In 1943 , Munk and Sverdrup began working on the problem of predicting heights of ocean surface waves . Munk had observed troops in practice beach landings in the Carolinas and noted that waves larger than about five feet were dangerous to people and landing craft . The methods they developed to predict surf conditions were used during Allied landings in North Africa , the Pacific theater of war , and on D-Day during the Normandy invasion . Countless lives were saved by these predictions . Munk commented in 2009 : In 1946 , the United States tested two fission nuclear weapons ( 20 kilotons ) at Bikini Atoll in the equatorial Pacific in Operation Crossroads . Munk helped to determine the currents , diffusion , and water exchanges affecting the radiation contamination from the second test , code-named Baker . Munk returned to the equatorial Pacific six years later to Eniwetok Atoll , for the 1952 test of the first fusion nuclear weapon ( 10 megatons ) , code-named Ivy Mike . Roger Revelle , John Isaacs , and Munk had initiated a program for monitoring for the possibility of a large tsunami generated from the test
Ivy Mike
Ivy Mike
Walter Munk