Geologically Controlled Coastal Systems: Rocky Coasts, Bluffs, Cliffs and Shore Platforms
Most of the world’s coasts develop in hard or cohesive materials typical of mountainous continental margins. Indeed, since the work of (Emery and Kuhn in Geol Soc Am Bull 93:644–654, 1982), the literature has commonly reported that 80% of the world’s coasts can be categorized as rocky or cliffs. However, these coasts do not usually appear in our minds when we imagine a coast. This happens because humans normally settle their resorts on low coasts associated with depositional systems and usually keep them away from steep coasts. The scarcity of research work on these rocky coastal systems does not help to favor them as well-known coasts either. In recent decades, these environments have attracted less attention than other systems located on coastal plains that are more vulnerable to problems associated with global change. However, rocky coasts offer very beautiful panoramas and spectacular views of processes, especially during storms, and play an important role as a supplier of sediments to depositional environments.