Marine terraces often result from marine erosion along rocky coast lines in temperate regions due to wave attack and sediment carried in the waves. Erosion also takes place in connection with weathering and cavitation. The speed of erosion is highly dependent on the shoreline material (hardness of rock), the bathymetry, and the bedrock properties and can be between only a few millimeters per year for granitic rocks and more than per year for volcanic ejecta. The retreat of the sea cliff generates a shore (wave-cut/abrasion-) platform through the process of abrasion. A relative change of the sea level leads to regressions or transgressions and eventually forms another terrace (marine-cut terrace) at a different altitude while notches in the cliff face indicate short stillstands.