waves and shallow water

{{short description|Effect of shallow water on a surface gravity wave }}{{More citations needed|date=January 2024}}File:Shallow water wave.gif

When waves travel into areas of shallow water, they begin to be affected by the ocean bottom.{{Cite book |title=The Maury Project: Shallow-Water Ocean Waves |publisher=The American Meteorological Society |year=2018}} The free orbital motion of the water is disrupted, and water particles in orbital motion no longer return to their original position. As the water becomes shallower, the swell becomes higher and steeper, ultimately assuming the familiar sharp-crested wave shape. After the wave breaks, it becomes a wave of translation and erosion of the ocean bottom intensifies.

Cnoidal waves are exact periodic solutions to the Korteweg–de Vries equation in shallow water, that is, when the wavelength of the wave is much greater than the depth of the water.