Coastal Landforms for Fantasy Mapping

[@seeranos]

You know Artifexian, if you compiled all these worldbuilding scripts and slides into a book, I'd buy that!

[@Thunderous115]

Agreed.

[@superlegomaster55]

@@Thunderous115 Agreed.

[@OakenBlitheness]

I agree. I would do find that wonderfully easy to go back to frequently and take more notes from. Love the content Artifexian! Thank you!

[@happenedbychance3392]

I think that being able to read it would help me focus on his words!

[@anymeaddict]

Yes! Me too! And my dad would too, I'm sure.

[@armandoperez4535]

Well looks like it’s time to neglect my school work on exams week to redraw the curls in my coastlines for the seventh time

[@takashi.mizuiro]

damm

[@beaclaster]

@@takashi.mizuiro water colorish?

[@ovrair6340]

Heheh, sayme...

[@JOCoStudio1]

Just hope you're doing geography- this video's basically a free and fun lesson! 2 birds with 1 stone

[@VulcanTrekkie45]

I can't believe I forgot about this in the script editing bit, but I'll mention it here: Tidal wetlands, such as salt marshes, can grow to such an extent that they fill an entire estuary, connecting former barrier islands to the mainland. A good example of this would be at the mouth of the Merrimac River in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Plum Island, to the south, is attached to the mainland by a tidal flat at low tide, but is only separated from the mainland by Plumbush Creek at high tide, only 30 meters wide. To the north, the barrier island is actually fully attached to the mainland by extensive salt marshes, and as such doesn't have a separate name.

[@aidanl276]

I was actually thinking about Plum Island during the part on the salt marshes! My family goes there every summer. The north bit isn’t connected *per se* to the mainland, as there is a tidal channel that forms the plumbush river’s north mouth separating it; during spring low tides, it’s scarcely there, but most other times, it’s deep enough to get most recreational boats through (although my dad has a story about having to push my grandpa’s fishing boat through the muck with his brothers)

[@draco5991rep]

"Good morning Interweb" Me looking at the clock seeing that it is 21:00 o'clock. Also Me: "and what a lovely morning it is"

[@derekkaplan3420]

It’s always morning somewhere

[@ilcubo32]

Where do you live?

[@charvi999]

I must say this is the best place to learn the complicated subject of worldbuilding. Combined with the knowledge of geography your videos help like a blessing.

[@Stoneworks]

This was lit, your map style is so minimalistic but easy to read

[@a2izzard]

Hi stoneworks

[@Stoneworks]

@@a2izzard Hi Hayden, you have a very cool renaissance username

[@LunizIsGlacey]

Ngl, I'm never going to stop feeling a sense of joy whenever I hear "Good morning Interweb"

[@pand9826]

Literally revising for my Geography A-Level right now and the Human Geography side’s got me on the verge of a breakdown. Thank God this video’s here to cheer me up a bit - Physical Geography was the reason I took this damned subject and the quicker I can get Migration over with the faster I can get back to revising Coasts, something I actually enjoy 😭

[@damp8277]

You should try seeing things for Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology (the study of recent geological processes)

[@armanipasstoors7109]

Same here, choose to study Geography in university but it's way more human geography than I thought, so now I'm just watching this 'cause I'm so bored of regional planning and demography and stuff, just give me more physical please 😂

[@Happy_Shopper]

I took geography A-level because I liked it at school and then geology because I liked the physical bit of geography. I never regretted anything more and I never even did my exam because of covid

[@allanjohnson8951]

Emergent coasts are dominated by erosion, submergent coasts are dominated by deposition. So, how your rivers interact with your coasts will be determined by that. NB: Large river deltas cannot form on emergent coasts because they are depositional formations. You can have some small scale splitting, but you won't be able to get those characteristic protrusions. (Compare the Colorado River to the Nile)

[@Langharig_Tuig]

You just compacted an entire chapter of my geomorphology book and a bit more in not even 15 minutes... and it's still understandable!

[@moonkeele]

It's over 40 years since I took O level geography. Thanks for bringing it all back.

