shore platform

(geology) The horizontal or gently sloping surface produced along a shore by wave erosion. Also known as scar.

A very gently sloping platform extending seaward from the base of a cliff. Platforms widen as the cliffs retreat. They are subject to salt weathering, alternate wetting and drying, water-level weathering, and processes of erosion such as quarrying, hydraulic action, pneumatic action, and abrasion. The best-known (and least well understood) example is the Strandflat of Norway.

It is argued that a platform of over 800 m in width cannot have been formed by these forces alone, hence the term ‘shore platform’ rather than ‘wave-cut platform’. Thus, changes in erosional processes and in sea level must have taken place.