islands.jpg

islands

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ISLANDS

An underwater aerator periodically generates islands of foam that illustrate the fluid dynamics at play on the surface of the San Francisco Bay. Incident and reflected waves, tides, currents, wind, and wind shadows are mapped by the shifting contours and ephemeral outlines of these floating island geographies.

Concept sketch - Outdoor Exploratorium Pier 15    San Francisco CA, 2013

 
 

Naturally occurring foam islands can form spontaneously in the engineered maritime environments that characterize San Francisco's northern shoreline, Shifting patterns of foam visible in a pier slip at Fort Mason illustrate sequential changes in the water surface as a rotating vortex in the center of the slip is compressed by waves reflecting off the seawall.

 
 

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