What causes an ocean wave to slow down?

When the wave touches the bottom, friction causes the wave to slow down. As one wave slows down, the one behind it catches up to it, thus decreasing the wavelength. However, the wave still contains the same amount of energy, so while the wavelength decreases, the wave height increases.

How does friction affect ocean waves?

As they drag across the bottom, the front waves slow down, and wavelength is reduced. The friction along the bottom slows the base of the wave down while the water at the surface continues forward.

What happens as ocean waves approach the shore?

Waves at the Shoreline: As a wave approaches the shore it slows down from drag on the bottom when water depth is less than half the wavelength (L/2). The waves get closer together and taller. Eventually the bottom of the wave slows drastically and the wave topples over as a breaker.

When a wind generated wave reaches the shore friction with the bottom slows the?

As waves come into shore, they usually reach the shore at some angle. This means one part of the wave reaches shallow water sooner than the parts of the wave that are further out. As a wave comes into shore, the water ‘feels’ the bottom which slows down the wave.

What happens to waves when they feel the bottom of the sea floor?

When the water depth decreases to one half of a wave’s wavelength, the wave starts to “feel the bottom”. That means that the deepest water molecules set into circular motion by the wave’s energy run into the seafloor. This forces the wave to grow upwards, so wave height increases.

Why do ocean waves break near the shore?

When the Energy Meets the Ocean Floor As waves reach the shore, the energy in front of the wave slows down due to friction with the shallow bottom. The wave breaks, and it usually does so in water depth that is 1.3 times the wave height.

What is the effect of the bottom on a wave?

What causes ocean waves?

Waves are most commonly caused by wind. Wind-driven waves, or surface waves, are created by the friction between wind and surface water. As wind blows across the surface of the ocean or a lake, the continual disturbance creates a wave crest. The gravitational pull of the sun and moon on the earth also causes waves.

What happens to waves as they approach shore quizlet?

What happens as waves approach shore? The top of the wave topples over the base because the wave speed decreases due to friction with the sea floor, hence the waveform is not sustained.

What happens to waves as they approach the shoreline at an angle Why does this happen?

Often breakers will start to curl forwards as they break. This is because the bottom of the wave begins to slow down before the top of the wave, as it is the first part to encounter the seafloor. So the crest of the wave gets “ahead” of the rest of the wave, but has no water underneath it to support it (Figure 10.3.

How does friction interaction with the ocean bottom influence sea waves?

Friction between the seafloor and the water profoundly changes the speed, direction, and shape of waves. First, waves slow down as they drag across the bottom. The wavelength decreases, and the waves in the train start to bunch up.

What 3 changes occur to an ocean wave as it approaches the land?

A breaking wave occurs when one of three things happen: The crest of the wave forms an angle less than 120˚, The wave height is greater than one-seventh of the wavelength (H > 1/7 L), or. The wave height is greater than three-fourths of the water depth (H > 3/4 D).

How does friction affect the wavelength of ocean waves?

As ocean waves approach the shore, friction with the ocean bottom causes them to slow down. If the frequency is the same, how will this affect the wavelength of the waves? | Socratic

What happens when a wave reaches the bottom of the ocean?

Figure 10.3.1 As waves approach shore they “touch bottom” when the depth equals half of the wavelength, and the wave begins to slow down. As is slows, the wavelength decreases and the wave height increases, until the wave breaks (Steven Earle “Physical Geology”).

What happens when a wave approaches shore at an angle?

If a wave front approaches shore at an angle, the end of the wave front closest to shore will touch bottom before the rest of the wave. This will cause that shallower part of the wave to slow down first, while the rest of the wave that is still in deeper water will continue on at its regular speed.

What determines the speed of waves in shallow water?

wavelength, but in shallow water wave speed depends on the depth (section 10.1). When waves approach the shore they will “touch bottom” at a depth equal to half of their wavelength; in other words, when the water depth equals the depth of the (Figure 10.3.1). At this point their behavior will begin to be influenced by the bottom.