Deep Water Waves Sea Floor
It might be traveling 500 miles per hour 800 kilometers per hour but it has a very long wavelength and very little amplitude.
Deep water waves sea floor. Shallow water waves figure 7 4b waves which interact with the sea floor are known as shallow water waves. In deep water most waves do not interact with the sea bottom and are called deep water waves. The action of someone tripping is similar to the interaction between a shallow water wave and the bottom of the ocean. Abyssopelagic zone 4 000 6 000m this is the zone past the continental slope the deep water just over the ocean bottom.
Hadopelagic zone deep ocean trenches greater than 6 000m in some places there are trenches that are deeper than the surrounding ocean floor. When the energy of the waves touches the ocean floor the water particles drag along the bottom and flatten their orbit fig. The orbits of the water molecules are circular. In deep water the wave reaches its natural frequency without the interruption of a sea floor or lake bottom.
Deep sea exploration has revealed varied landscapes which include volcanoes seamounts hydrothermal vents and cold seeps. The deep sea is a relatively mysterious and unknown part of the earth as only about 1 of the ocean floor has been explored by humans. These areas are the hadopelagic zone. When deep water waves move into shallow water they change into breaking waves.
Perspective view of the sea floor of the atlantic ocean and the caribbean sea. The purple sea floor at the center of the view is the puerto rico trench. Even a tsunami wave can be nearly undetectable on the open ocean.