[@owleee]

did this guy really just trick me into revising for geography

[@metasyntax42]

Many of the features you mentioned are also part of the great lakes shorelines, so don't forget large freshwater lakes as well.

[@kljcfy3]

Nice, the barrier islands. Being from North Carolina I was hoping you'd talk about barrier islands. Perfect for pirates to use as safe havens.

[@heathercampbell6059]

Someone said if you compiled all this into a book, they'd buy it. I would too. However, have you considered trying to make this into a program? Imagine putting your fault lines into a program, figuring out the currents, then with a couple of clicks and choices here and there, watch your world get built. The program can tell you where certain areas are so that you can customize each area as you need it. *stars in eyes* I realize something like that would be a huge undertaking and the mathematics involved would be... Well, daunting is probably a good word for it. But I would totally buy that program.

[@Jpteryx]

Take a look at Songs of the Eons - it's not quite that customizable, but it will build a whole planet with tectonics and climate.

[@heathercampbell6059]

@@Jpteryx really?! Thank you!

[@sheridanwilde]

Nice attempt, but we know who really created fjords. He won an award for it you know. Lovely crinkly edges.

[@Sprecherfuchs]

Slarty Bartfast!

[@lesmup2159]

Not equatorial enough...

[@DominoPivot]

What an excellent coincidence, I read up about coral reefs and atolls just yesterday because my character in an upcoming D&D campaign is an aquatic elf. This video might prove useful :)

[@smartart6841]

How though. Im lt an expert in DND but i dont see the use in knowing coasts

[@phrax6767]

@@smartart6841 probably just for his/her character backstory. It could be helpful, you never know. I once played a Firbolg in love with plant life, so I didn’t some research to seem more knowledgeable.

[@siliasporter4424]

I am plannjng on being a dm for my extended family. And the coast looks fun to work on. So i have been doing lots of research

[@ArkinMC]

Sometimes I see your videos more like a geology lesson than as a worldbuilding one :D

[@TroyEagan]

Your videos just make me want to world build more and more. Also I love how world building leads to so many interconnected sciences.

[@ovrair6340]

Hey, artifexian, would you ever consider making a video on how glaciers, ice ages and being in the artic/Antarctic can affect the land and it's formations?

[@annacharleson6325]

I have heard SO MANY of these words before but I never knew what they meant! I feel enlightened...

[@SysterYster]

There are also smooth rounded cliff beaches. Common in Sweden where the ice age rounded things off a lot. :)

[@nw2kr8bc3t]

I literally just came back from the beach and this pops up in my recommendations, nice

[@055Pedrito]

Alas another Artifexian video has spawned to lighten my day and fill it with the need to worldbuild, despite having exams coming up soon

[@firewoodloki]

What I just needed right now!

[@majahadra7905]

Same! It's as if he can read our minds

[@Yomabo]

Same, but i have been working and reworking the same map since 2015.

[@firewoodloki]

@@Yomabo I have been working on my map for almost a year now.

[@MGDrzyzga]

I was surprised to learn rocky coasts dominate - I've really only been to coastal plains - mostly sandy, occasionally pebbly. But thinking on it more - that might reflect which kind people visit more. (Also, I don't travel much, so living closer to a coast plain than a rocky coast could also skew my perspective.)

[@ppislander]

You explained coasts better in 14 minutes than my teacher has in all the time we spent on coasts

[@silentk2658]

Two weeks of geography class in one video. I have no words

[@blackmagikarper8318]

I just came back to this channel after finding it early on into my worldbuilding endeavors, and am still awestruck by the amount of detail present! I would love to see a video about how impact craters (from meteors/asteroids/moons/etc.) effect topography and/or the shape of craters and how they can change!

[@pretzelbomb6105]

So, what you’re saying is: if my would has a salt-loving tree like the Mangrove that can tolerate, or even prefers, the cold, I can have a mid- or northern latitude mangrove swamp with all the associated visuals? Interesting…

[@innnn663]

never have I ever skipped to the end of a video to actually watch the sponser first. Thanks for the video, good sir

[@andrewmeyer8783]

Coral reefs can keep pace with erosion since they are depositing carbonate rocks faster than they erode. Atolls can persist near the surface for a long time as long as the coral keeps growing

[@harryhouli1121]

loved that part with the seagulls

[@smartart6841]

But

[@smartart6841]

Hasnt premiered yet

[@smartart6841]

When you posted there were 7 minutes left. Your tryibg to confuse future viewers arent you?

