Environmental Geology & Geochemistry Seminar (EGGS)

Date
Oct 28, 2021, 12:30 pm1:30 pm
Location
Guyot 220 & Zoom

Speaker

Details

Event Description

Air bubbles that are created at the ocean surface when waves break significantly enhance the transfer of gases between the atmosphere and the ocean, accounting for roughly 40% of the oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. An accurate, physically-based representation of the bubbles’ production and behavior underwater is therefore a critical component of models of the global climate.

In this talk, I will present measurements of bubbles produced by breaking waves in a laboratory wind-wave channel. Then, moving to simulations and small-scale laboratory experiments with imposed water turbulence, I will describe the physical mechanisms controlling bubbles’ break-up and buoyant rise through turbulence that regulate the transfer of gases between air and the water through their interfaces.