Ever imagined a wave so wild it shows up once every 1,300 years? 🌊 That’s what scientists recorded off the coast of Canada—a rogue wave towering nearly 18 meters high, in seas that were surprisingly calm. It lifted a buoy into the air like we were playing peek-a-boo with the ocean. In this video, we’re diving into how this freak-of-nature wave was detected, what made it so extreme, and why it matters to you, sitting on your beach chair worrying about sea level rise or coastal storms. We’ll walk through how rogue waves go from myth to data, the physics behind these monsters, and whether your next vacation by the shoreline needs a little more caution. Animation is created by Bright Side. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
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00:00In November 2020, something terrifying happened in the ocean near British Columbia.
00:06Out of nowhere, a massive wave, as tall as a four-story building,
00:10rose up and tossed a lonely little buoy way up in the air.
00:15Scientists later confirmed that it was the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.
00:20Such a wave is so rare that experts think that something like that
00:24might only happen once every 1,300 years.
00:28Interestingly, if that buoy hadn't been floating there at just the right time,
00:32we might have never known this wave even happened.
00:36For a long time, people thought rogue waves were just sailor stories,
00:40something like scary tales passed around on ships.
00:43But in 1995, everything changed.
00:47On New Year's Day, a monstrosity of a wave 85 feet tall
00:52slammed into an oil platform off the coast of Norway.
00:55Scientists were shocked, since their models had never predicted a wave that big.
01:00That wave became known as the Doppler wave,
01:03and that was the first proof that rogue waves were real.
01:07Since then, scientists have spotted more of those giant waves, even in lakes.
01:12The one near a place called Euclid on Vancouver Island was special.
01:17Not because it was the tallest, but because it was lots bigger than the waves around it.
01:22You see, to be called a rogue wave, a wave has to be more than twice as tall as the ones nearby.
01:29The Doppler wave was about twice the height of the other waves around it.
01:33But the Euclid wave?
01:35It was nearly three times taller than its neighbors.
01:38One scientist said this made it probably the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded.
01:44Now imagine a huge wall of water suddenly rising in the middle of a calm sea.
01:48That's the kind of ocean drama we're talking about.
01:52Very few rogue waves have ever been seen with human eyes, especially not ones that extreme.
01:58Scientists are still trying to understand how these monster waves form,
02:02so that they can get better at predicting them before they strike.
02:06To do that, they track rogue waves in real time and run computer models
02:10to see how wind and water team up to create such powerful surges.
02:14Now, the giant wave off Euclid was picked up by a special buoy floating offshore.
02:21That buoy wasn't alone.
02:23It was part of a whole network placed out at sea by a research group called Marine Labs.
02:28Their goal is to learn more about the dangerous surprises the deep ocean can throw at us.
02:34Even when rogue waves happen far from land, they're still a serious threat.
02:39They can smash into ships, damage offshore wind farms, or wreck oil rigs.
02:44And if they come close enough to the coast, they can easily put people at the beach in danger.
02:50Like it happened in April 2025 in Australia.
02:54Thankfully, the Euclid wave didn't hurt anyone.
02:57And neither did the famous Doppler wave before it.
03:00But other rogue waves haven't been so harmless.
03:03Back in the 1970s, some ships vanished without a trace.
03:08And now, scientists think freak waves might have been to blame.
03:11Bits of wreckage were sometimes found later.
03:15They were torn apart, as if struck by a massive wall of water.
03:19Scientists think we could see more of these waves in the future.
03:22And this prediction is quite alarming.
03:24A 2020 study predicted that wave heights in the North Pacific might rise as the climate continues to change.
03:32That means the Euclid wave's record might not last as long as one's expected.
03:36To make things even more intense, new research suggests these waves can be up to four times taller than scientists used to believe.
03:45And honestly, it sounds terrifying.
03:48Imagine sailing in the middle of the ocean and seeing a sky-high wall of water rising out of nowhere in front of your eyes.
