154-160Absorption of surface energy can lead to large-scale wave damping in shallow regions near the coast, where the bottom is soft and viscous, as in the mudbanks of the Kerala coast. The process of wave damping in these areas involves the generation of progressive oscillations in the soft fluid-like sea bed and as a result the waves are damped through viscous dissipation with the sea bed. After showing experimentally that the bottom mud of mudbanks has the properties of a viscous fluid, this theoretical model of wave damping is applied to the Kerala mudbanks. A quantitative comparison of the different theories on wave damping is presented which shows that the present theory of wave damping due to a viscous bed, gives a more adequate explanation of the wave damping as observed at the Kerala mudbanks, though it does not completely explain the process occurring in the mudbanks
