Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
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.
[3] [4] Protected from rip currents, spring tides, or ocean swell, a roadstead can be open or natural, usually estuary-based, or may be created artificially. [5] In maritime law, it is described as a "known general station for ships, notoriously used as such, and distinguished by the name". [6]
The Douglas sea scale, also called the "international sea and swell scale", was devised in 1921 [1] by Captain H. P. Douglas, who later became vice admiral Sir Percy Douglas and hydrographer of the Royal Navy. Its purpose is to estimate the roughness of the sea for navigation.
When waves travel into areas of shallow water, they begin to be affected by the ocean bottom. [1] 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 ...
In oceanography, sea state is the general condition of the free surface on a large body of water—with respect to wind waves and swell—at a certain location and moment. A sea state is characterized by statistics, including the wave height, period, and spectrum. The sea state varies with time, as the wind and swell conditions change.
Infragravity waves are ocean surface gravity waves generated by ocean waves of shorter periods. The amplitude of infragravity waves is most relevant in shallow water, in particular along coastlines hit by high amplitude and long period wind waves and ocean swells. Wind waves and ocean swells are
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
The Marshallese recognized four main ocean swells: the rilib, kaelib, bungdockerik and bundockeing. [2] Navigators focused on effects of islands in blocking swells and generating counterswells to some degree, but they mainly concentrated on refraction of swells as they came in contact with undersea slopes of islands and the bending of swells around islands as they interacted with swells coming ...