Natural Hazards

Wave breaking occurs at the ocean surface at moderate to high wind speeds, with significant impacts on the transfer of momentum, energy and mass between the ocean and the atmosphere. When waves break, the water surface overturns: this generates bubbles and sea spray and largely enhances the gas exchange.  Stéphane Popinet, from the Institut d’Alembert

The accurate modelling of geophysical flows often requires information which is difficult to measure and therefore poorly quantified. For example, it is difficult to estimate the viscosity of lava during a volcanic eruption, or some of the properties of the ice flowing within a glacier.  However, when the flow is bounded by a free surface,

Large lakes tend to be thermally stratified, with a layer of relatively warm water near the surface, and a deeper layer of colder water underneath. The temperature of the surface water fluctuates over the year, while the temperature of the deeper water remains more stable: hence, the thermal stratification is strongest during the summer, when

During the second part of today’s seminar, MPhil student James Sear presented the results of his new experiments on turbulent plumes in a cross-flow. During the last few months, James has been studying what happens when a steady flux of contaminants are released into a river: the contaminants are transported by the current, while being

The coastal ocean is a highly dynamic and vital biogeochemical mediator between land and sea. Coastal waters frequently experience poor water quality: this is partly due to submarine groundwater discharges, in which polluted water is released at the bottom of the ocean. These discharges are relatively poorly understood, and research is ongoing to characterise them.