Compass is delighted to announce the winning entry from its inaugural Secondary School Photo Competition! We invited all secondary school students (Years 7 to 13) to submit their best geographical photos. The winner is Ethan, whose photograph is featured on the front cover of the Spring 2019 edition of Compass.
Ethan’s winning photo and caption can also be found below.
Well done to the winner, and thank you for the amazing selection of entries!
From the Compass Team
“This photo of the coast was taken in October 2018. The stretch of coastline is on the Herne Bay sea front, which is located in-between Whitstable and Margate in Kent, UK. The aerial photo was taken by a “DJI MAVIC AIR”, which has allowed for the birds-eye view of the beach, creating this image that is less familiar than the ones we are used to seeing. At a glimpse there may not seem that there is much geographically going on. However there is. There are two aspects to look at, human geography and physical geography. The groynes indicate human activity that can be linked to economic activity or coastline management. They also indicate the presence of longshore drift (in the photo there is a greater build-up of sediment to the south of the groyne than the north highlighting the longshore drift), meaning that swash and backwash are moving up the beach, moving sediment with them. Consequently, the use of groynes will have an unintentional effect further up the beach – which may be starving other stretches of coast of sediment, which would expose them to marine erosion, but from this photo we can’t tell what the actual effect would be. The use of groynes may be to trap sediment to prevent marine erosion on this stretch of coastline which would act as a shoreline management plan, as Herne Bay is a heavily populated and built up area along the sea front. When looking at the physical geography in this photo, you can observe the beach cusps made visible by the waves. The cusps indicate that this beach is swash-aligned instead of drift-aligned. These cusps also indicate where deposition of sediment is as waves diverge (embayment) and where more erosion is as the waves converge (cusp). This is one of the geomorphic processes happening on this beach.”
DISCLAIMER: THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR ONLY AND DO NOT REPRESENT THE VIEWS OR OPINIONS OF COMPASS MAGAZINE AS A WHOLE OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY.
Well done Ethan. Very proud Mum and Dad