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Disturbed free surface of a sea, viewed from below. In physics, a free surface is the surface of a fluid that is subject to zero parallel shear stress, [1] such as the interface between two homogeneous fluids. [2] An example of two such homogeneous fluids would be a body of water (liquid) and the air in the Earth's atmosphere (gas mixture).
The ocean's surface is hit hard by anthropogenic change, and the surface ecosystem is likely already dramatically different from even a few hundred years ago. For example, prior to widespread damming, logging, and industrialisation, more wood may have entered the open ocean, [ 14 ] while plastic had not yet been invented.
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.
The ocean's surface is an important reference point for oceanography and geography, particularly as mean sea level. The ocean surface has globally little, but measurable topography, depending on the ocean's volumes. The ocean surface is a crucial interface for oceanic and atmospheric processes.
Bathypelagic – the open ocean or pelagic zone that extends from a depth of 1000 to 4000 meters below the ocean surface. Beach – a geological landform along the shoreline of a body of water, consisting of loose particles composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, or cobble, or of shell fragments or coralline algae fragments.
Surface currents only affect the top few hundred metres of the sea, but there are also large-scale flows in the ocean depths caused by the movement of deep water masses. A main deep ocean current flows through all the world's oceans and is known as the thermohaline circulation or global conveyor belt.
A liquid hitting a wall in a container will cause sloshing. The free surface effect is a mechanism which can cause a watercraft to become unstable and capsize. [1]It refers to the tendency of liquids — and of unbound aggregates of small solid objects, like seeds, gravel, or crushed ore, whose behavior approximates that of liquids — to move in response to changes in the attitude of a craft ...
Ocean temperature and motion fields can be separated into three distinct layers: mixed (surface) layer, upper ocean (above the thermocline), and deep ocean. Ocean currents are measured in units of sverdrup (Sv) , where 1 Sv is equivalent to a volume flow rate of 1,000,000 m 3 (35,000,000 cu ft) per second.