Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

Living Edition
| Editors: Jan Harff, Martin Meschede, Sven Petersen, Jörn Thiede

Coasts

Living reference work entry
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6644-0_152-1
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Synonyms

Bank; Beach; Coastline; Coastal area; Coastal zone; Littoral; Margin; Seaboard; Seacoast; Seashore; Seaside; Shore; Shoreline; Strand

Definition

When used as a noun, the coast is part of the land that is next to or adjoining the shore, a sea, or a large body of water such as an inland sea or lake. The definition of coast depends on the jurisdiction or intended use. When used as “the Coast,” it refers to a specific geographic coastal segment such as the Pacific coast of North America or the Dutch coast of the Netherlands or even more restrictively as the Coromandel Coast of southeastern India.

The term coast resides in the vernacular as a generic reference to the strip of land adjacent to large water bodies, most commonly the sea. While the term covers a broad sweep between land and water, it at the same time becomes more complicated and convoluted when applied in adjectival form as coastal (pertaining to the coast) or conjoined with the suffix line, making the term coastline,...

Keywords

Coral Reef Coastal Zone Exclusive Economic Zone Rocky Coast Shore Platform 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of GeosciencesFlorida Atlantic UniversityBoca RatonUSA
  2. 2.The Coastal Education & Research FoundationAshevilleUSA