water waves and Stokes drift

    Image 1 Caption: An animation of "Stokes drift in shallow water waves with a wavelength much longer than the water depth."

    Features:

    1. Just move your head along with the wave to see a water wave at rest.

    2. The oscillations in this kind of water wave motion are actually a sort of a combination longitudinal wave motion and transverse wave motion.

    3. Water and objects moving with the water move in a spiral-like pattern with a net velocity (the Stokes drift velocity) in one direction.

    4. To compensate for the surface flow in one direction toward a shore, there is a reverse flow below the surface which is called the undertow.

    Waves at a beach

    Image 2 Caption: "Breaking waves at a beach looped to create a continuous gif. (Location: Playa del Matorral in Morro Jable, Pajara, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain)."

    Images
    1. Credit/Permission: © User:Kraaiennest / Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0.
      Image link: Wikipedia: File:Shallow water wave.gif.
    2. Credit/Permission: © Frank Vincentz, JahobrUser:Jahobr, 2020 / CC BY-SA 3.0.
      Image link: Wikimedia Commons: File:Looped waves.gif.
    Local file: local link: water_waves.html.
    File: Waves file: water_waves.html.