Sea cave
Topic: Landforms and their Evolution: Rivers, Groundwater, Glaciers, Waves and Wind · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Landforms and their Evolution"
Meaning
A sea cave is a hollow worn into the base of a sea cliff by waves. Waves hit hardest where the rock is weak, such as along cracks and joints. They also hurl sand and stones against the rock and force air into the cracks, which breaks the rock apart. Bit by bit the hollow grows wider and deeper. When a cave's roof falls in, the cliff moves back. If caves cut through a headland, they become a sea arch. Sea caves are erosional landforms, carved by wave action.
Example
Fingal's Cave on the island of Staffa, off western Scotland, is a famous sea cave. Waves carved it into columns of basalt.
Don't confuse with
- Limestone cave: a limestone cave forms when groundwater slowly dissolves limestone (solution). A sea cave is carved by the battering force of waves at the foot of a cliff.
Related concepts
- Emergent coast
- Submergent coast
- Ria coast
- Longshore current
- Coastal erosion
- Sea cliff
- Wave-cut platform
- Sea arch
- Sea stack