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Wave Height – The vertical distance between crest and trough. Wavelength – The horizontal distance between successive crests or troughs. Wave Period – The time it takes for one complete wave to pass a particular point.
What is the difference between the wave base and still water level? Wave base is at a depth of 1/2 the wavelength. True or False: The greater the wave height, the deeper the wave base. False.
: the depth in a body of water (as a lake or sea) at which wave motion becomes inappreciable.
Wave height is the vertical distance between the crest (peak) and the trough of a wave. Some other definitions: Still-Water Line is the level of the lake surface if it were perfectly calm and flat. Crest is the highest point on the wave above the still-water line.
This depth is called the wave base, and it is equal to one-half the wavelength (L/2) measured from still water level. Only wavelength controls the depth of the wave base, so the longer the wave, the deeper the wave base.
Deep-Water, Transitional, and Shallow-Water Waves. Swells are deep-water waves, meaning that the depth (D) of the water is greater than half the wave’s wavelength (D > 1/2 L). When deep-water waves move into shallow water, they change into breaking waves.
Question of the Day: Ocean Waves #2
The wave height is the vertical difference between a wave crest and a wave trough. The wave velocity (celerity) equals the wave length divided by the wave period. Sea reports give the significant wave height. This is calculated from the height of all the waves during a 20 minute period.
The wavelength of a wave is simply the length of one complete wave cycle. The wavelength can be measured as the distance from crest to crest or from trough to trough. In fact, the wavelength of a wave can be measured as the distance from a point on a wave to the corresponding point on the next cycle of the wave.
Most tsunamis cause the sea to rise no more than 10 feet (3 meters). The Indian Ocean tsunami caused waves as high as 30 feet (9 meters) in some places, according to news reports. In other places witnesses described a rapid surging of the ocean. Flooding can extend inland by a thousand feet (300 meters) or more.
Lituya Bay
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Surge. A surge, or tidal surge, is a large sea wave or a sudden, strong, wavelike volume of water. It’s the rolling swell of the sea, a sudden powerful forward or upward movement, especially by a natural force such as the tide, and a strong, swelling, wavelike volume or body of something.
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.