Sea Foam

ORIGINAL: Wikipedia, YouTube, Daily Telegraph, FunOnTheNet

Sea foam, ocean foam, beach foam, or spume is a type of foam created by the agitation of seawater, particularly when it contains higher concentrations of dissolved organic matter (including proteins, lignins, and lipids)[1] derived from sources such as the offshore breakdown of algal blooms. These compounds can act as surfactants or foaming agents. As the seawater is churned by breaking waves in the surf zone adjacent to the shore, the presence of these surfactants under these turbulent conditions traps air, forming persistent bubbles which stick to each other through surface tension. Due to its low density and persistence, foam can be blown by strong on-shore winds from the beachface inland onto sidewalks and streets.

"I took this video at Froggy beach near Snapper Rocks recently during the big storms. It created masses of foam which turn the sea into a kind of whipped cream consitency. Apparently this is a natural process occurring in especially big seas, where plankton and other small sea organisms are literally pulverised against the rocks of the shoreline, resulting in a very fine protein suspension in the sea which coats the air-bubbles created by the waves to create a stiff froth, just the same way as egg protein coats air bubbles to make meringue, and beer protein coats air bubbles to produce a head of foam in a beer glass. "

---

INSTEAD of surfing the deep blue at his local haunt Tom Woods carved up another kind of wave - completely made out of foam.

Wild weather whipped the ocean into what resembled more a cappuccino than the beach atYamba on North Coast at the weekend.

The foamy waves, which stretched about 50m from Yamba Surf Life Saving Club out to sea didn't deter Tom, 12, and his brother Jack from making the most of the bizarre conditions.

Fishermen planning to drop a line said it was the first time in 30 years they had seen the beach covered in foam.

"It was so cool, it was like running on air, you couldn't feel it," Tom who has been surfing the break since he was two, said.

After three hours of riding in the foam, Tom said the only problem was he came home with a couple of "war wounds".

The foam built up on Friday after wild storms lashed the North Coast.

The foam is a concoction of bubbles and liquid shaken by the stormy conditions.

---

Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast . Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales .

One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away. 

Boy in the bubble bath: Tom Woods, 12, emerges from the clouds of foam after deciding that surfing was not an option

It stretched for 30 miles out into the Pacific in a phenomenon not seen at the beach for more than three decades. Scientists explain that the foam is created by impurities in the ocean, such as salts, chemicals, dead plants, decomposed fish and excretions from seaweed. All are churned up together by powerful currents which cause the water to form bubbles. These bubbles stick to each other as they are carried below the surface by the current towards the shore. As a wave starts to form on the surface, the motion of the water causes the bubbles to swirl upwards and, massed together, they become foam.

The foam 'surfs' towards shore until the wave 'crashes', tossing the foam into the air. 

Whitewash: The foam was so thick it came all the way up to the surf club

'It's the same effect you get when you whip up a milk shake in a blender,' explains a marine expert. 'The more powerful the swirl, the more foam you create on the surface and the lighter it becomes.' In this case, storms off the New South Wales Coast & further north

off Queensland had created a huge disturbance in the ocean, hitting a stretch of water where there was a particularly high amount of the substances which form into bubbles. As for 12-year-old beachgoer Tom Woods, who has been surfing since he was two, riding a wave was out of the question. 'Me and my mates just spent the afternoon leaping about in that stuff,' he said.

'It was quite cool to touch and it was really weird. It was like clouds of air - you could hardly feel it.' 

Children play among all the foam which was been whipped up by cyclonic condition