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A group of scientists from the University of Miami have been tracking waves of a different breed – unseen colossal, skyscraper-tall underwater waves that are present in every one of our oceans.
Subsurface waves, otherwise known as internal waves (IW) are initiated by the effects of Earth's gravity, and rarely ever break the surface. To understand an IW, imagine separating the ocean into layers of water that get denser and denser as you go farther down. An IW is like a surface wave that occurs on one of the lower strata of the ocean levels.
Internal waves move much slower than their exterior counterparts, and whilst the height of the surface ocean remains essentially unaffected, the water layers beneath rise and fall dramatically as these waves pass by.
There's so much energy in those oceans. If the engineering challenges could be overcome tapping the currents, tides, and waves like these could solve a big chunk of mankind's demand for power.
takyon: University of Miami source.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @08:37AM
Free energy is not really free. It affects something else usually. Today it might be beyond our knowledge as to how these deep waves affects everything, so we might want to "tap" this infinite source of free energy oblivious to the consequences.
Just because it can be done does not mean it should be done. Everything does not need to be an engineering challenge. Just because a hydrogen bomb can be built does not mean it should be built. Or used.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 07 2015, @08:39AM
Did you just say TANSTAAFL?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @08:52AM
Kill those terrists! For the freedoms!
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday August 07 2015, @11:06AM
Some effects:
The current rate of Moon recession is 38.08±0.04 mm/yr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by btendrich on Sunday August 09 2015, @06:07PM
..We'll make the day longer, stealing from the angular momentum of the Earth and we'll see a smaller Moon sooner - the tidal bulge will be more linked to the Earth rotation, thus the transfer of angular momentum to Moon (moving it to a higher orbit) will be stronger
The current rate of Moon recession is 38.08±0.04 mm/yr
What kind of affect will stretching out the day/night cycles have on average daytime/nighttime temperatures?