Questions tagged [oceanography]

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How can tides even of miniscule magnitude occur in inland lakes?

Ocean water is flexible enough to allow water from each side of low tide to flow to the sides of high tide. So for a high tide, there must be a low tide somewhere else from where water is drawn out. ...
Curiosity's user avatar
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Does the minimum connection time of ocean surface currents depend on the patch scale?

The Nature paper "The timescales of global surface-ocean connectivity" attempts to model "minimum connectivity times (Min-T), or distances based on the fastest times that particles can ...
tparker's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
111 views

Tides in lakes attached to the ocean

This is research for a book I am writing and I strongly suspect the answer is no, however I can not quite get Google to spit out a direct answer. :-) If you have a lake, attached directly to the ocean ...
Ken's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
139 views

How does the Coriolis effect explain Ekman transport?

Before answering the question, keep in mind that I am a second year Biology student, with no experience in studying Physics and a very basic understanding of Mathematics. Thus, I would prefer a ...
Growing6884's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
123 views

Is there a formula for finding pressure as a function of depth in the ocean?

It is well known that one can find the pressure in a static fluid as a function of height using the well-known formula for hydrostatic equilibrium $$\frac{\mathrm{d}P}{\mathrm{d}z}=-\rho g, \tag 1$$ ...
Don Al's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
65 views

Timescale for unstable stratification to resolve itself

The ocean is typically vertically stratified, that is the deeper you go the higher the density should be. This can be because of increased salinity or decreased temperature. If that is not the case ...
Mathieu Dutour Sikiric's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
192 views

How does nitrogen narcosis occur?

I'm confused as to how the partial pressure of nitrogen inhaled from an air tank while scuba diving increases as you descend deeper. Obviously the pressure of the water above you increases the deeper ...
Elhammo's user avatar
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1 answer
822 views

How does the partial pressure of oxygen relate to its concentration in water?

I've read that the partial pressure of oxygen in water will be the same as the partial pressure of oxygen in the atmosphere, but that the saturation of oxygen in water is dependent on factors like ...
Elhammo's user avatar
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How can I determine the total energy and power provided by an ocean wave when it reaches shore?

When an ocean wave travels to the shoreline and breaks, how much energy is released? I did some research on finding out a formula to calculate how much energy is stored and then released by ocean ...
ARJ's user avatar
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0 answers
25 views

How long do geostrophic currents last?

My professor posed this question, without any relevant material. I suppose the currents last until the density gradient is neutralized, but I can't find any literature nor articles on this, regarding ...
a Ljeonjko's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
39 views

Would gas inside of non-compressible material be affected by pressure in the deep ocean? [duplicate]

I was thinking about the pressure of the deep ocean and was curious if gasses inside of a non-compressible container would experience the extreme pressures associated with great depth. I'm sort of ...
Kodiakflds's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
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How many waves are in the ocean? [closed]

XKCD #2741 mentions in the title text It's cool how, when there's a number lots of people are curious about, but which isn't easy to measure, some random guess will get cited everywhere and become ...
Jacob Manaker's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
27 views

How to calculate actual ocean water height, taking into account both tides and weather?

Tide tables are useful starting points for tides-- whcih are arguably the dominant first-order effect in water depth changes. However, a not-to-distant second-order effect is the weather. Wind will ...
0 votes
1 answer
103 views

Ideal Turbulence

I'm studying the turbulence in ocean and i started to study a mathematic introduction of turbulence. We define $ R_{ij}(\underline{x},\underline{r},t) := \overline{u_i(\underline{x},t)u_j(\underline{x}...
Revzora's user avatar
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1 answer
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What is the differences between Airy irregular wave model and Statistical waves models of Tessendorf?

I've read the article of Tessendorf which implements the ocean based on a statistical waves models, I have the impression that this is the method used globally in video games and real time application....
lufydad's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
397 views

Tip of the Iceberg [closed]

Is it possible to approximate the volume of an entire iceberg if one happens to know the volume of the visible tip? (Assume the water is perfectly still.) If so, how may that be done?
DDS's user avatar
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1 answer
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Ocean waves breaking slowly at the shore during periods of turbulence

During storms, I have often watched ocean waves breaking at the shore as if they were in slow motion. I've wondered if the slow curling of the waves during these times was somehow due to their ...
Sketcher's user avatar
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0 answers
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How to simulate salinity gradient in experiment?

