Whether the sea is angry or serene, there is a wide variety of ways to describe it with language. Some synonyms for the word wave include ripple, swell, and curl. Next time you enjoy a boogie board ride, or a swim in gentle water, you will be partaking in nature’s release of energy.Ocean waves are not only beautiful, but they are also fascinating. No wind at sea today, I think, and enjoy the soft release of wave energy, so different than the pounding surf of the day before. Other days, the waves are small and lap at the toes of children jumping them in the sand. There are days when the swells are so tall that you can see them coming far out to sea and I like to think about where they are coming from and how windy it must have been there. Over time, beaches may come and go all due to the power released by waves. Waves can move massive amounts of sand and sediments in a very short time span, as anyone who has witnessed a summer storm can tell you. They are powerful agents of erosion, cutting away at the headlands and depositing the sediments in bays. Waves disperse their energy by striking first on headlands and then dispersing it in the bays. The energy of waves continuously shapes our coastlines and beaches. So a five-foot-high crest breaks in about seven feet of water. This breaking of the wave takes place when its depth from the sand is about 1.4 times the height of the wave. Then it tips forward and up at the top until the waves finally break over themselves in a swash of released energy. The resulting friction causes the waves to slow at the bottom of the orbit and build up at the top until the crest of the wave is too far forward and no longer supported by the orbiting column of water below. The wave’s length gets shorter as the wave’s orbit begins to drag along the seafloor. It is only when the wave approaches the coastline and shallow water that things get interesting.
The energy in the wave is measured by the wavelength and height, the higher the wave crest, the deeper the orbit of the water column. It is something like a log rolling down a hill. As the energy wave passes, the water column below the wave orbits in place, bulging at the top and dipping in the trough. As the wind pushes the water, the waves begin to travel and take on some uniformity building into swells.Ĭuriously and counter-intuitively, waves in the open ocean are not moving large bodies of water forward the water only reacts to energy spiraling through it. Bursts of moving air press down on the surface of the sea, transferring some of the wind energy to the water and forming the wave. Wind moves from cooler dense areas (high pressure) to warmer less dense areas (low pressure). For the most part, ocean waves are generated by wind in the open sea. Ocean waves, like all waves (sound, electric, radio…) move energy. And with the help of the Internet, I learned some things about them.
#BEACH OCEAN WAVES SKIN#
Standing at the tide line on Playa Blanca near Barra de Potosi, feeling the salty spray on my skin and face and sensing the power of the waves, I mused about the forces of nature that bring waves and shape our coasts. Here along Guerrero’s Costa Grande, the emerald bay of Zihuatanejo, the long curve of Playa Blanca into Playa Larga, the stretch of soft sand that is Ixtapa, and the rocky beaches of Troncones the tropical water is always warm and the beaches call out for walks and beachcombing. As soon as I arrive at the coast, I head to the beach and enjoy the waves.
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