HELP: Mediterranean Sea noises

[cymbidia]

I can't find these answers and i don't know who to ask. I'm a total sucker for getting the details right and this will kill me until i find out. Maybe you help me? I *need* to know.

1. Does the Mediterranean Sea have waves that break against the northeast shore of Italy, the so-called "Italian Riviera"?

2. If it does have waves, are they comparable to the Pacific Ocean waves that break on shore in, say, northern California? Southern California?

3. If the Mediterranean Sea does not have waves, so to speak, does the water butting up against the shore make a sound that can be heard through a bedroom window in a house atop a cliff above the beach (given quiet, tranquil circumstances)?

See? How could i ask this of google.com?

 

[CreamyLady]

I don't know if this is helpful; WitchsKat didn't make it to the Italian Riviera.

However, she was on Capri, and she said the waves were pretty powerful -- a storm was brewing. She said the Mediterranean sounded just like the Pacific, in her opinion.

She was pretty steamed. It was too rough to get into the Blue Grotto.

 

[Weird Harold]

I answered on the spoilers thread, but I'll add a bit here.

The east coast of Italy faces the Aegean Sea across it's narrow dimeension. Big waves require lots of open sea and deep water to build to the size found on the California coast.

I suspect that the west coast of Italy, along the toe especially, would have the highest surf on a day to day basis. Without a storm driving the waves, there's not any Italian speaking coastline that can come close to what the Pacific Ocean batters California and Oregon with.

That doesn't mean that waves don't crash on the rocks or that they can't be heard from the cliff-tops. Think of a calm day in Southern California and equate that with a breezy day off the west coast of Italy.

PS: Ask google.com or Jeeves about Surfing in Italy.

 

[nitengale]

Cym...

I took in the sand and surf on the west coast of Italy, and there were definately waves!

 

[MaxSebastian]

Hi all, I've been to both coasts of Italy. The East coast is very similar in wave size to the west coast. Very small waves, generally no more than two to three feet in height. The sea is usually quite cool, in temperature, too.

Oh, and there's very little in the way of tides in the Mediterranean.

I think the 'Italian Riviera' is actually the west coast, round the corner from the 'French Riviera', by the way. It's certainly nicer along that side of the country, with attractive coastal villages.

The Adriatic has had a few problems with algae in the past, incidentally.

 

[Ulyssa]

So what's the problem?

Just make sure your cliff side is only five feet high, or make certain that there's a storm on every pertinent day within the storyline.

One other possibilty would be to bring in Industrial Light and Magic and let them matte in the big waves over your final draft.

 

[cymbidia]

Thank you, thank you, one and all, especially MaxSebastian who was the only one to catch (or the only one to mention it aloud!) my little geographic error with regard to the east vs. west coasts of Italy and the relative location upon them of the Italian Riviera. (You'd never know i have a university degree in geography, would you?)(That's cuz it's in physical geography, not political geography. http://cwm.ragesofsanity.com/cwm/cwm/coo.gif )

Lyssa, good idea! It'll always just be a "dark and stormy night" for my characters living on cliff's edge. But you're right about ILM doing nice things with size. Bigger waves in my scenes, bigger... errr... anatomical bits and pieces on my characters. Who needs plastic surgery! Who needs glue guns and assembly lines! Who needs to be able to just write what they mean???

 

[Ulyssa]

Now did I ask you to be dishonest in your writing?

Well, okay, but have I asked you today yet?

Don't forget when you live on the sea or even a tempermental great lake, you can hear sea noises even on the calmest of days--lapping waves, dancing waves, lap dancers, undersea belches, falling rocks, blowing sand, sea spray, hair spray, "Let us spray..."

All right so maybe I got off track a bit. Tone down the atmosphere and allow Erica to enjoy her location. We'll just make the person and her life more dramatic than the weather.

 

[Sonia_de_Beaumanoir]

Waves and breakers

To amplify some of the previous posts:

Waves are created entirely by wind (with the exception of tsunamis). The longer and stronger the wind blows on the water, the bigger the wave. As WH says, really big waves need lots of water to develop, so there is a limit to how big a Med wave can get. When there is sufficient distance ("fetch"), the sea state becomes "fully developed", and the size of the waves is then determined by the windspeed.

Out at sea, a steady 20kt wind will result in waves that are on average 2 meters from top to trough.

To have really big surf, you need a shelving coast such as a beach. As the wave arrives in the shallows, the water is pushed up and you have breakers. If the coast is a cliff with deep water against the land, then the wave will not grow larger and will just collide with the rock without growing.

In the Med, there are seasonal winds generated by sea/land warming: the Mistral coming down the Rhone valley, and the Meltimi in Greece. These winds can generate quite rough seas.