Swanage is a seaside town in Dorset on the
south coast of England.
There are bands of soft and hard rock. The soft rock
is made up of clay and sand and the hard rock is
made up of chalk and limestone.
The bands of soft rock erode quicker than
the hard rock because it is made up of a
much weaker material. This leaves behind a
piece of land jutting out which is called a
headland.
The areas next to the headland are called a bay.
The bay is made up of soft rock. In a bay you
normally find a beach with sand or pebbles.
There is a bay along the shoreline of Swanage called Swanage Bay.
There are lots of sand dunes in Swanage Bay. Sand
dunes are formed when the wind blows sand and
now it has caused mounds to appear along the
beaches.
Maram grass is found on the sand dunes
the roots hold the sand together as it is like its structure.
At the end of the headland there is a stack called Old Harry and a stump called Old Harrys wife
1. Waves crash against a headlands with cracks in by hydraulic action. 2. repeated
erosion causes the crack to form a cave. 3. Continued erosion deepens the cave
and causes an arch. 4. The rock supporting the arch weakens and collapses. This
forms a stack. 5. When the stack is being eroded and it shrinks it is turned into a
stump.