Breaking Water Surface Waves
Breaking of water surface waves may occur anywhere that the amplitude is sufficient, including in mid-ocean. However, it is particularly common on beaches because wave heights are amplified in the region of shallower water (because the group velocity is lower there). See also waves and shallow water.
There are four basic types of breaking water waves. They are spilling, plunging, collapsing, and surging.
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Famous quotes containing the words breaking, water, surface and/or waves:
“And over all the sky—the sky! far, far out of reach,
studded, breaking out, the eternal stars.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“For months it hasn’t known the taste of steel
Washed down with rusty water in a tin.
But standing outdoors hungry, in the cold,
Except in towns at night, is not a sin.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Voluptuaries, consumed by their senses, always begin by flinging themselves with a great display of frenzy into an abyss. But they survive, they come to the surface again. And they develop a routine of the abyss: “It’s four o’clock ... At five I have my abyss.””
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)
“His bold head
‘Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oared
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke
To the shore.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)