Graded shoreline

A balancing coast is reflected in a flat and rectilinear coastline. It arises under the influence of wind and water from the original bays, islands, peninsulas and projections. Sand and gravel were eroded ( abrasion) and deposited elsewhere, depending on the direction and strength of the ocean currents. Typical of compensation coasts are the formation of dunes, wide sandy beaches and possibly a lagoon or a Spit. Where meet two balance coasts, a headland ( Odde ) and an projecting into the sea sandbar can form. In parallel with the coast, the compensation worn sediments can accumulate as sand banks.

Examples in Europe

• Long stretches of the southern Baltic coast in Mecklenburg -Western Pomerania, Poland, Russia, Lithuania and Latvia.
• The North Sea coast of Belgium, on the outside of the Wadden Sea islands in the Netherlands and Germany, to the west coast and north- east coast of Jutland in Denmark.
• On the northern tip of Jutland in Skagen, the two coasts compensation form the ever-changing headland Grenen.
• On the island of Anholt in the Kattegat meet two balance coasts along the eastern headland Totten. The headland extends below sea level out to sea.
• The headland Hel in Poland consists of eastward worn by the Pomeranian coast sediments anlagerten in front of the Gulf of Gdansk.

• Exogenous morphodynamics
• Coastal Research