Lesson Y8-U02-L05

Y8-U02-L05 Depositional Landforms: Beaches, Spits and Bars Quiz: KS3 Geography, Unit 8

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U02-L05, Depositional Landforms: Beaches, Spits and Bars: 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 is deposition?

    • When the sea drops the material it is carrying because it loses energy
    • When sediment is dissolved by weak acid in seawater, so it disappears from view
    • When waves wear rock away and carry it off, leaving the cliff face bare and jagged
    • When water freezes in cracks and splits the rock, breaking it into smaller pieces

  2. What is sediment on a coast?

    • Water trapped behind a bar or spit
    • Hard rock that resists the waves at a headland
    • A long ridge of sand joined to the land at one end
    • Loose sand, shingle and rock carried along by the sea

  3. What is a spit?

    • A tall pillar of rock left after an arch collapses
    • A ridge of sand that grows across a bay and joins two headlands
    • A shallow pool of water trapped behind a bar
    • A long, narrow ridge of sand or shingle joined to the land at one end

  4. What is a bar?

    • A pool of calm water trapped behind a spit
    • A ridge of sand that grows across a bay and joins two headlands
    • A ridge joined to the land at one end only
    • A curved dip in the coast where soft rock was worn away

  5. What is a lagoon?

    • A shallow pool of water trapped behind a bar or spit
    • A curved bay where soft rock has been worn back
    • A deep channel carved by the sea into a headland
    • A pillar of rock left standing in the sea

  6. Which type of wave builds a beach up?

    • Destructive waves
    • Tsunami waves from distant earthquakes
    • Constructive waves
    • Tidal bores running up river estuaries

  7. What causes the end of a spit to curve into a hook?

    • Hydraulic action forcing cracks in the tip
    • Backwash dragging the sand straight back out to sea
    • Freeze-thaw weathering of the ridge
    • Changing wind directions that push the end round

  8. On an OS map, what does pale yellow shading along the coast usually show?

    • Solid rock cliffs
    • Sand and shingle
    • Mud flats left uncovered at low tide
    • Deep open water

  9. Waves lose energy in a sheltered bay and drop sand. Which process is this?

    • Solution
    • Deposition
    • Hydraulic action
    • Erosion

  10. A destructive wave drags shingle off a beach. Which process is this?

    • Erosion
    • Deposition
    • Mass movement
    • Weathering

  11. A coastline bends at a river mouth and longshore drift reaches it. What happens to the sediment?

    • It is dissolved by the freshwater flowing from the river
    • It is frozen in place by winter weather
    • It is deposited, building a ridge out into the water
    • It is carried straight out to sea by the backwash

  12. A ridge grows out from the land and then turns into a hook at its tip. Which landform is this?

    • A stump
    • A stack
    • A spit
    • A bar

  13. A ridge grows all the way across a bay, joining two headlands. What is trapped behind it?

    • A stack
    • A tributary river
    • An arch
    • A lagoon

  14. Why does a river mouth often stop a spit from reaching the far side?

    • The river current keeps a gap open
    • The river deposits so much sand that the spit sinks
    • The river freezes the spit in place
    • The river carries the spit's sand inland

  15. Put these steps of spit formation in the correct order.

    • Sediment is deposited, the end hooks, the coastline bends, drift carries sediment
    • The end hooks, sediment is deposited, drift carries it, the coastline bends
    • The coastline bends, the end hooks, drift carries sediment, sediment is deposited
    • Longshore drift carries sediment, the coastline bends, sediment is deposited, the end hooks

  16. Why does a beach grow in a calm, sheltered bay?

    • The backwash is strongest there, dragging material back to the bay
    • The waves are so strong that they carry the sand far out
    • Waves are weak there, so they drop sand and shingle that builds up
    • Hydraulic action forces sand up the cliffs at the back of the bay

  17. Why are a spit, a bar and a beach all built by the same kind of process?

    • They form only where the waves carry no sediment at all
    • They are all formed only by freezing water in cracks
    • They are all built where the sea loses energy and deposits sediment
    • They are all carved by the sea wearing rock away

  18. Suggest how rising sea levels might affect a low spit such as Spurn Point.

    • Rising seas would stop longshore drift entirely, freezing the spit in its current shape
    • The spit would grow higher because the water pushes sand upward into a taller ridge
    • The spit would become a headland as the sea hardens it into solid rock over time
    • Higher seas could cover or wash away the low ridge, so it might shrink or be breached

  19. Explain why a bar does not usually form where a river keeps a gap open.

    • The river deposits so much sand that the ridge sinks below the surface of the water
    • The river freezes the ridge in place so that it can no longer extend across the gap
    • The river current stops the ridge from growing all the way across the gap
    • The river erodes the ridge away before it can grow, carrying the sand off to sea

  20. Why is a spit likely to grow where the coastline bends?

    • Bends stop longshore drift, so sediment piles up under cliffs
    • The sea loses energy at the bend and deposits the sediment it was carrying
    • The bend makes the waves stronger, so sediment is thrown further out
    • Bends cause hydraulic action that carries sand inland

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