I feel like the question is probably fairly fundamental. I have to recreate oceanic turbulence in terms of salinity and temperature gradients. Temperature is easy - heater. What should I do with the ...
MsTais's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
353 views

Physical Interpretation of the Equation of Motion

Ocean dynamics can often be described by the equation of motion $$\frac{D\vec{u}}{Dt}=-\nabla\Phi-\frac{1}{\rho}\nabla p-\vec{f}\times\vec{u}.$$ I am searching for a physical meaning of this equation, ...
Steven's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Calculating the Mass of Earth's Atmosphere

I am trying to solve the problem below: Calculate the mass of the Earth's atmosphere given a mean pressure at the surface of $1.013\times 10^5$ Pa and $g=9.81$ m/s/s. I have been provided a hint ...
JulianAngussmith's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
58 views

What is the physical idea behind the mathematical definition of the dimensionless "surf similarity parameter"?

My question refers to a parameter called "iribarren number", whose value corresponds qualitatively to the type of breaking of water waves (spilling, plunging, collapsing and surging) on a uniformly ...
user2554's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
40 views

Bottom orbital velocity during a typical typhoon

What is the wave orbital velocity generated during a typhoon? I cannot find direct measurements, so hoping to find a way to calculate this. In other words: How do I get from wind speeds of 12 on the ...
rosannavh's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
56 views

Ocean warming by induced electric current for wandering magnetic poles?

In a post on the co-rotation of Earth and its magnetic field (Does the geomagnetic field rotate?), John Rennie raised the point that, if Earth's magnetic field were rotating about its dipole axis, it ...
Martino's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
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Effect of Force(ex:Ship movement) on objects(nodes) deployed in the sea or ocean

I am looking for a mathematical model describing the motion of nodes deployed in sea due to movement of ship(a Force) or due to water current. I came across the drag equation which is used to ...
tejas111's user avatar
13 votes
4 answers
6k views

How much do sea levels rise due to thermal expansion?

I was reading an article by the Smithsonian Institute about the rising sea levels. In it, they mention how warmer water expands more, thus it helps to raise the average sea level. This makes perfect ...
Curious Layman's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
66 views

Is Sentinel able to obtain wave spectrum by interferometric Data?

I have recently read many articles on recovering wave spectrum from the AT-INSAR image spectrum (through interferometric images). However, it is not clear to me whether Sentinel is a viable option, ...
Leonardo Paiva's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
37 views

Underwater acoustics: particle motion

The properties of an acoustic wave field depend on the mechanical properties of the supporting medium, including the density, and the bulk modulus. With increasing density, the propagation speed of ...
user3406207's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
675 views

How does a complex-valued sound speed related to the bulk modulus and density definition?

In ocean acoustics the speed of sound $c$ can often include an imaginary component that accounts for attenuation due to the nature of the medium. That is, $c = c_r - ic_i$ with $c_r$ the regular sound ...
kapple's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
0 answers
26 views

Visually comparing variances

I have a dataset containing 8 categories, I now want to visually compare the variance between the categories. The most common approach would be to use box plots or violin plots but I would like to ...
Globoquadrina's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
72 views

Alternative forms of metacentric height based stability condition

For a floating body is stable condition Archimedes principle of buoyancy will be obeyed. where $M_{b}$ and $M_{w}$ are mass of the total body and mass of the emerged water. $$M_{b}=M_{w}$$ Tilting it ...
Neel Basu's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
93 views

How do you calculate the rate of ascent for frozen seawater in seawater?

Assuming 1m3 sphere of seawater were flash frozen at a depth of 1km, how rapidly would it start ascending to the surface given the buoyancy? Assuming we could ignore bonds between the surface of ...
J. Doe's user avatar
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0 votes
3 answers
81 views

High pressures under ocean surface

I read a book about deep water exploring in mariana's trench. They of course talked a lot about pressure, and so this question came to my mind: If you're, say, 2km down in the Mariana's Trench there ...
Casimir Rönnlöf's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
442 views

Ocean wave periodicity

Sitting at the beach, I observe waves crashing onto the shore with some periodicity (although not quite mono-periodic). Since wind is the source of ocean waves (not considering tides), how can we ...
Liz Salander's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
933 views

Can bubbles lower water pressure?

