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Scientists have uncovered startling phenomena in the depths of the ocean, including extreme rogue waves and deadly storms. These findings reveal the frightening forces at play beneath the surface of the Atlantic.
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00:00A four-story wall of water that only rises once in 1,300 years was recorded off the west coast
00:07of Canada.
00:08Some 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.
00:21And it looks like we're about to see even higher and more powerful rogue waves in the future.
00:28The team of Marine Labs, the company that operates the buoy that got caught in the Euclid wave, couldn't believe
00:34the 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.
00:43They thought it must be a rogue wave, so they sent the data to a scientist at the University of
00:48Victoria 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 was three times the height of
01:03waves around it.
01:04Scientists have reported seeing giant waves coming out of the blue for centuries, but no one really believed them.
01:10Back in 1826, a French scientist and naval officer was crossing the Indian Ocean on his ship, the Astrolabe.
01:17They got in a terrible storm and saw several waves over 98 feet tall.
01:22It's almost as tall as a 10-story building.
01:24The crew lost one of its members, but the four of them, including the captain, made it to land and
01:30shared what they saw.
01:31But back then, scientists were sure waves couldn't be taller than 30 feet.
01:36Everyone took their story as a tall tale.
01:39Pun intentional.
01:40Over a century later, a cargo ship, the MS München, mysteriously disappeared.
01:45People believed it to be unsinkable, just like the Titanic.
01:50So it was a real shock that all that was left of it was one lifeboat.
01:54When experts analyzed the damage, they concluded that it must have been hit by a wave that was around 65
02:01feet high.
02:04Witnesses shared many other stories of giant waves coming out of nowhere.
02:08But scientists officially recognized the first rogue wave only in 1995.
02:13They went down in history as the Doppler wave, or the New Year's wave.
02:18This monster on the North Sea that was 84 feet tall hit the Norwegian gas platform, Doppler, on New Year's
02:25Day.
02:25It was twice larger than the wave surrounding it.
02:28The rig was built to withstand waves up to 64 feet tall and had the most advanced sensors for its
02:34time.
02:34The wave wasn't like any other type of wave they'd studied before.
02:39So 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 out of
03:00the sea.
03:01They're so intense that they can even swallow up rescue helicopters trying to do their job.
03:06In 2007, America's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration made a list of 50 historical maritime tragedies
03:15that were most likely caused by rogue waves.
03:18Some of the events on the list happened not in the open water, but in lakes.
03:22Lake 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.
03:37These three sisters overload the ship.
03:40There's a theory that this phenomenon took down the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975.
03:46There are two main theories trying to explain how rogue waves happen.
03:50First, we've got the linear addition theory.
03:54Imagine 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.
04:03Then there's the non-linear focusing theory.
04:06It says waves like to roll in groups, and when they spend time together, they exchange some energy.
04:13Sometimes, this energy exchange turns into a rogue wave.
04:16To predict the formation of these freaky waves, scientists would need an innovative radar system to keep a constant eye
04:24on 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 of what
04:31the ocean's surface looks like at that very moment.
04:33This model would need to do new calculations of the surface situation every five minutes.
04:39It would let the crew know if there were any extreme waves coming up in the next several minutes.
04:44Such a 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 out that strong winds play a
04:56big 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 and interact with
05:05each other.
05:06This idea was tested in labs before, but now they've proven it happens in real oceans too.
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 3D picture of
05:22the ocean's surface.
05:23It showed that rogue waves happen more often when waves are young, which means they're just starting to form and
05:30are more affected by the wind.
05:32When strong winds blow over young waves, they make the waves taller, longer, and faster, but not evenly.
05:39Some waves steal energy from nearby waves and grow much bigger, which is how rogue waves form.
05:45The scientists noticed these giant waves happened about once every 6 hours.
05:50They recorded no rogue waves in calmer seas when the wind doesn't have as much influence.
05:56Scientists are concerned that rogue waves may happen more often in the future because there's more energy in the atmosphere
06:02and ocean.
06:03It looks like rogue waves can be much more powerful than scientists ever thought.
06:08They managed to create the famous Doppler wave in a lab for the first time in 2018.
06:13This helped them study these mysterious waves up close and showed that their secret is in how they form.
06:20We think of waves rolling gently on a beach, but the waves in this study happen in open water when
06:26waves from different directions meet.
06:28When waves come together from far apart directions, they push the water upward, creating what's called a partially standing wave
06:36or a cross wave.
06:37This can happen when two seas meet, or when wind directions suddenly change, like during a hurricane.
06:44The study found that the bigger the angle between the meeting waves, the taller the cross wave becomes.
06:50Normally, when a wave breaks, it forms a white foamy top, and that's where it stops growing.
06:55But if a wave is formed by water coming from many directions, it can keep growing even after breaking.
07:02These special waves can grow to be twice as steep while breaking, which is already much bigger than normal waves.
07:08And if you add up all the growth from waves coming together, they can become four times steeper than what
07:15anyone thought was possible.
07:16This discovery could change the way we build things, like wind turbines or oil platforms in the ocean, to make
07:23them safe.
07:24Right now, many designs don't fully account for these huge, multi-directional waves.
07:30Now, they 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, or landslide.
07:42They mess with the entire water column.
07:44At sea, you might not even notice a tsunami cruising beneath you, but near the shore, as it hits shallow
07:51waters, those waves can shoot up to crazy heights.
07:54Rogue waves are formed at the surface level, although sometimes they can form deep below, and these are called rogue
08:01internal waves.
