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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.
Breaking of water surface waves may occur anywhere that the amplitude is sufficient, including in mid-ocean. However, it is particularly common on beaches because wave heights are amplified in the region of shallower water (because the group velocity is lower there). See also waves and shallow water. There are four basic types of breaking water ...
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 ...
The phase velocity c p (blue) and group velocity c g (red) as a function of water depth h for surface gravity waves of constant frequency, according to Airy wave theory. Quantities have been made dimensionless using the gravitational acceleration g and period T, with the deep-water wavelength given by L 0 = gT 2 /(2π) and the deep-water phase ...
In shallow water, the group velocity is equal to the shallow-water phase velocity. This is because shallow water waves are not dispersive. In deep water, the group velocity is equal to half the phase velocity: {{math|c g = 1 / 2 c p. [7] The group velocity also turns out to be the energy transport velocity.
where ξ is the Iribarren number, is the angle of the seaward slope of a structure, H is the wave height, L 0 is the deep-water wavelength, T is the period and g is the gravitational acceleration. Depending on the application, different definitions of H and T are used, for example: for periodic waves the wave height H 0 at deep water or the ...
Stokes waves of maximum wave height on deep water, under the action of gravity. The maximum wave steepness, for periodic and propagating deep-water waves, is H / λ = 0.1410633 ± 4 · 10 −7 , [ 29 ] so the wave height is about one-seventh ( 1 / 7 ) of the wavelength λ. [ 24 ]
Shallow-water equations can be used to model Rossby and Kelvin waves in the atmosphere, rivers, lakes and oceans as well as gravity waves in a smaller domain (e.g. surface waves in a bath). In order for shallow-water equations to be valid, the wavelength of the phenomenon they are supposed to model has to be much larger than the depth of the ...