Page 100 - (DK) Ocean - The Definitive Visual Guide

98 COASTS AND THE SEASHORE

ATLANTIC OCEAN SOUTHEAST The Skeleton Coast is an arid coastal direction of Antarctica. Prevailing HUMAN IMPACT
wilderness in southwestern Africa, southwesterly winds blow onto the
Skeleton Coast where the northern part of the Namib coast from the Atlantic, but as they SHIPWRECKS
Desert meets the South Atlantic. Some cross the cold offshore water, any
TYPE Secondary coast stretches of this coast are dominated moisture in the air condenses. This The Skeleton Coast is aptly
FORMATION by sand dunes that extend to the sea; leads to an almost permanent fog bank named. Its frequent fogs, onshore
Wind-formed desert others consist of low gravel plains. and allows strange desert plants such winds, and pounding surf have
dunes An important influence on this largely as Welwitschia mirabilis, a species that made it a graveyard for both ships
EXTENT 500km straight coastline is the Benguela survives for hundreds of years, to and sailors. Behind the coast is a
(310 miles) Current, a surface current that flows thrive. The coast is home to a large steep mountain escarpment, so
LOCATION Extending northwest from the city in a northerly direction offshore, seal colony at Cape Fria in the north before the days of rescue parties,
of Swakopmund on the coast of Namibia bringing cool waters from the and includes many salt pans. the escape route for shipwrecked
mariners was a long march along
the coast through an arid desert.
WOODEN SKELETON
This wreck of a wooden vessel is one
of many ships that have foundered on this
treacherous coast.

HIGH DUNES AND POUNDING SURF
The coast’s high dunes present ever-
changing contours as they are blown by
strong southwesterly winds. Below the
dunes, waves pound the beaches.

INDIAN OCEAN NORTHWEST of heat from the Earth’s interior stretches
the continental crust, causing it to thin,
Red Sea Coast and eventually it may fracture, or fault.
Sections of crust may sink, and if
TYPE Primary coast
either end of the rift connects to the
OCEAN ENVIRONMENTS LOCATION Coasts of Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Saudi movement of blocks of crust, in the
sea, flooding will occur, creating new
FORMATION Faulting and
coasts. On both sides of the Red Sea,
sinking of land
there is evidence of the downward
EXTENT 1,900km
(1,200 miles)
form of steep escarpments (lines of
mountains). The Red Sea shoreline
Arabia, from gulfs of Suez and Aqaba to Djibouti
itself shelves steeply in many parts.
On the land side, the coast is sparsely
The Red Sea was created as a result
vegetated because of the region’s hot,
of a rifting process that has been
dry climate, but underwater there are
gradually separating Africa from the
many rich and spectacular coral reefs.
Arabian Peninsula for the past 25
million years. Rifting is the splitting
SEA MEETS DESERT
of a region of Earth’s crust into two
The steep Sarawat mountain escarpment that
parts, which then move apart, creating
runs the length of the coast can be seen in
the distance in this view of the Red Sea
a new tectonic plate boundary. This
coast of the Sinai Peninsula.
process begins when an upward flow