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Alright, pnawn dda, welcome to Moelfre on Anglesey in North Wales and coastal feature
we're looking at is a wave cut platform. We're just looking over towards the village of Moelfre
itself, and we've got the Celtic or Irish Sea and just around about here we've got our
first feature which is a wave cut platform. You'll see that the name 'platform' is self
evident as a rock or cliff face that juts out into the sea. Just have a look over the
edge, I'll just show you here, there we go, down to another platform below. It is a multi
layered wave cut platform, and this is how it happens.
Essentially what we have got is hard rock here and our high tide mark which is around
about where I am stood. The sea is just over to the right. Above this is some very crumbly
and soft rock. If I just take a handful, I can show you how easy it is to take that away
(erosion). Essentially, what happens is that at high tide mark, the wave attack through
the four processes of erosion erodes away this very soft rock. This is actually boulder
clay and the sea carries it away by the process of longshore drift. Therefore between the
high and low tide marks, here, erosion takes place leading to the formation of a very flat
platform that you can see behind me here. To sum up, this is just an erosional process
that just affects the area of rock between the high and low tide mark. Obviously, during
times of storm events, this type of erosion will take place much more quickly, generally
in winter. Today it is August and fairly calm weather and we've got mostly constructive
waves. So again, just off the wave cut platform we have got this very, very soft and less
resistant boulder clay and there is the old cliff face up towards the top and over time
with destructive waves, this material will be taken away to expose the platform which
is underneath us just here.