backwash at right angles, so it leaves the beach sideways
    • The tide always makes the swash go straight up and down, so the angle never shows
    • The swash follows the angled wave, while gravity pulls the backwash down the steepest line
    • The backwash follows the wave shape while the swash ignores gravity and rises slowly

  18. Why might a town accept groynes even though they starve the next beach of sand?

    • The groynes protect its own beach and tourism, though the cost is passed to the down-drift beach
    • Groynes remove the need for any coastal management at all, so councils can stop spending
    • The next beach is protected by law from all erosion, so the groyne has no effect on it
    • Groynes add sand to every beach along the coast, so no beach is ever starved of sand

  19. Compare hydraulic action and abrasion. Which process needs sand and pebbles carried by the waves?

    • Both need sand, so both are called abrasion
    • Neither needs the waves, because both happen only on land
    • Hydraulic action, because waves must carry sand into the cracks
    • Abrasion, because waves must hurl sand and pebbles at the cliff

  20. Explain why the beach down-drift of a groyne might be starved of sand.

    • The groyne traps the drift, so less material arrives at the beach beyond it
    • Sand dissolves faster on the far side of the groyne, so the beach there thins out
    • The groyne pushes the drift out to sea so that none of it arrives on the beach
    • Waves only break on the up-drift side of a groyne, so the far side stays calm

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