[@rowbot5555]

I'm just happy there's so many images of places in new Zealand in this wonderful video

[@heathercampbell6059]

I live for your world building videos. They are so good. I've needed something like this for a while. Thank you

[@user-yy4ux9zf4r]

How the hell did I just find this channel. This video has gifted me with a plethora of knowledge to play with in my mind.

[@samrichardson5971]

Very cool to see the edge cases of longshore drift. We learnt about spits but not cuspate ones!

[@SysterYster]

Alright... I didn't know the difference between cliffs and bluffs before. Thanx for that. :)

[@MCPhssthpok]

This video comes at a perfect time for me. I'm just designing a tropical coastline and was thinking of lots of long, coral sand beaches, but it's on an active plate margin with coastal mountains so cliffs and coves it is then!

[@QuillWorks]

I literally used this video to study for my physical geography final so thank you! These videos are helpful in more ways than just world building!

[@Asodym]

this is just my y9 geography classes made actually useful

[@Pasakoye]

It's gonna take me a bit to process all this information, but I will be sure to try and implement this properly in any maps I create. Wonderful video!

[@DanielBerke]

Ever since watching this video I can't stop noticing beaches being logarithmic spirals. They're everywhere! It's incredible!

[@veggiet2009]

"oh would ya look at that..." 🎶 Born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining ! ... 🎶 "... Fjords!"

[@Sabersonic]

Interesting video as always Edgar, though I can't help but feel like a vast majority of these coasts aren't exactly the kind of detail that could survive being zoomed out into a world map, though it would give a feel of local maps well. Still, the barrier island coasts and flooded river valley coasts does offer some food for thought in at least terms of settlements and trade hubs. Thanks again for the video and the worldbuilding seeds.

[@seegurkekiller]

Wow so much information in such a short video! Probably gonna watch it a few times to get the most of it.

[@whoeverofhowevermany]

Wow this is the stuff that I've only dreamed of having the motivation to organize into a useful reference

[@excelvalentino6972]

this guy is better than my school at teaching things

[@defiantmars9910]

I recognize that lower left image at 0:11, that's Makapu'u beach overlooking Rabbit Island here on Oahu, Hawaii. Aloha!

[@VictorTheLegend]

Amazing video! Please elaborate on ALL geographic formations as the years go on, because it's really amazing knowledge. Thanks :D

[@MrAntiKnowledge]

Thanks this is a goldmine for my worldbuilding needs

[@evelynlamoy8483]

Fun fact, pink beaches aren't always from corral sediment washing ashore. They can also come from blackish volcanic rock. Because minerals are weird, some granite will appear near black when intact, but when erroded, the smaller quartz crystals that are produced are a soft pink.

[@samrichardson5971]

You’re sending me back to GCSE Geography! Vivid memory of the cave arch sea stack picture.

[@storminmormin14]

Can you do a video on mountains geography. I know you already covered plate tectonics but I’d really be interested in how erosion shapes mountains, caves are formed, how mountains far from a tectonic boundary form.

[@simonetiberi75]

Wonderful and definitely useful! This video answer to a lot of questions about the reason of various coastline configurations! Well done!

[@OleOlson]

Damn, this is really good. Solid geological presentation and straight to the point.

[@inspectorjavert8443]

As an NC resident I'm happy to see my homeland represented at 9:21. Not sure if this is always the case but the barrier islands made navigation along the Carolina coast very dangerous, it is one of two areas with the name "Graveyard of the Atlantic"

[@maxinefinnfoxen]

I really hope he makes a video dedicated to beach types like how he said there were too many for this video

[@kalez238]

I learned quite a bit in this video! This will be useful for homeschool geography AND my pirate story :D

[@MinnaMe01]

The pic for tidal flats (Oban, NZ) really threw me for a loop. I’ve been to Oban, but the one in Scotland, when I was studying marine biology and one of the things we did was visit a nearby mudflat/tidal flat. I was so sure you must’ve mislabelled the picture😅

[@GeshronTyler1]

Something that was overlooked with the organic beaches- oyster reefs. Most of them have been destroyed by overharvesting, or because they blocked access to harbors and river channels, but they can potentially grow to quite extensive volumes if undisturbed.

