Headland in the context of Landform


Headland in the context of Landform

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⭐ Core Definition: Headland

A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape. Headlands are characterised by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, and steep sea cliff.

Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is flanked by land on three sides, whereas a headland is flanked by water on three sides. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form when weak (less resistant) rocks (such as sands and clays) are eroded, leaving bands of stronger (more resistant) rocks (such as chalk, limestone, and granite) forming a headland, or peninsula. Through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion of the headlands, coastlines eventually straighten out, then start the same process all over again.

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Headland in the context of Spit (landform)

A spit or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove's headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs because waves meet the beach at an oblique angle, moving sediment down the beach in a zigzag pattern. This is complemented by longshore currents, which further transport sediment through the water alongside the beach. These currents are caused by the same waves that cause the drift.

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Headland in the context of Cape Emine

Cape Emine (Bulgarian: Нос Емине [ˈnɔs ˈɛminɛ]) is a headland located at the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is located 79 kilometres (49 mi) south of Varna, 55 km (34 mi) north of Burgas and 14 km (9 mi) south of Obzor. It forms the tip of Stara Planina. Cape Emine is said to be Bulgaria's stormiest cape.

In the Middle Ages, there was a fortress called Emona on Cape Emine. Its name was derived from Aemon, the ancient name for Stara Planina. Nowadays, only some ruins of the fortress are left. There are also remnants of a monastery and a lighthouse. The village of Emona is located nearby.

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Headland in the context of Beowulf

Beowulf (/ˈbəwʊlf/ ; Old English: Bēowulf [ˈbeːowuɫf]) is an Old English poem, an epic in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines, contained in the Nowell Codex. It is one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature. The date of composition is a matter of contention among scholars; the only certain dating is for the manuscript, which was produced between AD 975 and 1025. Scholars call the anonymous author the "Beowulf poet". The story is set in pagan Scandinavia in the 5th and 6th centuries. Beowulf, a hero of the Geats, comes to the aid of Hrothgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall Heorot has been under attack by the monster Grendel for twelve years. After Beowulf slays him, Grendel's mother takes revenge and is in turn defeated. Victorious, Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. Fifty years later, Beowulf defeats a dragon, but is mortally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants cremate his body and erect a barrow on a headland in his memory.

Scholars have debated whether Beowulf was transmitted orally, affecting its interpretation: if it was composed early, in pagan times, then the paganism is central and the Christian elements were added later, whereas if it was composed later, in writing, by a Christian, then the pagan elements could be decorative archaising; some scholars also hold an intermediate position. Beowulf is written mostly in the Late West Saxon dialect of Old English, but many other dialectal forms are present, suggesting that the poem may have had a long and complex transmission throughout the dialect areas of England.

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Headland in the context of Nuuk

Nuuk (Greenlandic pronunciation: [nuːk] ; Danish: Nuuk, formerly Godthåb [ˈkʌtˌhɔˀp]) is the capital and most populous city of Greenland, an autonomous territory in the Kingdom of Denmark. Nuuk is the seat of government and the territory's largest cultural and economic center. It is also the seat of government for the Sermersooq municipality. In January 2025, it had a population of 20,113—more than a third of the territory's population—making it one of the smallest capital cities in the world by population.

The city was founded in 1728 by the Danish-Norwegian missionary Hans Egede when he relocated from the earlier Hope Colony (Haabets Koloni), where he had arrived in 1721; the governor Claus Paarss was part of the relocation. The new colony was placed at the Inuit settlement of Nûk and named Godthaab ("Good Hope"). "Nuuk" is the Greenlandic word for "cape" and is commonly found in Greenlandic place names. It is so named because of its position at the end of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord on the Labrador Sea's eastern shore. Its latitude, at 64°11' N, makes it the world's northernmost capital, a few kilometres farther north than Reykjavík. When home rule was established in 1979, the authorization of place names was transferred to Greenlandic authorities, who preferred Greenlandic names to Danish ones. The name Godthåb mostly went out of use over the next two decades.

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Headland in the context of Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas (/əˈɡʊljəs/; Portuguese: Cabo das Agulhas [ˈkaβu ðɐz ɐˈɣuʎɐʃ], "Cape of Needles") is a rocky headland in Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of Africa and the beginning of the traditional dividing line between the Atlantic and Indian oceans according to the International Hydrographic Organization. It is approximately half a degree of latitude, or 55 kilometres (34 mi), farther south than the Cape of Good Hope.

Historically, the cape has been known to sailors as a major hazard on the traditional clipper route. It is sometimes regarded as one of the great capes. It was most commonly known in English as Cape L'Agulhas until the 20th century. The town of L'Agulhas is near the cape.

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Headland in the context of Cape Morris Jesup

Cape Morris Jesup (Danish: Kap Morris Jesup) is a headland in Peary Land, Greenland.

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Headland in the context of Castillo San Felipe del Morro

Castillo San Felipe del Morro (English: Promontory Castle of Saint Philip), most commonly known as El Morro (The Promontory), is a large fortress and citadel in the Old San Juan historic quarter of San Juan, the capital municipality of Puerto Rico. Commissioned by King Charles I of Spain in 1539, it was first built as a fortified tower in honor of King Philip II, who oversaw its expansion into a hornwork bastion fort by 1595. Over the next 200 years, especially in the reign of King Charles III, El Morro continued to be developed to reach its current form in 1787. Rising 43 metres (140 ft) from the Atlantic shoreline with 5.5 to 7.6 metres (18 to 25 ft) thick walls, the six-leveled edifice stands on a steep, rocky headland promontory on San Juan Islet guarding the entry to San Juan Bay, the harbor of Old San Juan. El Morro, alongside La Fortaleza, San Cristóbal, El Cañuelo, and other forts part of the Walls of Old San Juan, protected strategically and militarily important Puerto Rico, or La Llave de las Indias (The Key to the Indies), from invasion by competing world powers during the Age of Discovery and Sail. It was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1983.