After watching a TV show I saw that bubbles originating from underwater can lower the impact damage when something hit it at velocity. I was wondering if another implementation of this would work. ...
Curtis Hennessy's user avatar
0 votes
3 answers
1k views

What happens when one sticks their foot out of a diving bell at crush depth?

I've been reading a lot about lost World War II submarines, and in the book I'm reading, they discuss the use of a diving bell to go down 5 miles to the ocean floor. I have a couple questions about ...
nonlinearmind's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
38 views

Effect of aeration on Celerity

Suppose a ocean wave encountered a section of ocean which had a higher level of aeration from gas such as methane escaping from the seafloor. Due to the aerated sections apparent lower density would ...
Quentin Chester's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
79 views

The physics/math behind rogue waves [closed]

I'm a little confused as to why rogue waves are so unpredictable and large. Are they just the chance combinations of many waves or is there a physical and mathematical reasoning as to how they exist? ...
Jihyun's user avatar
  • 276
2 votes
1 answer
90 views

How does melting ice change the mass of the ocean?

In the paper, Ocean Bottom Deformation Due To Present-Day Mass Redistribution and Its Impact on Sea Level Observations, the authors state that: Due to changes in the land ice mass balance and land ...
8protons's user avatar
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11 votes
3 answers
8k views

What happens to the energy in an ocean wave after it breaks on a reef or the shore?

I understand that the conservation of energy essentially says that "energy can neither be destroyed or created but that it is transferred from one form to another." Given that, on the ocean, wind ...
Brando's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
295 views

Why and how are wave sets (groups) created?

At a coasts wave normally arrive in groups (sets) and we wondered why this is the case. Some internet research did reveal some clues but no convincing answer. I want to know why waves gather in ...
Merc's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
56 views

Which way will the Sphere rotate? [closed]

Let's say we have a sphere, with an "inner boarder" splitting it into 4 equal parts. We extract the air from the 3/4 parts (leaving them completely empty) and we fill just 1/4 part with air. We then ...
Coto TheArcher's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
525 views

Physics and depth control of a small spherical submarine

Recently, me and my dad were discussing the theoretical design of a small homemade submarine. Lets assume that it is a hollow acrylic sphere with a radius of around 25cm. The radius would likely need ...
Holden's user avatar
  • 13
2 votes
1 answer
83 views

Swell Spectral Transform

For understanding the quality of surf in general, I find that directional spectral plots, like this also below, are the best way for me to get a quick mental picture. I want to make a kind of video of ...
user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
592 views

Convert units of Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) for sea surface temperature data

I have a dataset of daily averaged sea surface temperatures for an entire year. I wish to use an empirical orthogonal function to find the dominant patterns within the data. Consider that my ...
Emma Tebbs's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
327 views

Righting moment for object submerged in water

I am looking to determine the lateral angle at which an underwater camera system will no longer right itself. When on the ocean floor it is $-24.30~\text{kg}$ buoyant with the difference between its ...
Angus Van Wyk's user avatar
53 votes
2 answers
5k views

Why does sound absorption in oceans depend on the pH?

I was reading "The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History", by Elizabeth Kolbert, and there she comments that high level of $CO_{2}$ in the atmosphere lowers the pH of oceans (which makes sense) and, ...
Gabriel Cozzella's user avatar
49 votes
4 answers
17k views

Why do some location on Earth have only one tidal maximum per day instead of two?

Most places in the ocean have two high tides and two low tides per "day" (~25 hours). But I remember reading that some locations only have one of each per day. This answer has some great explanations ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 6,298
3 votes
1 answer
205 views

D2O distribution in water [duplicate]

I just learned that about 1/1000 of hydrogen is deuterium. Does that mean 1/1000 of water is D2O, which is heavier and sinks to the bottom in a glass of water? And consequently is there a layer of D2O ...
K.Kampl's user avatar
  • 31
2 votes
0 answers
87 views

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Equilibrium Points

I originally posted this question on earth science stack, but the question wasn't getting many views. I was watching the science channel yesterday and the program mentioned the Great Pacific Garbage ...
user153582's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
152 views

How efficient is the forward transfer of energy in gravity (surface) waves?

Ocean waves (properly categorized as gravity waves since gravity provides the restoring force within the medium they travel) propagate the major part of the energy derived from winds along the air-...
docscience's user avatar
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