person:walter munk

  • The Man Who Delayed D-Day - Issue 15: Turbulence
    http://nautil.us/issue/15/turbulence/the-man-who-delayed-d_day

    When Dwight D. Eisenhower was planning the invasion of Normandy, he made sure to check with Walter Munk and his colleagues first. Munk had come to the United States from Austria-Hungary to work as a banker before switching to oceanography, eventually making major advances in the science of tidal and wave forecasting. He was a defense researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1943 when his team calculated that the seas on June 5 of that year would be so rough that a delay was in order. The invasion would happen on the following day. It was just one highlight among many in Munk’s career. From explaining why we always see the same side of the moon to sending a sound signal halfway around the world, Munk is the very definition of the enterprising scientist. When I spoke to him (...)

    • #océanographie #interface_air-mer

      What would you say is the most misunderstood aspect of the oceans today?
      I’m trying to give this some thought. I think that people think of the ocean in a negative way. At this meeting yesterday, questions about having energy sources—they think that shallow water is better than offshore deep water. I think it’s the other way around. The oceans can be a friend and a foe and it’s probably more friendly in deep water at great depths. And people are afraid of great depths, the deep water, and I think have made a mistake in that way. I would think that the disaster in Japan was due to the fact that people thought that a nuclear power plant just on the coast very close to the ocean would be safer than in the ocean. It’s certainly safer than in the ocean at very shallow depth. But I think there’s a case to be made that these things would be a lot safer if you go to some other depths seaward, where the waves are not broken. When you are aboard a ship you can’t even know that there’s a tsunami passing, the dimensions are such, and I think that a better assessment of the dangers and the advantages of the ocean environment could be a useful thing to do.

      What would you say is the most misunderstood aspect of the oceans today?
      I’m trying to give this some thought. I think that people think of the ocean in a negative way. At this meeting yesterday, questions about having energy sources—they think that shallow water is better than offshore deep water. I think it’s the other way around. The oceans can be a friend and a foe and it’s probably more friendly in deep water at great depths. And people are afraid of great depths, the deep water, and I think have made a mistake in that way. I would think that the disaster in Japan was due to the fact that people thought that a nuclear power plant just on the coast very close to the ocean would be safer than in the ocean. It’s certainly safer than in the ocean at very shallow depth. But I think there’s a case to be made that these things would be a lot safer if you go to some other depths seaward, where the waves are not broken. When you are aboard a ship you can’t even know that there’s a tsunami passing, the dimensions are such, and I think that a better assessment of the dangers and the advantages of the ocean environment could be a useful thing to do.