Shingle beach

A beach formed mainly of coarse gravel, pebbles, or cobbles. Waves and currents deposit and reshape its sediment.

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Wave-dominated coast: A coastline shaped chiefly by waves rather than tides or river processes. Wave energy sorts and transports the coarse sediment that builds many shingle beaches.
Gravel: Unconsolidated rock fragments larger than sand and smaller than larger boulders. Shingle is largely gravel-sized sediment, commonly including pebbles and cobbles.
Coastal protection: Measures that reduce erosion, flooding, or other hazards along coasts. Shingle ridges can absorb wave energy and help shield land behind them.
Sandy beach: A beach whose surface is composed predominantly of sand-sized sediment. Its finer grains usually produce gentler slopes and different wave responses than shingle.
Longshore drift: The movement of sediment along a coast driven by waves approaching at an angle. It shifts pebbles alongshore, changing shingle-beach profiles and sediment supply.
Pebble: A small, naturally rounded rock fragment, typically larger than a granule and smaller than a cobble. Pebbles are the characteristic clasts covering many shingle beaches.
Shingle beach nourishment: The placement of gravel or pebbles on a beach to replenish sediment and reduce erosion. Adding compatible shingle can restore a depleted beach or strengthen a coastal barrier.
Mudflat: A broad, low-gradient coastal area of fine sediment exposed at low tide. Its fine deposits form in sheltered settings unlike the coarse, wave-worked shingle shore.
Swash: The uprush of water across a beach after a wave breaks. Its flow carries pebbles up the beach face and helps shape ridges.
Cobble: A rock fragment larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder. Some shingle beaches contain cobbles that make their surfaces especially coarse.