![]() ![]() Once a wave grows too steep to hold together, it breaks. Waves start to shoal, becoming taller, steeper, and more closely spaced. This causes energy to pile up near the shore. Surface waves transmit their energy more slowly in shallow water than in deep water. Once a wave leaves the open ocean and approaches land, the sea floor begins to exert its influence. This energy is then passed onto the next crest in a see-saw of kinetic and potential energy that can propagate across an entire ocean basin.Īs waves approach the shore, they pile up closer together and grow taller, finally breaking when they become too steep to support themselves. Surface waves don’t move the water itself very far – each water molecule travels forward and back in a circle a few meters across and ends up back at its starting point.Īs the wave crest rises, water molecules gather gravitational potential energy that is released as kinetic energy when the water descends into the trough of the wave. ![]() The largest waves are created by distant storms, which churn up the surface of the ocean and radiate waves outwards like ripples in a pond. The height of the wave depends on how long the wind is blowing and the distance – or fetch – over which it blows. Surface waves, as they are known, are born when the wind blows over the ocean, amplifying small ripples and transferring momentum from the atmosphere to the water. There are a ton of adjectives for wavesthat you can use to describe waves of all shapes and sizes.The waves we see crashing on the beach can begin their lives tens of thousands of kilometres away. But they can also be dangerous, savage, and terrifying. Ocean waves can be mesmerizing, breathtaking, and serene.
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