Consider the following events that take place when rip currents occur.A. Waves travel to the beach.B. Waves are trapped by the sandbars.C. Waves reach the shore and go back to the ocean.D. Waves speed up and flow between the sandbars.E. Waves are broken by the sandbars.

First, waves travel toward the beach (A). They break over the sandbars (E), then reach the shore and flow back toward the ocean (C). The sandbars hold back some of this returning water, which then speeds up as it flows through the gap between the sandbars, forming a rip current (B, then D).

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