Hidden Waves Beneath the World's Oceans Mapped to Reveal Heat and Nutrient Cycling

Our world's ocean is an important part of the planet's nutrient and heat cycles. Now, researchers are taking a closer look at the ocean in order to better understand the rolling, internal waves beneath its surface that displace massive amounts of water and push heat and vital nutrients up from the deep ocean.

Internal waves have long been recognized as essential components of the ocean's nutrient cycle, and key to how oceans will store and distribute additional heat brought on by global warming. Yet scientists don't know how internal waves start, move and dissipate.

That's why researchers tackled this latest study. They combined computer models constructed largely by Princeton University researchers with on-ship observations. This revealed the movement and energy of the waves from their origin on a double-ridge between Taiwan and the Philippines to when they fade off of the coast of China. Known as the Luzon Strait, this region is perfect for studying internal waves since there's nothing in the way.

These waves are known to provide nutrients and actually pose a hazard to shipping; the Luzon Strait internal waves move west at speeds as fast as 18 feet per second and can be as much as 1,640 feet from trough to crest.

"Ultimately, we want to know what effect the transportation and storage of heat has on the ocean," said Sonya Legg, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We have in the Luzon Strait and oceanic laboratory where we can test our theoretical models and simulations to see them play out on a small scale."

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

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