Waves are the children of the struggle between ocean
and atmosphere, the ongoing signatures of infinity.
Rays from the sun excite and energize the atmosphere
of the earth, awakening it to flow, to movement, to
rhythm, to life. The wind then speaks the message of
the sun to the sea and the sea transmits it on through
waves--ancient, exquisite, powerful message.
These ocean waves are among the earth's most complicated
natural phenomena. The basic features include a crest
(the highest point of the wave), a trough(the lowest
point), a height(the vertical distance from the trough
to the crest), a wavelength(the horizontal distance
between two wave crests), and a period(which is the time
it takes a wave crest to travel on wave length).
Although an ocean wave gives the impression of a wall
of water moving in your direction, in actuality waves
move through the water leaving the water about where
it was. If the water was moving with the wave, the
ocean and everything on it would be racing in to the
shore with obviously catastrophic results.
An ocean wave passing through deep water causes a particle
on the surface to move in a roughly circular orbit, drawing
the particle first towards the advancing wave, then up
into the wave, then forward with it and then--as the wave
leaves the particle behind--back to its starting point again.
From both maturity to death, a wave is subject to the
same laws as other 'living' thing. For a time it assumes
a miraculous individuality that, in the end, is reabsorbed
into the great ocean of life.
The undulating waves of the open sea are generated by
three natural causes: wind, earth movements or tremors,
and the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun.
Once waves have been generated, gravity is the force
that drives them in a continual attempt to restore
the ocean surface to a flat plain.
from World Magazine (BBC Enterprises)