A range of coastal features stretch over 50km, from the chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head to Spurn Point. Some of these landforms have been formed by erosion and others by deposition.
Landforms formed by erosion
The dominant waves are from the north east, which is the direction of the largest fetch.
Destructive waves erode the beaches and attack the foot of the cliffs, removing the clay in suspension.
Longshore drift then carries this material southward.
Features formed by erosion include:
Headlands and Bays:The two main types of rock found along the Holderness coast are chalk and boulder clay. The more resistant chalk has survived large-scale erosion and this has created the headland known as Flamborough Head. The boulder clay cliffs to the south are more easily eroded by hydraulic force and abrasion, leading to the formation of Holderness Bay.
Flamborough Head is a resistant chalk headland with classic cave, arch, stack and wave-cut platform features. Wave refraction concentrates waves on the headland allowing caves to develop progressively into arches, sea stacks and stumps. Wave-cut platforms form close to high tide levels when shingle carried in the waves increases abrasion.
The Holderness Cliffs - the cliffs are made from boulder clay formed from material left by ice sheets. They are retreating at an average rate of 2 metres per year (ten times the rate of the chalk cliffs).
Landforms formed by deposition
Spurn Point is a large curved spit formed at the entrance to the Humber estuary. It is 6 km long. It is made of sand and shingle. Sediments brought here by longshore drift are deposited. A salt marsh has developed behind the spit.
Sand dunes have formed near to Spurn Point.
Hornsea, Mappleton and Withernsea beaches were formed by the deposition of sand and shingle, which has been eroded from the coast to the north. Longshore drift transports this material south towards Spurn Point. Hornsea beach is over 2 kilometres long.