Rock coasts, with particular emphasis on shore platforms

Rock coasts are one of the most common elements of the world's littoral zone, and they are often important sources of sediment for estuaries and beaches. Economic development, growing populations, and the potential effects of rising sea level provide a practical need to understand the dynamics of these coasts. Although there have been significant advances in our understanding of rocky coastal systems, further progress has been hindered by a lack of researchers and by the often imperceptible changes that generally occur within human time scales. This paper reviews rock coast processes and landforms in a variety of morphogenic environments. One of our most fundamental challenges is to determine the degree to which rock coasts are contemporary rather than inherited features from the Quaternary, when changes in sea level and climate were responsible for marked variations in the nature, intensity, and elevational distribution of the marine and subaerial processes that sculpture rock coasts. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.