Bubble the wave or waive the bubble: Why seawater waves foam and freshwater waves do not?

• An extremely simple, effective visualization that simultaneously follows the various processes involved in wave breaking.
• Foaming and lack of foaming in an experimental simulation of waves are determined and can be explained by bubble coalescence.
• Our recent explanation of Ion-specificity, in bubble columns and thin-films experiments, applies to breaking waves as well.

The natural phenomena of wave breaking, subsequent bubble entrainment and coalescence, and eventual foam formation or the lack of it are simulated by a simple system of a jet penetrating into a bath of the same liquid. The mechanisms involved in the process, ion specificity, and dependence on concentration of the electrolyte are demonstrated to be very similar to industrial dense bubble systems. Thus, our recent theoretical explanation of the specificity of the effect of ions in industrial systems is valid also for the natural process of breaking sea waves.

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