ABSTRACT

Among di§erent types of waves in essentially homogeneous seas, thosewithfrequenciesintherangebetweenafewsecondstoa fewhoursareconsideredassurfacewaves.Generatedbywind, subseaearthquakes,orman-madedisturbances,surfacewaves notonlya§ecthumanactivitiesandmarinelifedirectlybutcan alsocontributetoweathervariationandthegeologicalevolution ofthecoast.Itisthereforenaturalthatthephenomenonofsurfacewaveshasfascinatedartists,poets,sailors,engineers,and scientistsalike.Whilemanyaspectsofthesurface-wavephysics andapplicationshavebeenwellexpoundedintextbooks(Dean andDalrymple1990,Mei1989,orMeietal.2005a,b),more unknownsremaintobeuncovered.AmajorsourceofscientiŸc challenge is nonlinearity.