03:56And rogue waves appear just like that.
03:58Unexpectedly.
04:00Unpredictably.
04:00In the open ocean.
04:01While there's no exact size that makes a wave a rogue wave, they've been measured anywhere from 26 feet, like a two-story house, to more than 80 feet tall.
04:12These waves are super steep, have sharp, towering peaks, and can be strong enough to damage ships or oil rigs.
04:19But what causes them?
04:21That's where it gets tricky.
04:23There isn't just one thing that makes a rogue wave happen.
04:26They can form when different wave systems crash into each other.
04:29Think of it like a bunch of waves from different directions suddenly lining up just right.
04:36And boom.
04:37They combine into one huge wave that's way taller than usual.
04:41Other things can help too, like fast ocean currents, strong shifting winds, or certain underwater features like reefs or deep channels.
04:50Those can force waves into a small space, making them stack up.
04:54And still, when scientists know all these ingredients, rogue waves are still super rare and really hard to predict.
05:03Rogue waves aren't the same as tidal waves or tsunamis.
05:06Even though rogue waves can be just as dangerous, they occur for different reasons.
05:11Tidal waves happen because the moon and sun pull on Earth's water, making oceans rise and fall.
05:17Tsunamis happen when earthquakes, volcanoes, or big underwater landslides push giant waves across the ocean.
05:25Rogue waves, on the other hand, suddenly show up out of nowhere in the open sea.
05:30Big ships and oil rigs are built to handle waves up to about 50 feet tall.
05:35But rogue waves often get even bigger than that.
05:38That's why they can cause a lot of damage.
05:41For example, in December 2022, a huge rogue wave slammed into the cruise ship Viking Polaris near Antarctica.
05:49It broke windows, hurt some people, and sadly, even led to the loss of one life.
05:55Rogue waves have caused other accidents too.
05:58That's how dangerous they really are.
06:01These days, scientists know for sure that such waves happen way more often than you can imagine.
06:06I'm talking about one rogue wave for every 10,000 normal waves.
06:11Studies also show that waves have been getting bigger over the years.
06:15Still, rogue waves are tough to predict because we don't have enough information, and they come up so fast.
06:22Even though rogue waves occur in the oceans all around the world, some places get more of them.
06:28One is near South Africa, where a strong current called the Agulis flows.
06:33Another is the North Atlantic Ocean, where big currents like the Gulf Stream meet.
06:38Rogue waves have also been spotted in parts of the South Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.
06:44But even if you live far away from those places, don't relax just yet.
06:49Rogue waves can happen in big lakes, too.
06:53A famous example is the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, a giant iron ore freighter that sank in Lake Superior during a storm in 1975.
07:01The lives of all 29 crew members were lost, and a rogue wave might have caused the ship to sink.
07:09And that's not the only disaster caused by a rogue wave.
07:12Before scientists started measuring these waves, many shipwrecks had been mysteries.
07:17Now, some experts believe rogue waves caused some of them.
07:20For example, the USS Cyclops disappeared in 1918.
07:25The culprit could have been a rogue wave.
07:28Other ships, like the Norwegian tanker Willstar in 1974 and the German freighter MS München in 1978, were hit by huge waves, too.
07:38The Andrea Gale, a fishing boat lost in 1991, was probably sunk by a rogue wave, too.
07:45Even modern cruise ships have been hit by giant waves.
07:47Rogue waves are, and were, quite popular among artists, too.
07:52The famous Japanese artwork, Under the Wave of Kanagawa, shows a huge wave that many people think is a tsunami.
08:00But experts think it might actually be a rogue wave caused by wind.
08:05Rogue waves also appear in movies.
08:07For example, take the 2006 movie Poseidon.
08:10In it, a giant rogue wave hits a luxury cruise liner, which is making a transatlantic crossing.
08:16And, as we see, it's something strange, unexpected, and way more mysterious than any other wave caused by the ground shaking.
08:24That's it for today.
08:25So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:30Or, if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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