GANADILLO, KLIEN CHRISTIAN BSMT 2- ENIF

1. 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. More potentially hazardous waves can
be caused by severe weather, like a hurricane. The Strong winds and pressure from this type of
severe storm causes storm surge, a series of long waves that are created far from shore in
deeper water and intensify as they move closer to
Land.
2. The most important factors that control the growth of the waves are the wind speed, the wind
duration (how long the wind blows) and the fetch. The fetch is the Distance from the upwind
shore, or more generally, the distance over which the wind blows. When the wind duration is
not limiting the growth, the fetch determines the wave height. The geometry and the depth of
the water basin have also their effects on the evolution of waves. When the depth is less than a
half of the wavelength, the waves begin to feel the bottom
3. Waves are generated by wind moving over water; they indicate the speed of the wind in that
area. Swell are waves (usually with smooth tops) that have moved beyond the area where they
were generated. The distance between the crests, or tops, of the waves that make up swell is
usually much greater than the distance between waves being actively generated by wind
blowing over the water. Seas (usually described by the term combined seas) refers to wind
waves and swell working together. Waves and seas are described by the height from trough to
crest; swell also is described by the direction it’s coming from.
4. Tides are very long waves that move across the oceans. They are caused by the gravitational
forces exerted on the earth by the moon, and to a lesser extent, the sun. When the highest
point in the wave, or the crest, reaches a coast, the coast experiences a high tide. When the
lowest point, or the trough, reaches a coast, the coast experiences a low tide. Imagine the ocean
is shaped like a football pointing at the moon. The football’s pointed ends represent the parts of
the Earth experiencing high tide and the football’s flat sides are the parts of the earth
experiencing low tide
5. A tide table shows the daily predictions for the local time of low and high tides, as well as the
height of those tides for a particular coastal area. The tide table is often shared in a tabular
format