When
wavesIn fluid dynamics, wind waves or, more precisely, wind-generated waves are surface waves that occur on the free surface of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and canals or even on small puddles and ponds. They usually result from the wind blowing over a vast enough stretch of fluid surface. Some waves...
travel into areas of
shallow water, they begin to be affected by the
oceanAn ocean is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 75% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
bottom. The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted, and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position. As the water becomes shallower, the swell becomes higher and steeper, ultimately assuming the familiar sharp-crested wave shape. After the
wave breaksIn physics, a breaking wave is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which some process can suddenly start to occur that causes large amounts of wave energy to be transformed in turbulent kinetic energy...
, it becomes a wave of translation and erosion of the ocean bottom intensifies.
Discussion
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When
wavesIn fluid dynamics, wind waves or, more precisely, wind-generated waves are surface waves that occur on the free surface of oceans, seas, lakes, rivers, and canals or even on small puddles and ponds. They usually result from the wind blowing over a vast enough stretch of fluid surface. Some waves...
travel into areas of
shallow water, they begin to be affected by the
oceanAn ocean is a large body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 75% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas.More than half of this area is over 3,000...
bottom. The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted, and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position. As the water becomes shallower, the swell becomes higher and steeper, ultimately assuming the familiar sharp-crested wave shape. After the
wave breaksIn physics, a breaking wave is a wave whose amplitude reaches a critical level at which some process can suddenly start to occur that causes large amounts of wave energy to be transformed in turbulent kinetic energy...
, it becomes a wave of translation and erosion of the ocean bottom intensifies.
See also
- Boussinesq equations (water waves)
- Mild-slope equation
In fluid dynamics, the mild-slope equation describes the combined effects of diffraction and refraction for water waves propagating over bathymetry and due to lateral boundaries — like breakwaters and coastlines. It is an approximate model, deriving its name from being originally developed for wave...
- Shallow water equations
The shallow water equations are a set of hyperbolic partial differential equations that describe the flow below a pressure surface in a fluid .The equations are derived from depth-integrating the Navier-Stokes equations, in the case where the...
- Wave shoaling
In fluid dynamics, wave shoaling is the effect in which surface waves on a water layer of decreasing depth change their wave height...
- Ursell number
In fluid dynamics, the Ursell number indicates the nonlinearity of long surface gravity waves on a fluid layer. This dimensionless parameter is named after Fritz Ursell, who discussed its significance in 1953....
- Ballantine Scale
The Ballantine Scale is a biologically defined scale for measuring the degree of exposure of rocky shores to wave action. Devised in 1961 by W. J...
External links