The direct contact of a wave with a near vertical cliff face produces primary abrasion to a level slightly above that reached by spring tides. This is a zone of extreme physical erosion (Zenkovich, 1967).
Secondary abrasion occurs as the wave breaks down and splashes up on shore. The splash zone is the area just above the zone of primary abrasion where physical weathering associated with wave breakdown predominates. This zone also includes a great deal of chemical weathering (q.v.), mostly in the form of salt weathering (q.v.), and alternate wetting and drying. E. S. Hills has referred to such wetting and drying by sea water as water-layer weathering (q.v.) (Davies, 1972).
The spray zone is the area of wind-blown sea water above the splash zone that is dominated by chemical weathering. Therefore this zone begins where the strong physical weathering of the splash zone ends and extends to where there is no longer any water layer weathering.
Guilcher and Bodere (1975)attribute most of...
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References
Davies, J. L., 1972. Geographical Variation in Coastal Development. New York: Hafner, 204p.
Guilcher, A., and Bodere, J. Cl., 1975. Formes de corrosion littorale dans les roches volcaniques aux Moyennes et hautes latitudes dans L'Atlantique, Assoc. Géographes Francais Bull. 426, 179–185.
Zenkovich, V. P., 1967. Processes of Coastal Development. New York: Wiley Interscience, 739p.
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© 1982 Hutchinson Ross Publishing Company
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Heller, P. (1982). Splash and spray zones . In: Beaches and Coastal Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30843-1_433
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30843-1_433
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