O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory is a research facility in

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Operated by

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

’s Coastal & Ocean Engineering Program within the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Built in 1972, the laboratory was designated as a tsunami research location by the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

in 2001. It contains two wave basins and a long

wave flume A wave tank is a laboratory setup for observing the behavior of surface waves. The typical wave tank is a box filled with liquid, usually water, leaving open or air-filled space on top. At one end of the tank, an actuator generates waves; the ...

. The Tsunami Wave Basin is the largest

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...

simulator in the world.

History

Construction on the laboratory began in 1972. In 1973, the facility opened with the wave flume used to simulate the

ocean wave In fluid dynamics, a wind wave, water wave, or wind-generated water wave, is a surface wave that occurs on the free surface of bodies of water as a result from the wind blowing over the water surface. The contact distance in the direction o ...

s.Conover, Kirsten A. Researching an Indoor Ocean. ''

Christian Science Monitor Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι� ...

'', March 2, 1990. People, Wave-Mechanics Scientist, Pg. 13. The circular wave and rectangular wave basins were both finished in 1990. That year the lab received a grant from the United States’

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

for $8.6 million to examine wave structures, which helped to pay for the two new wave basins. In 2001, the Wave Research Laboratory was awarded a $4.8 million grant to study tsunamis by the National Science Foundation.Hill, Richard L. OSU lab will delve deeper into secrets of tsunamis. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', February 7, 2001. Science; Pg. B02. The remodeled portion of the facility, the Tsunami Wave Basin, was completed in 2003. In 2007, the foundation granted the laboratory $1.1 million to study storm surges and other waves related to

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

s.Hill, Richard L. Tide of disasters raises profile of Oregon State tsunami center. ''

'', September 19, 2007.

Facility

The first wave research equipment was the

wave In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...

flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to tr ...

. It is long, wide, and deep. It is used to simulate the waves of the ocean, and creates waves with currents strong enough to surf on. The wave flume holds up to 350,000 gallons of water. It can create both regular and irregular waves at intervals as short as .5 seconds apart.Large Wave Flume.
O. H. Hinsdale Wave Research Laboratory. Retrieved December 22, 2007. Research is mainly on the effect of waves on structures such as breakers. As the largest of this type of wave flume in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, it can also be used to study the transport of

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...

in the ocean. A circular basin was added in 1990 to research the movement of sediment along beaches, among other research topics. It is also used to study

ocean current An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of sea water generated by a number of forces acting upon the water, including wind, the Coriolis effect, breaking waves, cabbeling, and temperature and salinity differences. Depth contours, s ...

s.Cruz, Laurence M. Corvallis christens the world's largest tsunami research laboratory to study an elusive and deadly phenomenon. ''

Statesman Journal The ''Statesman Journal'' is the major daily newspaper published in Salem, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1851 as the ''Oregon Statesman'', it later merged with the ''Capital Journal'' to form the current newspaper, the second-oldest in Orego ...

'', August 6, 2003. The Circular Wave Basin can create waves up to in height in the deep structure that is in diameter. The rectangular basin has 30 wave generators that can be used to simulate a storm in the controlled environment of the lab. In 2001, it was expanded to a size of by with a depth of to facilitate tsunami research. Research includes the effects of a tsunami on coastal population centers and possible survival options. The Tsunami Wave Basin was the first in the world dedicated to tsunami research, and is the largest and most advanced facility in the world. Additionally, the tsunami laboratory has a variety of above and below the water cameras, wave gauges, and microphones. They also operate a Tsunami Experimental Databank that allows other researchers to access video and data over the internet. Scientists work in collaboration with the

Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory The Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) is a federal laboratory in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). It is one of seven NOAA Research Laboratories (RLs). The PM ...

operated by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...

.Catastrophic Tsunami Possible On West Coast. ''Space Daily'', January 5, 2005. Researchers from universities around the United States use the basin for tsunami wave simulations.

References

External links

NOAA
{{authority control Oregon State University Research institutes in Oregon Laboratories in Oregon 1972 establishments in Oregon

History

Facility

See also

References

External links