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Introduction

The Republic of Mozambique on the east coast of Africa has a coastline more than 2,470 km long, more than 90% of which is a low coastal plain of sand or mud stabilised by plants (Tinley 1985). The lowlands are up to 200 km wide in the southern part of the country, narrowing as up­­lands approach the coast in the northern part. Triassic and Cretaceous formations dip seaward over a Pre-Cambrian basement (of metamorphic gneisses, migmatites, and am­­phibolites), which outcrops locally on the coast.

The southern coast has beaches backed by several generations of dunes and lagoons. Some of the dunes have become consolidated as dune calcarenites (aeolianites) that outcrop in headlands. Generally, the dunes are cliffed with blowouts on the seaward side, and forested parabolic dunes dominate the inland topography. Beach rock outcrops on the beaches, and there are submerged beaches and dunes marking Quaternary coastlines. The central coast has headlands between arcuate bays with...

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Albergaria Moreira, M. (2010). Mozambique. In: Bird, E.C.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of the World's Coastal Landforms. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8639-7_179

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