Naturalist Night: Waves and Their Impacts

Ocean waves are a familiar sight on the central coast of California, carrying energy from beyond the horizon to the shoreline. However, there are even bigger waves below the surface, which help drive ocean circulation and create large fluctuations of temperature and dissolved oxygen in the Monterey submarine canyon. Other types of waves, which signal the onset of El Niño in the tropics, may be hundreds of kilometers long but less than a meter high. This presentation at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History will discuss the many different types of waves in the ocean and how they affect marine ecosystems by transporting energy throughout the ocean.

About the Speaker: Tom Connolly is an Assistant Professor at Moss Landing Marine Labs. His specialty is the physical oceanography of coastal regions. He first became interested in the circulation of Monterey Bay as an undergraduate in the Environmental Engineering Department at Stanford University. Before joining the faculty at Moss Landing, he attended graduate school at University of Washington and completed a postdoctoral scholarship at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

$12 General Admission ~ Light refreshments.
Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History
1305 East Cliff Drive, Santa Cruz 831-420-6115