The Creeping Geek

For years, sailors have told stories of monster waves that could swamp even the biggest ships, huge walls of water that rose up out of calm seas. Another is the wonderful anthology of tall tales of the sea, fiction to entertain and amuse.

Except this isn't fiction. The BBC for July 22 reported that

[t]he shady phenomenon of freak waves as tall as 10 storey buildings had finally been proved, the European Space Agency (Esa) said on Wednesday. ...

As part of a project called MaxWave - which was set up to test the rumours - two Esa satellites surveyed the oceans.

During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.

Over the last two decades more than 200 super-carriers - cargo ships over 200m [over 650 feet] long - have been lost at sea. Eyewitness reports suggest many were sunk by high and violent walls of water that rose up out of calm seas.

But for years these tales of towering beasts were written off as fantasy; and many marine scientists clung to statistical models stating monstrous deviations from the normal sea state occur once every 1,000 years.

"Two large ships sink every week on average," said Wolfgang Rosenthal, of the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht, Germany. "But the cause is never studied to the same detail as an air crash. It simply gets put down to 'bad weather'."

But the ESA survey revealed 10 massive waves, some almost 100 feet (30 meters) high.

"The waves exist in higher numbers than anyone expected," said Dr Rosenthal.

Now that we know for sure they exist, the next thing for scientists to do is figure out why they happen. Right now they think they know some of the causes. ESA's release on the story, found here, says that

[s]o far some patterns have already been found. Rogue waves are often associated with sites where ordinary waves encounter ocean currents and eddies. The strength of the current concentrates the wave energy, forming larger waves – [principal investigator Susanne] Lehner compares it to an optical lens, concentrating energy in a small area.

But some is not all and a better understanding will lead to more safety for shipping.