Visualizing Science 2016–2017

Beautiful images from University of Texas at Austin research

Like waves crashing on the beach, subsurface waves travel across the ocean, but these underwater giants measure up to 200 meters tall and can travel thousands of kilometers. When they reach the coastline underwater, they steepen and break. 

UT Austin physicists — like Michael Allhouse, a postdoctoral researcher who contributed this image to the College’s annual Visualizing Science contest — simulate this breaking process and how it produces a surge of cold, salty water up a slope. The simulations are helpful for climate modeling and deep-water pipeline projects.

Learn about the other winning images on this page and see more entries from our contest: txsci.net/VizSci2016

Credit: Michael Allshouse