Height from trough to crest

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Height (from trough to crest) Wavelength
(from crest to crest) Period (time interval
between arrival of consecutive crests at a
stationary point)
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WAVE TYPES Spilling, or rolling safest
found in relatively sheltered areas.
Plunging, or dumping break suddenly with great
force. Strong winds can cause also be found
where there is a sudden rise in the sea floor.
Surging never actually break as they approach
the water's edge.In the context of sediment
transport on beachs, ocean surface waves can also
be classified as either constructive or
destructive Constructive waves tend to be
low in height (under 1 metre), and therefore low
in energy. As they approach the beach, the wave
front steepens only slowly, gently spilling on
the beach surface. Swash rapidly loses volume and
energy as water percolates through the beach
material. This tends to give a weak backwash that
has insufficient force to pull sediment off the
beach or to impede swash from the next wave. As a
consequence, material is slowly, but constantly,
moved up the beach, leading to the formation of
ridges (or berms). Destructive waves are
tall, toppling waves carrying a lot of energy. As
they approach the beach, they rapidly steepen,
and when breaking they plunge down and scour the
beach. This creates a powerful backwash, as a
significant amount of the energy of the wave has
not dissipated during breaking and runup. The
backwash inhibits the swash from the next wave.
Very little material is moved up the beach,
leaving the backwash to pull material away.
Destructive waves are commonly associated with
steeper beach profiles. The force of each wave
may project some shingle well towards the rear of
the beach where it forms a large ridge known as
the storm beach.
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http//www.coastal.udel.edu/faculty/rad/linearplot
.html
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Refraction Waves slow down when they come
in contact with bottom If waves arrive at
an angle different of 90, the near-shore part
feels bottom first and slows down
Thereby, wave fronts turn towards the coast and
all waves arrive 90
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Ocean Currents (simple, right?)
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All winds and weather are ultimately driven by
heating from the sun. Winds are also affected by
the Coriolis effect, which is due to the fact
that the earth is a rotating sphere. Without
going into a detailed explanation, suffice it to
say that because of Coriolis forces, all air
flows in the northern hemisphere will be
deflected to the right
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Pictured above is the East Coast of the United
States, in grey, with the Gulf Stream, in orange,
revealed through Sea Surface Temperature data
(SST), made from the AVHRR (Advanced Very High
Resolution Radiometer) sensor carried on a NOAA
satellite. In this image, purple and blue
represent the coldest temperatures (between 0-15
C) and orange and red represents the warmest
temperatures (between 22-32C). The Gulf Stream
is easily visible as the warmest water in the
image. Credit Gulf Stream Tutorial.
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