Naturalist Night Lecture: Waves and Their Impacts

The Naturalist Night series is a Museum favorite! This long-running monthly lecture series features a special guest speaker and topics vary widely. Do you have an idea for a future Naturalist Night? Let us know at [email protected] 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 will discuss the many different types of waves in the ocean and how they affect marine ecosystems by transporting energy throughout the oceanOcean 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 will discuss the many different types of waves in the ocean and how they affect marine ecosystems by transporting energy throughout the ocean.