My oceanography text book says the following about the restoration of the sea surface to a flat state following the passage of waves: "Depending on the size of the wave, different restoring forces are involved. For capillary waves, the dominant restoring force is surface tension. The water surface tends to act like a drum head, smoothing out the waves. For waves having periods between 1 second and about 5 minutes, gravity is the dominant force. This range includes most of the waves we see. Such waves are known as gravity waves. Longer waves are restored by the Coriolis effect. For this reason, predictions of tsunami movements or storm surges must include the coriolis effect." An open-ocean tsunami does not represent a flow of water, but rather a flow of energy across the water; how does the Coriolis effect apply? I thought that the Coriolis effect was only valid for particles in motion. Does that mean that the Coriolis effect applies to other waves, like radio waves? Why?
2007-03-14
13:25:06
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2 answers
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asked by
that_boat_guy
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