Wave Simulation (IMAGE)
Caption
The complexity of the Luzon Strait's two-ridge system was not previously known. The Princeton researchers' simulations showed that the two ridges of the Luzon Strait greatly amplify the size and energy of the waves, well beyond the sum of what the two ridges would generate separately. The simulation above of the tide moving over the second, or western, ridge shows that the tidally-driven flow reaches a high velocity (top) as it moves down the slope (left to right), creating a large wave in density (black lines) with concentrated turbulent energy dissipation (bottom). As the tide moves back over the ridge, the turbulence is swept away. For both the velocity and energy dissipation panels, the color scale indicates the greatest velocity or energy (red) to the least amount (blue).
Credit
Image by Maarten Buijsman, University of Southern Mississippi
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