Imagine a perfect ocean wave, a wall of water that swells and breaks on its own before hitting the shore. Surfing such a wave would be a dream come true, and the physics underneath its surface is just as mind-blowing as the ride.
A hollow tube is created by an ocean wave. If you could look under the surface, you would see a lot of small, thin twisters. Scientists are investigating why and how delicate secondary eddies form.
Christine Baker is a fluids researcher at the University of Washington. A few streams separate from the main vortex when a wave breaks. As the streams pick up strength, they twist themselves into ribs.
Thomson is an oceanographer at the University of Washington. Initially a wave's rib vortices are wide bands of water that twist slowly. Thomson explains that as the wave moves forward, its ribs corkscrew into thin filaments, like when a figure skater tucks their arms. He says they rotation faster and faster. The rotation stretches the separation between the main and mini vortexes.
Baker's work uses a combination of computer calculations and physical experiments to investigate how the ocean cleans up litter and pollution from the shore. The researchers say that the ephemeral twists need a high-resolution camera and precise timing to be photographed. Modern computer simulations are more complex than ever. Thomson says that they don't see things until they have the tools to do so.
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