Why are there waves in the sea but not in rivers?
In: Earth Science
there is, its the ripple you see on the surface generated by wind, every now and them, they stack up and form a bigger wave.
Small pond makes small waves.
Big pond makes big waves. which are more noticable than in a river.
The quick answer is there are – they are just smaller.
Waves are caused by the wind – as it blows over the surface of the water it will pull some of that water with it, which causes waves to build up.
In the sea, these waves can have been travelling for thousands of kilometers, steadily getting bigger as new gusts of wind blow them along.
So round the South Seas where the wind can travel continuously around the world, the waves build up to huge heights.
In the Pacific or Atlantic Oceans where the winds can travel between the continents the waves get slightly smaller as they cannot build up to the same size before they hit land.
Move to a more enclosed place like the Mediterranean or the Baltic Seas and the waves are smaller again due to the shorter distances they will travel again before hitting land.
Because lakes and rivers are typically much, much smaller while they will have waves that you will see as wind gusts over the surface of the water, the limited size means they can’t really built up to any big size before they get stopped by the shore or a bend in the river.
Go to some of the larger lakes like the Great Lakes or Lake Victoria and you will see some waves, just on a scale appropriate for the size of the body of water.
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