Mondo Knows Facts
Spits grow where sediment drifts along the shore
Waves approaching at an angle move sand sideways until it builds a finger of land into open water Longshore drift carries material in the direction of the prevailing waves. Where the coast turns a corner, the drifting sand keeps going and accumulates as a ridge. The result shelters the water behind it, which often silts up into salt marsh. It sits in Mondo's world geography collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
Where this comes from
Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
Go further
More facts like this
A tombolo ties an island to the shoreSand accumulates in the calmer water behind an island until a ridge connects the twoMost of the world's coastline is not sandyRock, mud, marsh and ice make up most of the world's shorelineThe Yellow River carries more sediment than any otherIts load of fine silt gives the river its colour and pushes its delta into the seaThe Great Blue Hole is a drowned caveThe circular hole in the Belize reef is a collapsed limestone cavern flooded by rising seasMangroves and mudflats absorb storm energyDense roots and soft sediment slow waves before they reach the land behindSea level is not rising evenly around the worldLand sinking or rebounding changes local sea level far more than the global average in some places
🗺️ World Geographyfact 175 of 200
← → to keep reading, or swipe
Tags: coastlines, sediment, landforms
Spits grow where sediment drifts along the shore: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Waves approaching at an angle move sand sideways until it builds a finger of land into open water. The figure is taken from USGS, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a world geography fact?
- Yes. It sits on the World Geography shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.