![](/template/termwiki/images/likesmall.jpg)
Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Kelvin wave
Kelvin wave
A type of coastally trapped wave motion where the velocity normal to the coast vanishes everywhere. The wave is nondispersive and propagates parallel to the shore with the speed of shallow water gravity waves, i.e. sqrt (gH). The profile perpendicular to shore either decays or grows exponentially seaward depending on whether the wave propagates with the coast to its right or left (in the northern hemisphere). For vanishing rotation, the decay or growth scale becomes infinite and the Kelvin wave reduces to an ordinary gravity wave propagating parallel to the coast. The dynamics of a Kelvin wave are such that it is exactly a linearized shallow water gravity wave in the longshore direction and exactly geostrophic in the cross-shore direction.
- Part of Speech: noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary:
- Industry/Domain: Earth science
- Category: Physical oceanography
- Company: Texas A&M University
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Featured Terms
liminality
A state a person can be in when they are in the middle of the ritual. They have left behind their previous state, but have yet to attain the form that ...
Contributor
Featured blossaries
Browers Terms By Category
- Zoological terms(611)
- Animal verbs(25)
Zoology(636) Terms
- World history(1480)
- Israeli history(1427)
- American history(1149)
- Medieval(467)
- Nazi Germany(442)
- Egyptian history(242)
History(6037) Terms
- Human evolution(1831)
- Evolution(562)
- General archaeology(328)
- Archaeology tools(11)
- Artifacts(8)
- Dig sites(4)
Archaeology(2749) Terms
- Gardening(1753)
- Outdoor decorations(23)
- Patio & lawn(6)
- Gardening devices(6)
- BBQ(1)
- Gardening supplies(1)
Garden(1790) Terms
- General packaging(1147)
- Bag in box(76)