1. Water and the Atmosphere - Chapter 2 Lesson 2
Wave Action
Water and the Atmosphere - Chapter 2 Lesson 2

2. Objectives Water and the Atmosphere Chapter 2 Lesson 2
Explain how waves form and change and describe the characteristics of waves.
Describe how waves affect shorelines and beaches.
We are covering NGSS
MS-ESS2-2 Construct An Explanation Based On Evidence For How Geoscience Processes Have Changed Earth’s Surface At Varying Time And Spatial Scales.
MS-ESS3-1Construct A Scientific Explanation Based On Evidence For How The Uneven Distributions Of Earth’s Mineral, Energy, And Groundwater Resources Are The Result Of Past And Current Geoscience Processes. 
MS-ESS3-2 Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects

3. Rogue Waves – My Planet Diary
For hundreds of years, sailors have returned from the sea to tell of 30-meter-high waves that appeared out of nowhere.
These waves, they said, plunged the largest ships into the ocean depths.
For hundreds of years, these tales were taken no more seriously than the Scottish legend of the Loch Ness monster. Ships were sunk, scientists said, in storms.  
Then, in 1995, an oil rig in the North Sea was struck by a rogue wave. Instruments on board measured the wave’s height at 26 meters.
As a result, the European Union set up a project to study these rogue waves using satellites. What the scientists found was shocking.
Within three weeks, they tracked ten different giant waves.
Why did people begin to believe in rogue waves?
How might you track a rogue wave?

4. How Do Waves Form and Change?
A wave is the movement of energy through a body of water.
Most waves form when wind blowing across the surface transmits energy to the water.
The size of a wave depends on the strength of the wind and on the length of time it blows.

6. How Do Waves Form and Change?
The name for the highest part of a wave is the crest.
The horizontal distance between crests is the wavelength.
Waves are also measured by their frequency, the number of waves that pass a point in a certain amount of time.
The lowest part of a wave is the trough.
The vertical distance from the crest to the trough is the wave height.
The energy and strength of a wave depend mainly on its wave height.

8. How Do Waves Form and Change?
The energy of a wave moves toward the shore, but the water itself remains in place.
As a wave passes, water particles move in a circular path.
Deeper water particles move in smaller circles than those near the surface.  
Near shore, wave height increases and wavelength decreases.
When a wave reaches a certain height, the crest of the wave topples.
The wave breaks onto the shore, forming surf.  
A wave that forms far below the ocean surface, called a tsunami is usually caused by an earthquake beneath the ocean floor.
Some have reached heights of 20 meters or more.
What are three ways that waves are measured, and which of these measurements is associated with the energy and strength of a wave?

9. Water Motion
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Describe the type of waves that a gentle breeze creates on the surface of water.
Explain why a raft may move in a circular path on the surface of the ocean while a submarine hundreds of feet below the surface may remain still.

12. How Do Waves Affect the Shore?
The movement of sand along a beach is called longshore drift.
As the waves slow down, they deposit the sand they are carrying on the shallow, underwater slope, forming a long ridge called a sandbar.  
Water may break through a sandbar and begin to flow back down the sloping ocean bottom.
This process creates a rip current, a rush of water that flows rapidly back to sea through a narrow opening.

13. How Do Waves Affect the Shore?
Waves shape a beach by eroding the shore in some places and building it up in others.
One way to reduce beach erosion is to build a wall of rocks or concrete, called a groin, outward from the beach.
How do waves contribute to longshore drift?