Previous answer: gravity
Gravity is part of the answer, but not all of it. That doesn't explain how the water rose to point where it could crash down by gravity. I'm a little rusty but if I remember my old college class correctly, as waves move towards shore, they disturb the water underneath them at a depth equal to one half their wavelength.
So as an example if 2 waves were coming in together with one trailing the other by 8 feet, they disturb the water underneath them at a depth of 4 feet. When they are in deep water, they don't crest but just look like 2 rolling hills. As they approach water shallower than one half their wavelength, the disturbed water below the wave is hitting against the ocean floor and begins to put a drag on the lower part of the wave. Meanwhile the top of the wave isn't disturbed so it crests and falls over the bottom part of the wave.
Breakers form when the trough (or wave) hits the bottom and rises toward the shore, the crest falls, then the wave breaks up.
Mostly its wind.
tsunami
It can trigger a tsunami.
It causes the ground at the ocean floor to shift, resulting in the displacement of water. The beginnings of a potential tsunami!
No. The newest ocean floor is at the mid-ocean ridge.
What causes ocean floor features to form
they crash land and scan the bottom
Breakers form as waves interact with the ocean floor. Undertows are moving out to sea along the ocean floor. Therefore, undertows must contribute to the slowing down of incoming waves and the buildup of water molecules that cause the waves to increase in height.
Mostly its wind.
Mostly its wind.
New material forms on the ocean floor of the mid-ocean ridge due to plate tectonics and volcanic activity. Volcanic eruptions deposit cooled magma on the ocean floor.
tsunami
Convection currents.
It can trigger a tsunami.
On march 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez grounded on the ocean floor, leading to an oil spill
Movement of the ocean, or tides are directly related to deep ocean currents. Deep ocean currents are also responsible for the wind that causes the waves to crash into the shore.
In the middle of the ocean is a rift where the ocean floor squeezes out lava and pushes the ocean plates apart.