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Headland in the context of Cape (geography)

In geography, a cape is a headland, peninsula or promontory extending into a body of water, usually a sea. A cape usually represents a marked change in trend of the coastline, often making them important landmarks in sea navigation. This also makes them prone to natural forms of erosion, mainly tidal actions, resulting in a relatively short geological lifespan.

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Headland in the context of Promontory

A promontory is a raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water (in which case it is a peninsula). Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the softer rock to the sides of it, or are the high ground that remains between two river valleys where they form a confluence. One type of promontory is a headland, or head.

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Headland in the context of Cape Charles (headland)

Cape Charles is a headland, or cape, in Northampton County, Virginia. Located at the southern tip of Northampton County, it forms the southern tip of the Delmarva Peninsula and the northern side of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Cape Charles was named in honor of Charles I of England, the second son of King James I and his eventual successor to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Cape Henry, which forms the southern side of the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, and Cape Charles are collectively known as the Virginia Capes.

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Headland in the context of Cape Angela

Cape Angela (French: Cap Angela; Arabic: رأس أنجلة) is a rocky headland in Bizerte, Tunisia. Its tip, Ras Ben Sakka, has been considered the northernmost point of the African continent since 2014, replacing Cape Blanc (Ras al-Abyad), also in Tunisia. It is located about 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) from Bizerte, the northernmost city in Africa and 22 kilometers (14 mi) from Ichkeul Lake.

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Headland in the context of Monaco City

Monaco City (French: Monaco-Ville [mɔnakɔ vil]; Monégasque: Mùnegu Autu) is the southcentral ward in the Principality of Monaco. Located on a headland that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, it is nicknamed The Rock (French: Le Rocher; Monégasque: A Roca). The name "Monaco City" is misleading: it is not itself a city, but a historical and statistical district. It holds most of the country's political and judicial institutions: the Prince's Palace, the town hall, the government, the National Council (parliament of Monaco), the Municipal Council, the courts and a prison (hanging on The Rock).

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Headland in the context of Barnard Point

Barnard Point is a headland which marks the south-east side of the entrance to False Bay on the south side of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It is situated on Rozhen Peninsula, 1.5 km (1 mi) north-north-west of Botev Point and 6.6 km (4 mi) south-east of Miers Bluff (British mapping in 1968, and Bulgarian in 2005 and 2009).

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Headland in the context of Heracles peninsula

Heracles Peninsula (Ukrainian: Гераклійський півострів, romanizedHerakliiskyi pivostriv, Russian: Гераклейский полуостров, romanizedGerakleyskiy poluostrov) is a triangular headland in Black Sea at the southwestern portion of Crimea. It is distinguished by its northern edge at the Bay of Sevastopol (continuing by Chorna River) and its eastern edge at the Balaklava Bay (including the Valley of Balaklava). Most of the peninsula is heavily urbanized and occupied by the city of Sevastopol.

The name reminiscent with a divine hero of the Ancient Greece has in fact derived from another ancient Greek city Heraclea Pontica (today Karadeniz Ereğli (Turkish variant)). The Greek colonists founded the ancient city of Chersonesus, the ruins of which to this day may be found in Sevastopol. Other names of the peninsula include Trachea or Irakli. The peninsula was an agricultural district of Chersonesus also known as Chora (Greek: χώρα).

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Headland in the context of Cape Horn

Cape Horn (Spanish: Cabo de Hornos, pronounced [ˈkaβo ðe ˈoɾnos]) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which is Águila Islet), Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.

Cape Horn was identified by mariners and first rounded in 1616 by the Dutchmen Willem Schouten and Jacob Le Maire, who named it Kaap Hoorn (pronunciation) after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. For decades, Cape Horn was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. The waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs.

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Headland in the context of Reykjanes

Reykjanes (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈreiːcaˌnɛːs]) is a small headland on the south-western end of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, giving the main peninsula its name. Volcanic action is responsible for forming the entire peninsula. The nearest town is Keflavik.

The name, Reykjanes, translates to "smoking point,” reykja 'smoking', and nes 'point'. It is named this due to the continuing volcanic activity of the Reykjanes volcanic belt; there are also many other uses of this name in Iceland, e.g. the Reykjanes Peninsula or Reykjanes in Ísafjarðardjúp.

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Headland in the context of Ingólfshöfði

Ingólfshöfði (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈiŋkoul(f)sˌhœvðɪ] ) is a small headland and private nature reserve on the south coast of Iceland. It is believed to be the location where Ingólfur Arnarson originally landed in Iceland in or around 874 CE, and where he stayed the first winter and it is named after him as a result. Ingólfshöfði reaches a maximum elevation of 76 meters (249 ft).

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Headland in the context of Tiburon Peninsula

The Tiburon Peninsula (French: Péninsule de Tiburon [penɛ̃syl tibyʁɔ̃]; Haitian Creole: Penensil Tibiwon), or simply the Tiburon (French: Tiburon; Haitian Creole: Tibiwon), is a region encompassing most of Haiti's southern coast. It starts roughly at the southernmost point of the Haiti-Dominican Republic border and extends westward near Cuba, forming a large headland. Three of Haiti's ten departments are located entirely within the region. They are the departments of Grand'Anse, Nippes and Sud. A large part of Ouest department is also located in the region, with the capital, Port-au-Prince serving as the line of demarcation between central Haiti and the south. Half of Sud-Est is also located within the Tiburon Peninsula. The mountains on the peninsula are known as the Massif de la Hotte.

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