Wave-cut platform

The waves undermine this portion until the roof of the cave cannot hold due to the pressure and freeze-thaw or biological weathering acting on it, and collapses, resulting in the cliff retreating landward.

[1][2][3] Because of the continual wave action, a wave-cut platform represents an extremely hostile environment and only certain organisms can utilize such a niche.

Raised and abandoned platforms, sometimes found behind modern beaches, are evidence of higher sea levels in the geological past,[4] and have been used to identify areas of isostatic adjustment.

This has been used in the United Kingdom and other previously glaciated areas to calculate the rate at which land is rising now that it is no longer covered in ice.

Where the coastline itself is changing due to seismic action, there may be a series of platforms showing earlier sea levels and indicating the amount of uplift caused by various earthquakes.