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Science 2 May 1980:
Vol. 208. no. 4443, pp. 451 - 460
DOI: 10.1126/science.208.4443.451
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Articles

Internal Solitons in the Andaman Sea

A. R. Osborne 1 and T. L. Burch 2

1 Research physicist at Exxon Production Research Co., Houston, Texas 77001
2 Oceanographer and program manager at EG & G Environmental Consultants, Waltham, Massachusetts 02154

The solitary wave is a localized hydrodynamic phenomenon that can occur because of a balance between nonlinear cohesive and linear dispersive forces in a fluid. It has been shown theoretically, and observed experimentally, that some solitary waves have properties analogous to those of elementary particles, and the waves have therefore been named solitons. During a measurement program in the Andaman Sea near northern Sumatra, large-amplitude, long internal waves were observed with associated surface waves called tide rips. Using theoretical results from the physics of nonlinear waves, it is shown that the internal waves are solitons and their interactions with surface waves are described.


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