Oceanographer and educational expert Dr. Mirjam Sophia Gleßmer is fascinated by water and any- and everything related to it. She is happiest when watching water in any shape and form, be it gaseous, liquid or frozen, contained in glasses, puddles, creeks, lakes or the ocean, and she wants to share this with you. She works on figuring out how to make people of all ages just as excited about oceanography, care as deeply about the ocean and take on responsibility for our planet’s future.
Mirjam’s latest projects: mirjamglessmer.com/blog
Mirjam on research vessel Knorr off the coast of Greenland, 2012.
Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über www.dnb.de abrufbar.
© 2016 Mirjam Sophia Gleßmer
All photos by Mirjam Sophia Gleßmer
Herstellung und Verlag:
BoD – Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt
ISBN: 9783743145979
Looking at puddles, rivers, lakes or the sea, you rarely see a completely flat surface. The water is almost always in motion in one way or another. And even though it might look random, the movement follows certain laws of behaviour that we can learn about. In order to know how to read the movement of the water, all you need is a little practice. Then you will see at first glance whether waves were caused by animals, ships or the wind, whether the bottom of the sea had an influence on the waves, or whether the water is flowing or stagnant.
In this book I present many pictures of water, and I will show you how to recognize patterns in them. You can browse through the pictures before you leave for a stroll and then spot the phenomena when you are out and about. Or you can take the book along to read at the water’s edge. Or you can even carefully observe the water first and then look up what you saw when you get back home.
Once you have read this book, you will be able to spot and uncover many mysteries in the next four pictures. At the very end of this book, on page →, I’ll tell you what I see in those pictures so we can compare notes. I hope you will enjoy learning about water and that you will soon want to go wave-watching with your family and friends every single day!
Let’s get started! Have a look at Figure 1. Can you see in which direction the wind is blowing? How would you know if there was no wind vane in the picture, just water? And what are the waves telling you?
Figure 1: Wind waves and ice floes on the open ocean (Research vessel James Clark Ross off the coast of Greenland, 18.8.2012)
In Figure 2 the situation is very different. What do you think caused those patterns on the water?
Figure 2: Waves on the river Alster (Hamburg, 12.4.2014)
Yet another situation is shown in Figure 3. How can you be sure that the water in that picture really is flowing?
Figure 3: Waves on the Pinnau River (Mölln, Germany, 17.1.2016)
And here is one last mystery picture for you. What do you think is the story behind the waves in Figure 4?
Figure 4: Rope in waves (Research Vessel Håkon Mosby, Iceland Sea, 27.8.2016)
What did you observe in these three pictures? Maybe not much yet, but that is going to change! When you have finished reading this book, no stroll along the water’s edge will ever be the same again, I promise. Have fun observing!
When looking at water, the first things that usually catch our eye are the waves. But why are there waves? Why are they spreading across the lake instead of just vanishing again right away?