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A man standing next to large ocean waves at Porto Covo, Portugal Video of large waves from Hurricane Marie along the coast of Newport Beach, California. In fluid dynamics, a wind wave, or wind-generated water wave, is a surface wave that occurs on the free surface of bodies of water as a result of the wind blowing over the water's surface.
Rogue waves, however, have been documented at heights above 25 meters (82 ft). [52] [53] The top of a wave is known as the crest, the lowest point between waves is the trough and the distance between the crests is the wavelength.
The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. [8] In English, the term ocean also refers to any of the large bodies of water into which the world ocean is conventionally divided. [9] The following names describe five different areas of the ocean: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antarctic/Southern, and Arctic.
Because the vast majority of the world ocean's volume is deep water, the mean temperature of seawater is low; roughly 75% of the ocean's volume has a temperature from 0° – 5 °C (Pinet 1996). The same percentage falls in a salinity range between 34 and 35 ppt (3.4–3.5%) (Pinet 1996).
At the same time, but independently from Miles, Owen M. Phillips [10] (1957) developed his theory for the generation of waves based on the resonance between a fluctuating pressure field and surface waves. The main idea behind Phillips' theory is that this resonance mechanism causes the waves to grow when the length of the waves matches the ...
Sea water is 827 times denser than air. Due to the higher density of sea water (1,030 kg m −3) than air (1.2 kg m −3), the force exerted by the same velocity on an organism is 827 times stronger in the ocean. When waves crash on the shore, the force exerted on littoral organisms can be equivalent to several tons.
Breaking swell waves at Hermosa Beach, California. A swell, also sometimes referred to as ground swell, in the context of an ocean, sea or lake, is a series of mechanical waves that propagate along the interface between water and air under the predominating influence of gravity, and thus are often referred to as surface gravity waves.
Wind waves are waves at the water surface that are generated due to the shear action of wind stress on the water surface and the aim of gravity, that acts as a restoring force, to return the water surface to its equilibrium position. Wind waves in the ocean are also known as ocean surface waves.