eli5: Waves come in at New York, and waves come in at Europe. What happens in the middle?
In: Earth Science
Waves are not current. Waves are really just pulses of energy and can pass through each other. They are mostly generated by wind. They can reflect and refract like light.
In the middle of the ocean, most of the waves travel in the direction of the wind. When the wind changes direction, the already generated waves will keep traveling in the same direction (and will eventually dissipate) and it will start generating waves in a different direction. As a result, the open ocean has sets of waves traveling in several directions. Form the perspective of a small boat, there will be a main swell and then “under” it, you can usually notice secondary swells traveling in different directions.
Waves go slower in shallower water. Like light entering a lens, this causes the waves to turn towards shore. As a result, any waves traveling at an angle towards the beach will get steered straight towards it.
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