00:00A 4-story wall of water that only rises once in 1,300 years was recorded off the west coast
00:07of Canada.
00:09Some people blame waves like this for disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
00:13Rogue waves can get strong enough to sink container ships and oil rigs.
00:17The Canadian water monster didn't hurt anyone, but it did become a sensation.
00:22And it looks like we're about to see even higher and more powerful rogue waves in the
00:26future.
00:28The team of Marine Labs, the company that operates the buoy that got caught in the Euclid
00:33wave, couldn't believe the data they saw.
00:36A huge force came out of the blue, pulled the buoy down, and then set it up to a peak
00:41before taking it even deeper.
00:44They thought it must be a rogue wave, so they sent the data to a scientist at the University
00:48of Victoria who specializes in these beauties.
00:51They analyzed the data and confirmed it was, indeed, not a technical mistake.
00:56The wave officially became the most extreme rogue wave ever officially recorded as it
01:02was three times the height of waves around it.
01:05Scientists have reported seeing giant waves coming out of the blue for centuries, but
01:09no one really believed them.
01:10Back in 1826, a French scientist and naval officer was crossing the Indian Ocean on his
01:16ship the Astrolabe.
01:18They got in a terrible storm and saw several waves over 98 feet tall.
01:22It's almost as tall as a 10-story building.
01:25The crew lost one of its members, but the four of them, including the captain, made
01:29it to land and shared what they saw.
01:32But back then, scientists were sure waves couldn't be taller than 30 feet.
01:37Everyone took their story as a tall tale.
01:39Pun intentional.
01:40Over a century later, a cargo ship, the MS Munchen, mysteriously disappeared.
01:46People believed it to be unsinkable, just like the Titanic, so it was a real shock that
01:51all that was left of it was one lifeboat.
01:55When experts analyzed the damage, they concluded that it must've been hit by a wave that
02:00was around 65 feet high.
02:04Witnesses shared many other stories of giant waves coming out of nowhere, but scientists
02:09officially recognized the first rogue wave only in 1995.
02:14They went down in history as the Doppner wave, or the New Year's wave.
02:18This monster on the North Sea that was 84 feet tall hit the Norwegian gas platform Doppner
02:24on New Year's Day.
02:26It was twice larger than the waves surrounding it.
02:29The rig was built to withstand waves up to 64 feet tall and had the most advanced sensors
02:33for its time.
02:35The wave wasn't like any other type of wave they'd studied before.
02:40So they had to admit rogue waves were real and gave them an official definition.
02:45It's a wave more than twice as tall as others around it.
02:48They can pop up lightning fast in a stormy sea, or show up out of nowhere in calm waters.
02:54These waves have steep sides and a deep trough below, and look like a wall of water rising
03:00out of the sea.
03:01They're so intense that they can even swallow up rescue helicopters trying to do their job.
03:07In 2007, America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made a list of
03:1350 historical maritime tragedies that were most likely caused by rogue waves.
03:18Some of the events on the list happened not in the open water, but in lakes.
03:23Lake Superior has something that's got the name Three Sisters.
03:26It is a series of three large waves, one after another.
03:30The second wave covers the ship's decks before the first one is gone.
03:34The third wave jumps in and adds extra water.
03:38These three sisters overload the ship.
03:40There's a theory that this phenomenon took down the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.
03:47There are two main theories trying to explain how rogue waves happen.
03:52First, we've got the linear addition theory.
03:55Imagine waves cruising through the ocean at their own speeds.
03:58When these waves cross paths, they team up and become stronger to turn into a rogue wave.
04:04Then there's the nonlinear focusing theory.
04:07It says waves like to roll in groups, and when they spend time together, they exchange
04:12some energy.
04:13Sometimes, this energy exchange turns into a rogue wave.
04:17To predict the formation of these freaky waves, scientists would need an innovative
04:22radar system to keep a constant eye on the waves near a boat.
04:26They'd collect all the data and put in a math model that would create a real-time picture
04:30of what the ocean's surface looks like at that very moment.
04:34This model would need to do new calculations of the surface situation every 5 minutes.
04:39It would let the crew know if there were any extreme waves coming up in the next several
04:43minutes.
04:44This data system doesn't exist yet, but there is a huge progress in this direction.
04:50Scientists from the University of Melbourne went on an expedition to Antarctica and found
04:55out that strong winds play a big role in the creation of rogue waves.
04:59It looks like they're caused by a mix of strong winds and the random way waves move
05:04and interact with each other.
05:06This idea was tested in labs before, but now they've proven it happens in real oceans
05:11too.
05:12To study these waves, the scientists used special 3D cameras.
05:16These cameras work like human eyes, taking lots of images in a row to create a detailed
05:213D picture of the ocean's surface.
05:24It showed that rogue waves happen more often when waves are young, which means they're
05:29just starting to form and are more affected by the wind.
05:32When strong winds blow over young waves, they make the waves taller, longer, and faster,
05:38but not evenly.
05:39Some waves steal energy from nearby waves and grow much bigger, which is how rogue waves
05:45form.
05:46The scientists noticed these giant waves happened about once every six hours.
05:50They recorded no rogue waves in calmer seas, when the wind doesn't have as much influence.
05:57Scientists are concerned that rogue waves may happen more often in the future, because
06:01there's more energy in the atmosphere and ocean.
06:04It looks like rogue waves can be much more powerful than scientists ever thought.
06:09They managed to create the famous Dopner wave in a lab for the first time in 2018.
06:14This helped them study these mysterious waves up close and showed that their secret is in
06:19how they form.
06:20We think of waves rolling gently on a beach, but the waves in this study happen in open
06:25water when waves from different directions meet.
06:28When waves come together from far apart directions, they push the water upward, creating what's
06:34called a partially standing wave or a cross wave.
06:38This can happen when two seas meet, or when wind directions suddenly change, like during
06:43a hurricane.
06:44The study found that the bigger the angle between the meeting waves, the taller the
06:48cross wave becomes.
06:50Normally, when a wave breaks, it forms a white foamy top, and that's where it stops growing.
06:56But if a wave is formed by water coming from many directions, it can keep growing even
07:01after breaking.
07:03These special waves can grow to be twice as steep while breaking, which is already much
07:07bigger than normal waves.
07:09And if you add up all the growth from waves coming together, they can become 4 times steeper
07:15than what anyone thought was possible.
07:17This discovery could change the way we build things, like wind turbines or oil platforms
07:22in the ocean to make them safe.
07:25Right now, many designs don't fully account for these huge multi-directional waves.
07:31They seem to have a lot of similarities, but rogue waves aren't the same as tsunamis.
07:36Tsunamis happen when there's a big shift in water, like an earthquake, volcanic eruption,
07:41or landslide.
07:42They mess with the entire water column.
07:45At sea, you might not even notice a tsunami cruising beneath you.
07:49But near the shore, as it hits shallow waters, those waves can shoot up to crazy heights.
07:55Rogue waves are formed at the surface level.
07:57Although sometimes, they can form deep below, and these are called rogue internal waves.
08:03That's it for today!
08:04If you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:09Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!
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