Manbearpig is making waves...
Posted on 09/20/2024 2:51:58 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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 in February 2022 as the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded at the time.
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.
"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."
It was also supposed to make hurricanes and tornadoes and everything else worse. Instead the opposite is happening. EF5 tornadoes have gone extinct for example.
The ship was too massive to remain in port during the blow.
The waves were so high, they seemed as high as the wave mentioned in the
article.
(some even in lakes)
yup, i’ve lived on Seneca most of my life, and they are not all that uncommon...
Manbearpig is making waves...
In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Gigantic Wave in Pacific Ocean Was The Most Extreme 'Rogue Wave' on Record, Fireone wrote: Surely, this could have been caused by:
Assault rifles
Lack of funding for Education
White Supremacy
Trump
why jump to the conclusion that it was the climate hoax, so quickly?What about institutional racism, homophobia, and white privilege, you hater?
Hang ten, surfer dudes!
Sponge Bob Square Pants!
The rogue wave was traced to a teen man on a beach, who aimed his AR at a floating soda can 100 yds from shore.
A normal 12 meter wave would be more than I’d want to deal with. Even if Maureen McGovern was singing in the ship’s lounge.
I’m always serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
An uncle was in the South Pacific on a navy ship in WW2. He marveled that the waves were 50/70 feet high on more than one occasion. He said this decades ago (before all the global warming push posh).
I read an interesting book called “The Wave” by Susan Casey.
I forget why she was interested in rogue waves, but she started out going to various science labs (I think she was a researcher? Maybe just a writer.) Anyway, the first part of the book is her going to labs around the world.
At one of the labs the scientist told her that if she REALLY wanted to research waves and find the biggest one she should meet some surfers.
Most of the book is about her getting deeper and deeper into the surfing realm. Criss-crossing the world with surfers as they try to find the ultimate wave to ride. The surfing community has it’s own weather forecasters that post detailed conditions.
“So - do we go with the chance of an 80-foot wave in Madacasgar based on spotty information or to Australia for a 90% chance at 50 foot waves??” (Or some-such thing).
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the book. Not caring too much about the ocean, surfing, or waves for that matter!
Well - I do enjoy treasure hunting stories. That may be why I liked it - hunting the elusive monster wave. And lots of stories of such previous waves.
You gotta hit ‘em just right.
If you were in the Navy, you probably heard about Admiral Halsey’s typhoons during the war.
Fauci says if you lockdown for two months these rogue waves will go away.
Read Waves And Beaches by Willard Bascom, father of modern oceanography
One of the dangers of rogue waves is that they have the same period and wavelength as other waves in their set while having over double+ their amplitude. It makes for an extremely steep, dangerous wave face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydwk87iEuM
Respect.
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