Waves
the highest part of a wave
What is crest?
a strong narrow channel of water that flows from the surf-zone out to sea
What is a rip current?
The periodic rise and fall of the ocean due to the gravitational interactions between the sun, moon and earth
What are tides?
What are neap tides?
this drives deep ocean currents
What are density gradients? What are densities?
weak winds create these
What are ripples?
swimmers can lose footing in strong surf and carried into breaking waves when they encounter these; pulls you under the water back
What are undertows?
occurs when the lowest part of the wave hits the coast
when there are 2 high tides and 2 low tides
What is semidiurnal tidal?
Regular movements of large amounts of water along defined paths
What are currents?
measurement of the time it takes 2 wave crests to pass a point
What is wave frequency?
Storm waves in this season erode sand and deposit it OFFSHORE as sandbars
What is winter?
formed when the sun, moon and earth are aligned
What are spring tides?
three things that affect the tides
What are the sun, moon and earth?
primary driver of surface currents
What is wind?
takes place when sand is dropped off as wave or wind energy decreases
What is beach deposition?
The removal and transport of sand from the shore
What is beach erosion?
If my low tide is at 11:45am the next low tide will be....
how long it takes for a specific site on earth to rotate from an exact point under the moon to the same point under the moon
What is lunar day?
circulation system that sinks cold dense water and moves water towards equator warming up
What is Thermohaline Circulation?
these are created as pounding surf erodes weaker rock layers
black sand beach was created by the erosion and deposition of this rock
What is basalt?
causes tides
the difference in height between the high and low tide
What is tidal range?
waves that have moved beyond the area where they were generated
What is a swell?