[@TreetopCanopy]

I love coastal settings but didn't have the confidence to really define them previously!

[@Great_Olaf5]

Any reason you couldn't have a fantasy world with a cold tolerant mangrove equivalent? Also, there are apparently some kinds of coral that like deep water. Also also, what kinds of things would someone look for if they wanted to make an equivalent of the Giants' Causeway?

[@qwertyTRiG]

The Giant's Causeway is basalt, so it was formed by volcanic activity. I think that the hexagonal structure is caused by slow cooling allowing the rock to form large crystals.

[@qwertyTRiG]

And I love the idea of cold mangroves. Thought of it myself while watching.

[@opalescentyams2742]

@@qwertyTRiG Same here. Something tells me this video just spawned a trope.

[@lyreparadox]

@@qwertyTRiG There's a related formation in the Western Pacific called Nan Madol. They used that same kind of hexagonal basalt to build artificial islands in their lagoon.

[@qwertyTRiG]

@@lyreparadox Cool.

[@samuelluisdelespiritusanto7343]

After watching this video I appreciate the coasts in Genshin Impact much much more, each time I look at the rocks and sand is like you're watching their history of rock and water interacting with each other!

[@Jayvee4635]

Learning about DnD has let me look at world building on a new light.

[@elibartlett6723]

Wow this is the mist informative worldbuilding video i never knew i needed

[@chaoticseok7]

This was soo helpful, I'm mostly into human geography, and i found it so difficult to understand physical geo until i found this video 😭😭

[@Skrighk]

This is fantastic! I'm currently making a seafaring campaign, in a demiplane full of nothing but islands, archipelagos, atolls, the works

[@LadCorazon]

Gosh, having just finished my geology class, this is really cool!

[@marten_mkklsn]

"Spit comes in a load of flavours" Hmmm

[@cjmeerkat9645]

Shame this video comes out after I finish my coasts 😭

[@takashi.mizuiro]

oof

[@Yomabo]

You can always redo the maps

[@takashi.mizuiro]

Joep Bosma yeahhh. but the person already used time on it so idk if the person will want to do so

[@beaclaster]

F

[@smartart6841]

F

[@lyreparadox]

I'm sensing some subtle fjord enthusiasm...

[@hallowacko]

Edgar! Can you cover Caves in general in a future video? like how everything from ice caves to karst caves to lava caves form, what the structures would look like etc? I wanna know for D&D purposes. I have a dungeon in mind but i wanna know if each of these caves just end, like i think Sea Caves do, or if stuff like Lava Tubes inevitably end with literal lava.

[@frozeneevee]

I'm definitely rewatching this if I ever need to design a coastal area for D&D

[@BozheTsaryaKhrani]

I dont like sand its course, its rough, its irritating and it gets everywhere

[@kasane1337]

*stands on top of a sea stack and looks at the sandy beach* It's over, Anakin. I have the high ground!

[@av3stube480]

I really like the information dense way you make your videos.... I really don't like people mucking around.

[@Chrischi3TutorialLPs]

Best example for tidal flats would be what is called Wattenmeer in germany (Though really, the Wattenmeer stretches from the netherlands to denmark) If you ever find yourself in the region, do see if you can go on a little tour of the tidal flats. Also, traditionally, you go barefoot in the process. Feels great. The consistency of the mud can actually vary greatly, some regions have very slimy mud that you sink into easily, while others have mud that, while you will leave footprints, is hard enough to easily stand and walk on.

[@Jessie_Helms]

I was about to say, “R E T U R N O F T H E K I N G” because I haven’t seen a new video in like a year... But it was just the algorithm thinking it knows my likes better than my own freaking subscription preferences.

