August 26, 2022 Breaking Wave On "our" lake in northern Vermont (Willoughby Lake) where we have been all summer we are often treated to a morning of a fair wind with the moderate waves breaking on the beach shore. These waves were about 0.3 meters high (about 1 foot). As the waves reach the beach, the base of the wave becomes blocked by the shallower bottom of the lake, but the top of the wave keeps moving, until there is no water beneath the crest of the wave. The wave curls abruptly and comes crashing down onto the beach in what is called a "curl". I used the "slo-mo" feature on my smart phone to capture the breaking wave in slow motion, which plays back repeatedly in the video clip below. This clip shows the curl crashing onto the beach in the center of the photo. Notice that when the curl breaks, a tube of air is trapped as a cylindrical cavity in the center of the curl. Notice that after the curl crashes, the trapped air rapidly escapes the