1. Section 13 – 1 Wave Action

2. Wave Action
How does a wave form?
How does wavelength and wave height change as a wave enters shallow water?
What factors determine the size of a wave?

3. Wave Action

4. What is a Wave?

5. What is a Wave?
A wave is a disturbance that transfers energy through matter or space.

6. What causes a Wave?
Wind transfers energy into the sea causing waves to occur.
Undersea earthquakes and landslides can also put energy into the water to produce ocean waves.
1. Wind
2. undersea earthquakes
3. undersea landslides

7. Undersea Landslides
earthquake-report.com,

8. Undersea Earthquakes

9. Undersea Earthquakes …can cause tsunamis

11. Parts of a Wave

12. Describing Waves Crest – highest part of a wave
Trough – lowest part of a wave
Wavelength – horizontal distance between crests or troughs
Wave height – vertical distance from the crest to the trough
Frequency – number of waves that pass a point in a certain amount of time

13. Diagram of a Wave

14. Imagine: YOU are a particle of water.
Let’s DO the WAVE
Imagine: YOU are a particle of water.

15. How does the water move in a wave?
Like the bottle in the picture, water remains in the same place as a wave of energy travels through it.
Show Video #26: mjcarlso/ST/videos.html

16. Size of a Wave
Wave size depends on the amount of energy that is transferred to the water.
The amount of energy transferred depends on three things:
Wind speed
Length of time it blows
Distance over which it blows
As each of these factors increase, so does the size of the wave.

17. Average Wave and Height (m)
Size of a Wave
Wind Speed (km/hr)
Average Wave and Height (m)
Average Length (m) 20
0.33
10.6 30
0.88
22.2 40
1.8
39.7 50
3.2
61.8 60
5.1
89.2 70
7.4
121.4 80
10.3
158.6 90
13.9
201.6
From GA CRCT Coach Edition: Lesson 12: p. 96

18. How Waves Change Near Shore
In deep waters, waves travel as long, low waves called swells.
Near shore, the wave height increases and the wavelength decreases.
When the wave reaches a certain height, the crest of the wave topples. The wave breaks onto the shore, forming surf.

19. Further Explanation
When waves move into shallow water, the troughs begin to drag along the bottom, causing friction that slows down the wave.
While the troughs slow down, the crests keep moving at same speed, making the front of the wave steeper than the back.
Eventually, the crest topples over and the wave “breaks.”

21. Why are waves larger on the West Coast & Hawaii than on the East coast?

22. Why are waves larger on the West Coast & Hawaii than on the East coast?
Prevailing Winds: On the West Coast, the prevailing winds are behind the waves, which increases the waves' energy. On the East Coast, the prevailing winds blow against the incoming waves, decreasing the waves' energy.
Continental Shelf and Slope: On the West Coast, if you walked out onto the continental shelf, you would notice that the shelf (the area between the beach and where the drop-off begins) is narrower. This means that if you have less sand to walk on before the ocean's floor drops off steeply, like a cliff. On the East Coast, the shelf is broader -- there is more sand to walk on as the shelf drops gradually, like a really long ramp.
As the wave moves inland and hits the upward slope of the continental shelf on the East Coast, the friction causes the particles to slow down, so the wave gradually collapses on itself. On the West Coast, the shelf rises suddenly near the coast, so the waves are much larger when they crash into the coastline -- the particles (and thus the wave) haven't been slowed down by extended friction with the shelf.
Fetch: The Pacific Ocean on the West Coast has a greater expanse than the Atlantic Ocean on the East Coast. This means that the fetch (the distance over which the wind blows) is greater on the West Coast than on the East Coast. In this case, you can think of wave as a snowball: The farther you roll your snowball along in the snow, the bigger it gets. West-coast waves tend to start way out in the Pacific Ocean, so they have a greater distance to travel before they hit the shore -- more time to grow in size and length.

23. How Waves Affect the Shore
Sandbars
Rip Currents
Longshore Drift

24. How Waves Affect the Shore
Sandbars swirl beneath Oregon Inlet in Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks. Waves driven by ocean winds can cause the sandbars here to shift and change literally by the hour, making conditions hazardous for boats.

25. How Waves Affect the Shore
Sandbar –as waves slow down, they deposit the sand they are carrying on the shallow, underwater slope in a long ridge.

26. Rip Currents
Rip Currents – a rush of water that flows rapidly back to sea through a narrow opening

27. Rip Currents Sandbars

28. Longshore Drift Longshore Drift – movement of sand along the beach at an angle

29. Longshore Drift Longshore Drift Video

30. Beach Erosion Over time, erosion can wear away a beach
Threatens homes, buildings, property
Video of Erosion Wearing away shoreline:
Landforms on coast:

31. Reducing Beach Erosion
groin – a wall of rocks or concrete to reduce erosion along a stretch of beach& stop the effects of longshore drift.
However, Building groins can increases the amount of erosion farther down the beach

32. Groins- built to stop the effects of Longshore Drift