What other factors influence breaking wave height?
Here is a short, and possibly not complete, list. Bear in mind that I am being incredibly brief here in covering some really complex topics. In time I hope to build more articles to explain further. The main point at the moment is to give you an idea of some of the basics: • Bathymetry The oceanographers word for the shape of the sea bed. This will have a big effect. Swell will slow as it enters shallower water and if travelling a distance in shallow water (eg. on the coastal shelf or near the beach) the swell will eventually lose energy and hence power and wave size when it hits the beach. ALternatively a deep water trench can effectively funnel and magnify a swell toward the beach (The South West of France having a perfect example). • Beach shape Really part of the general bathymetry but the makeup of the seabed where the waves actually break will have an effect. A swell hitting a lava reef from deep water will create a larger wave than the same sized swell moving up a gently sloping
