Question

Think of the image of the ocean waves. What do you think will happen when the waves hit the rocks?

Answer 1

At the moment of impact you’ll see and hear an explosion of water: a high, white spray and a thunderous crash as kinetic energy is suddenly dissipated. Some water is reflected back as foam and spray, some flows up the rock faces as a sheet or in rivulets, and some pours into cracks where it compresses air and then blasts it out—making that sharp, rattling sound.

Over longer times the repeated hits do real work: hydraulic action (pressure and shock) widens and deepens fractures, abrasion grinds the rock with sand and pebbles carried by the waves, attrition wears loose fragments into smaller bits, and solution slowly dissolves susceptible minerals. The result is erosion and rearrangement: cliffs are undercut and collapse, sea caves and arches form and may later become stacks and stumps, and beaches or shingle ramps build up below.

Ecologically, the impact creates tide pools and niches for barnacles, algae and small creatures; physically it both destroys and sculpts the coastline. In short: an immediate dramatic splash and roar, and—if it keeps happening—gradual transformation of the rock itself.