SHORE (probably connected with AS. sceran, sciran, sceoran, to cut off, Eng. shear, shire). The margin between the land area of the earth and the water area. The outline and general ebarac ter of continental shores arc modified chiefly in two ways: (1) By the erosive and transporting action of the spa, whose waves, currents, and tides are constantly at work removing the rock materials in one place and depositing them in another. this way the seaward edges of strata arc cut back to form cliffs, sometimes producing an irregular shore line, with headlands and deep re(Intrants; the laud waste brought down by rivers is distributed over the ocean thew, and beaches and sand reefs are built up. (2) By secular movements of the earth's crust through which the level of time land. with re spect to the sea, is changed. Coastal lands, which have thus been upraised from the sea floor, are generally formed of soft strata, but, owing to their low position, they resist erosion to a marked degree. Moreover, as the waters deepen very gradually otl'-sho•e, the waves beat up the sands from the bottom, forming long reefs and the sediments transported by rivers ac cumulate as deltas, so that such shores have ad ditional protection from the wasting action of the tea. The coastal plain of Texas affords an example of a shore line of this character.
Throughout most of its length it is low, monot onously level, and fringed by sand reefs. which are so little interrupted that to give access to deep-sea vessels -Galveston has been built on an outer reef. The peculiar shore line of North Carolina, which is indented by shallow sounds and bordered by reefs, has been formed by the gradual depression of an uplifted and dissected sea bottom. Coastal lands that have been sub jected to marked depression are nsually charac terized by an irregular shore line with rocky headlands, numerous harbors, and out lying islands, thus contrasting strongly with the shore.; of uplifted regions. This follows from the fact that the surface of such lands ix diversified through the constantly active process of erosion, while the ocean floor is comparatively smooth and un broken. The western coast of Norway owes its irregular outline to the depression of a moun tainous land surface by which time valleys have been submerged by the sea forming long, deep reentrant'', called fiords (q.v.). The coasts of Great Britain, Maine, and Southern Chile also ex hibit these characteristics. See DELTA; BEACON:8, etc.