Internal Solitary Waves with Dr. Gustavo Rivera

a wave graph overlay over aerial image of water and an island

🌊 Imagine a large wave forming deep within the ocean and then watch the video (see below). Last November we met up with Dr. Gustavo Rivera days after he defended his dissertation. “The beauty of these waves is that they happen underwater and are typically not visible from the surface, although they can induce surface signatures", says Prof. Pete Diamessis, who was Gustavo’s dissertation advisor. The title of Gustavo's dissertation is: Aspects of the Propagation of an Internal Solitary Wave of Depression Over Flat and Gently Varying Bathymetry. 

Gustavo graduated last December of 2018 and was a member of the Environmental Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) group. Gustavo says, "Nonlinear internal waves (NLIWs) are capable of inducing significant pressure in the water column and upon the seafloor during their passage. They are ubiquitous phenomena in the stratified ocean, that produce isopycnal displacements which are a significant fraction of their wavelength. Understanding this connection is of interest in terms of sediment resuspension which may influence the bed morphology, nutrient access for organisms living far away from the bed and the integrity of bottom-lodged structures.”

Video Transcript (txt)

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