Why isn there a linear relationship between wind speed and wave height?
First, we know from the previous question that wind causes ocean waves. Next, we have to look at how waves travel across the ocean. The easiest way to do this is to imagine we are at a pond. We throw a rock into the middle of the pond. What do we see happening to the water surface? We see many “ripples” in the water surface travelling away from the location where the rock landed. Well, this is similar to what happens when the wind generates wind-waves. Suppose a storm is situated in the Pacific Ocean south of Alaska. In a storm, the wind blows on the water and creates a “confused sea”. By this we mean that there is not any particular direction that the waves are coming from. However, as the wind continues to blow and the waves increase in energy and begin to move faster than the storm, the waves begin to leave the general area of the storm. This is similar to the way in which the ripples caused by the rock landing in the pond travel away from the rock’s impact location and move towards
