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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
60-Foot Rogue Wave Captured in Pacific Ocean (Video)
When thinking of rogue waves breaking out in the middle of the ocean, for surfers at least, one liquid monstrosity comes to mind – Cortes Bank, the mythical big wave gauntlet breaking some 100 miles off the California coast. As it turns out, however, these abnormally gigantic waves are breaking elsewhere in the world's oceans, too; and a team of scientists set out to explore them. Specifically, the scientists looked at rogue waves being documented in the Pacific Ocean off Canada. They described: 'Once dismissed as a maritime myth, rogue waves are now increasingly being recorded in Canadian waters. A network of AI-powered buoys off the coast of B.C. is capturing these giants in real time. Johanna Wagstaffe meets the engineer developing new tools to understand — and maybe one day forecast — their chaotic nature.' One in particular, which they detected back in 2020, was taller than a six-story building. 'So, this rogue wave was measured off near Tofino [Vancouver Island, Canada],' said Scott Beatty, CEO of MarineLabs Data Systems. 'There was a 17.5 meter [57 .4 feet] wave that came by. For context, that's about six stories. But the unusual thing about it, was that in the background the waves were six meters. It was the highest ever recorded. So, we had to go back and double, and triple check that.' Unlike Cortes Bank, these waves are random. They happen sporadically, in the middle of the ocean, and are difficult to detect. When there's the right swell – and there's a crew willing to risk it all to motor out to Cortes, and attempt to surf it – things can be somewhat predictable. And they know where to find it. But these, open-ocean rogue waves are way more how the scientists describe them: 'These waves are at least twice as tall as the surrounding waves. They're unpredictable. They can come from unexpected directions, often against prevailing winds and swells. You need a whole cocktail of factors to come together – wind, swell, current. It's a chaotic, nonlinear wave interaction, where one wave will suddenly gather energy from others and explode in size.' Rare and terrifying, yet fascinating. Makes one wonder about all the untapped big wave surf spot potential just hiding out in the vast, open oceans.60-Foot Rogue Wave Captured in Pacific Ocean (Video) first appeared on Surfer on Jun 27, 2025
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Giant Wave in Pacific Ocean Was The Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record
In November of 2020, a freak wave came out of the blue, lifting a lonesome buoy off the coast of British Columbia 17.6 meters high (58 feet). The four-story wall of water was finally confirmed a couple of years later as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded. Such an exceptional event is thought to occur only once every 1,300 years. And unless the buoy had been taken for a ride, we might never have known it even happened. For centuries, rogue waves were considered nothing but nautical folklore. It wasn't until 1995 that myth became fact. On the first day of the new year, a nearly 26-meter-high wave (85 feet) suddenly struck an oil-drilling platform roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Norway. At the time, the so-called Draupner wave defied all previous models scientists had put together. Since then, dozens more rogue waves have been recorded (some even in lakes), and while the one that surfaced near Ucluelet, Vancouver Island was not the tallest, its relative size compared to the waves around it was unprecedented. Scientists define a rogue wave as any wave more than twice the height of the waves surrounding it. The Draupner wave, for instance, was 25.6 meters tall, while its neighbors were only 12 meters tall. In comparison, the Ucluelet wave was nearly three times the size of its peers. "Proportionally, the Ucluelet wave is likely the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded," explained physicist Johannes Gemmrich from the University of Victoria in 2022. "Only a few rogue waves in high sea states have been observed directly, and nothing of this magnitude." Today, researchers are still trying to figure out how rogue waves are formed so we can better predict when they will arise. This includes measuring rogue waves in real time and also running models on the way they get whipped up by the wind. The buoy that picked up the Ucluelet wave was placed offshore along with dozens of others by a research institute called MarineLabs in an attempt to learn more about hazards out in the deep. Even when freak waves occur far offshore, they can still destroy marine operations, wind farms, or oil rigs. If they are big enough, they can even put the lives of beachgoers at risk. Luckily, neither Ucluelet nor Draupner caused any severe damage or took any lives, but other rogue waves have. Some ships that went missing in the 1970s, for instance, are now thought to have been sunk by sudden, looming waves. The leftover floating wreckage looks like the work of an immense white cap. Unfortunately, a 2020 study predicted wave heights in the North Pacific are going to increase with climate change, which suggests the Ucluelet wave may not hold its record for as long as our current predictions suggest. Experimental research published last year suggests these monstrous waves can be up to four times higher than previously thought possible. "We are aiming to improve safety and decision-making for marine operations and coastal communities through widespread measurement of the world's coastlines," said MarineLabs CEO Scott Beatty. "Capturing this once-in-a-millennium wave, right in our backyard, is a thrilling indicator of the power of coastal intelligence to transform marine safety." The study was published in Scientific Reports. An earlier version of this article was published in February 2022. Crows Are So Smart They Can Identify Geometric Shapes, Study Finds Owl Wings Glow Pink And It Could Be Sending a Secret Message Strange Bacteria That Can't Live Alone Hint at Early Steps to Complex Life
