GEOLOGY 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 11: East Los Angeles College, Wave Power, Wavelength
Document Summary
Marine floods and inland floods due to tropical storms. Formed by winds: magnitude of waves controlled by: The fetch of the wind: the area or distance blown by winds. Tsunamis: caused by earthquake, other seafloor movements, or large meteorite. Swell: the wave groups generated by storms far out at sea. As the swell enters shallower water, transformations take place that eventually lead to the waves breaking on the shore. Wave energy is approx. proportional to the ^2 of the wave height. Thus, if a wave height is 1 m(3. 3ft) increases to 5 m (16 ft. ), the energy increases 5^2, or 25 times. Waves are unstable when the wave height is greater than about 10% of the wave length. Wave translation: decrease in wave length and velocity, but increase in wave height; deep water wave energy translating into wave breakers, resulting in waves pounding the shore.