[@Sawtooth44]

easy way to solve ignore the home page home page is for new things to find not things you have already subbed to

[@Jessie_Helms]

@@Sawtooth44 you’re acting like your subs actually show up I’m your sun box

[@Sawtooth44]

​@@Jessie_Helms you mean "show up in my sub box" right, if so yes they actually do, every one of them, if there not making content then obviously they dont show up

[@Jessie_Helms]

@@Sawtooth44 correcting someone over a glaringly obvious typo/auto correct is such a ridiculous waste of time. And no, have you had your head buried for 5+ years? KZbin doesn’t show you every video from every channel you’re subscribed to. I’ve seen videos suggested to me from less than an hour ago that don’t show in my sub box. This is a well known, well documented fact.

[@Sawtooth44]

@@Jessie_Helms hay i had to make sure, cause before it sounded like you where suggesting i was subbed to you and if your on the home page then NO SHIT it shows suggestions, there is a completely separate page that shows JUST subscriptions and thats what im talking about

[@enkiimuto1041]

This is absolutely precious

[@ankitagrawal1107]

Thank you so much ! The visuals were extremely helpful. Thank you :)

[@aquila4460]

I'm a bit sad you didn't mention the Wadden Sea as the largest intertidal zone in the world. But still an interesting and fun video.

[@kenmakozume7341]

Needed this a WEEK AGO

[@charlesdeschampsdeboishebe9672]

Less severe winters and fire exclusion seem to favor northward advance of mangroves in places like Louisiana, if sea level rise doesn't drown the entire situation

[@Vayevn]

Gonna use some of these tips for my World Machine sessions

[@zoecant2167]

Having trouble with world building. Thank you!

[@TheDcraft]

As always, a well made video.

[@migfrarummet1907]

I really liked the part with the walrus

[@smartart6841]

Never premiered. Ur trying yo confuse future viewers arent you?

[@migfrarummet1907]

@@smartart6841 shhhh!

[@JoFriedrich]

Dear Artifexian, here in France we usually distinguish two types of rocky coasts, with 'active cliffs' on the one hand and some kind of 'inactive' ones (don't know if there's a specific word for them) for those that aren't constanty eroded and that are more like a part of mountain plunging into the sea. I was thinking it would perhaps make your "rocky coasts" category a bit more precise, cause from what we saw, phenomena associated with these kinds of cliffs were quite different (for example, "mountain" ones are not eroded as fast, don't come with flat land behind and are of techtonical origin). Well, just thought about that because one of my teachers in particular was very, very, VERY excited about this xD Of course our littlle drawings were not as clean as yours haha

[@MGDrzyzga]

Follow-up question: If pebbly coasts are the transition between rocky coasts and sandy coastal plains, what features promote a change from rocky coast to coastal plain? Off the top of my head, I'd guess some blend of tectonic activity, large-scale shape of the continent (and how it interacts with prevailing winds and currents?), and geology (mineral composition of the coast).

[@veggiet2009]

Not only good for fantasy world building, but level design

[@bonefetcherbrimley7740]

This was epic, thanks Artifexian.

[@codekillerz5392]

Dozens and dozens of local maps, HERE I COME

[@kitdubhran2968]

How did you know, sir, that I am working on a coastal area right now? How did you know? Thanks so much for the video. I will definitely be back soon to revisit this.

[@Crosshill]

jokes on you im not worldbuilding my own world im just reusing the earth and you're a geography channel

[@odanemcdonald9874]

Lichen is a Patreon? Lichen has an awesome channel himself as well!

[@kairon156]

I need to make a punch card of all these coastal forms and take a trip around Newfoundland because I'm sure we have 65% of these Coastal Landforms.

[@StuffandThings_]

Damn the UK out here with all the coastal landforms. Save some for the rest of us!

[@NewtonIvayo]

Good explanation ❤

[@ThymeHere]

Agreed

[@rickeymariu1]

This is my fav vid by you.

[@Galitwo]

--Watching video-- Image Caption: East Lyme Oh hey, that's my hometown!