Very high waves are destructive when they S36 ______ the land. Fortunately, this S37 ______ happens. One reason is that out at sea, waves moving in one direction almost always run into waves moving in a different direction. The two S38 ______ of waves tend to cancel each other out. Another reason is that water is S39 ______ near the shore. As a wave gets closer to land, the shallow S40 ______ helps reduce its S41 ______ .
S42 ______ , waves sometimes strike the shore with the force of 6,000 pounds for each square foot. That means a wave, 25 feet high and 500 feet along its face, may S43 ______ .
Yet S44 ______ . During the most raging storms, S45 ______. S39