The highest-ever wave detected by a buoy has been recorded in the North Atlantic ocean. The 19-metre (62.3ft) wave happened between Iceland and the United Kingdom, off the Outer Hebrides, the World Meteorological Organization said. It was created in the aftermath of a very strong cold front with 43.8 knot (50.4mph) winds on 4 February 2013. Read more
'Freak' ocean waves hit without warning, new research shows
Mariners have long spoken of 'walls of water' appearing from nowhere in the open seas. But oceanographers have generally disregarded such stories and suggested that rogue waves - enormous surface waves that have attained a near-mythical status over the centuries - build up gradually and have relatively narrow crests. Read more
The Draupner wave or New Year's wave was the first rogue wave to be detected by a measuring instrument, occurring at the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway on 1 January 1995. Prior to this measurement, such freak waves were known to exist only through anecdotal evidence provided by those who had encountered them at sea. Read more
Nazaré and Garrett McNamara made surf history with the largest waves ever ridden in Portugal. Garrett's wave has been entered into the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards 2012. This is considered the Oscars of big wave riding and this is the first time that a wave from Portugal has been entered into the competition.
Garrett McNamara rode what members of his group implied was the largest wave ever successfully negotiated during a tow-surfing session Tuesday off the coast of Nazare, a small fishing town 70 miles north of Lisbon, Portugal. The wave face measured "around 90 feet," according to a news release announcing the feat. Read more
Title: Triggering Rogue Waves in Opposing Currents Authors: Miguel Onorato, Davide Proment and Alessandro Toffoli
We show that rogue waves can be triggered naturally when a stable wave train enters a region of an opposing current flow. We demonstrate that the maximum amplitude of the rogue wave depends on the ratio between the current velocity U0 and the wave group velocity cg. We also reveal that an opposing current can force the development of rogue waves in random wave fields, resulting in a substantial change of the statistical properties of the surface elevation. The present results can be directly adopted in any field of physics in which the focusing nonlinear Schrödinger equation with nonconstant coefficient is applicable. In particular, nonlinear optics laboratory experiments are natural candidates for verifying experimentally our results.
Rogue waves, once considered nothing more than a sailor's myth, are more predictable than ever thanks to new research from the oceanography team at Swinburne University of Technology. Dr Alessandro Toffoli, who lectures in water, port engineering and oceanography, has shown that rogue waves - or 'freak waves', as they are often referred to in the media - are more likely to occur when a wave formation enters a current travelling in the opposite direction. Rogue waves are giant waves that can occur without warning, often towering two or three times higher than other waves around it. Recently a 26.5 metre rogue wave - about the size of a 10-storey building - was detected in a 10-metre sea. Read more
It was on 1 January 1995 that a wave over 25 metres high was recorded at the Draupner platform in the North Sea off the coast of Norway. Ever since researchers have been attempting to understand the mechanisms which produced the 'Draupner wave' and are responsible for other abnormally large or 'freak' waves. In Proceedings of the Royal Society A this week Thomas Ad**** and Paul Taylor of Oxford University's Department of Engineering Science report that their new analysis may have the answers. Read more
Update A Japanese tanker damaged last week in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman was the target of a terrorist attack, the United Arab Emirates state-run news agency has said. Source
An investigation has been launched into the unexplained damage suffered by a Japanese oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz near Oman. The M Star was damaged on Wednesday while travelling from Qatar to Japan. Read more