08:03Hurricanes can be a lot scarier than we often realize, especially since they can actually trigger earthquakes.
08:09This surprising and frightening phenomenon, known as storm quakes, was discovered completely by accident not too long ago.
08:17It started with scientists trying to find out more about low-frequency earthquakes.
08:22We're talking about those earthquakes that are so weak that we can't actually feel the tremor.
08:27See, beneath our feet, the Earth is constantly vibrating in subtle, unceasing ways that we can't hear or see without
08:34the right equipment.
08:34This geologic hum, so to speak, is driven by the movement of oceans, which covers about 70% of our
08:41planet's surface.
08:43Scientists have found that this hum may actually provide useful records of environmental happenings.
08:49To figure out where it's coming from, experts use equipment known as seismometers.
08:54You can think of these devices as little ears pressed to the ground.
08:58They can pick up all sorts of vibrations, like fans jumping up and down at their idols concert, airplanes flying
09:04by, or even super-distant earthquakes shaking the ground.
09:08Very low-frequency earthquakes are hard to track over long distances, because the signals they produce can look different on
09:15different measuring devices.
09:17To solve this problem, experts came up with a way to track these signals by combining readings from smaller areas,
09:24kind of like putting together a puzzle.
09:26But while doing this, they stumbled upon a strange set of events that looked a bit like the earthquakes they
09:33were studying, but were not exactly the same.
09:37The first weird thing they noticed was that this specific phenomenon was seasonal.
09:42It never happened between May and August, for example.
09:45That is completely different from earthquakes, which can pretty much happen any time of the year.
09:51The second strange thing is that earthquakes usually occur more in the western part of the United States, where the
09:58ground moves along cracks in the surface.
10:00But these new strange vibrations spread not just along the west coast of North America, but also over to the
10:07east side.
10:08So what could be triggering this new phenomenon?
10:12What they surprisingly discovered is that many of these tremors coincided with the same time that massive storms hit North
10:19America.
10:20So we are essentially talking about a chain reaction.
10:23What happens is that during a specific season, hurricanes or heavy storms can transfer energy into the oceans, creating very
10:31strong waves.
10:33These waves then interact with the solid Earth, producing intense seismic activity.
10:38These bursts of energy that are born from massive storms can radiate thousands of miles across continents, leading to what
10:45we now call storm quakes.
10:49It is believed that this phenomenon can trigger earthquakes at a magnitude of up to 3.5 on the Richter
10:55scale.
10:55This means it can be felt by many people, but normally doesn't cause any damage.
11:01But that doesn't mean we can all be relaxed now, as ocean waters can indeed increase the intensity of hurricanes.
11:08Just like what happened with the frightening Hurricane Melton, which recently left a path of destruction across Florida.
11:15The blue-purplish zone you're looking at is Hurricane Melton, seen from a satellite perspective.
11:20On October 9th, this hurricane sustained winds of 155 miles per hour and lashed the region with heavy rainfall, damaging
11:29winds, and life-threatening storm surges.
11:31Estimates show that the losses could be up to $34 billion, which could make it one of the costliest storms
11:37in the United States' history.
11:41What happened with Hurricane Melton was pretty tricky.
11:43It all started with some record hot water in the Gulf of Mexico.
11:48That warm water acted like a power-up, giving this hurricane the energy it needed to grow.
11:53And then, there was also this process called eyewall replacement that helped it get bigger too.
11:58We'll get to that in a moment.
12:00So, as Hurricane Melton approached the coast, something unusual happened.
12:05It crossed paths with a fast-moving air current called the jet stream, which flows high up in the atmosphere.
12:11Now, normally, the winds in the northern and northwest parts of a hurricane are not as strong as those in
12:17other areas.
12:17But because of this interaction with the jet stream, the winds in these parts of the storm became much stronger
12:23than expected.
12:26At nearly every turn, Hurricane Melton surprised everyone and intensified faster than we have seen in ages.
12:33It threatened to slam both Florida's west and east coasts with a dangerous surge of water, putting the bustling area
12:40of Tampa Bay, which is home to over 3 million people, at serious risk.
12:45So, how did Melton become such a major problem?
12:48Well, the problem started in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
12:52Usually, hurricanes follow a fairly predictable path, spinning off of Africa's coast, sailing across the Atlantic, and gaining strength in
13:00the warm Caribbean waters.
13:01But Melton had a twist in its origin story.
13:04It began as the remnants of a tropical depression that crossed over the Yucatan Peninsula and met a stalled front
13:10in the Gulf.
13:12Once Melton got going, it didn't hold back.
13:15But when it hit those record-high ocean temperatures, it was like giving it an energy drink.
13:21The warm water and humid air were the perfect ingredients for a hurricane on the rise.
13:26Quickly, Melton's wind speeds increased by 92 miles per hour.
13:30So it went from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in less than two days, which is basically
13:37insane and off the charts.
13:40And if that wasn't enough, Hurricane Melton also went through this thing called eyewall replacement.
13:46Now, hurricanes spin around a mostly clear eye in the center.
13:49But overnight, Melton started forming new bands of rain on its outer edges, creating a second ring around its eye.
13:56This process helped Melton grow even bigger, spreading out the wind speeds and giving it a larger footprint.
14:02It's kind of like shedding its skin and getting ready to become even more powerful.
14:08Hurricane Melton also had this little wobble in its path, which changed where it was heading.
14:13You can think of it like a spinning top that gets nudged and wobbles a bit before finding its balance
14:18again.
14:19That wobble meant some areas could get either hit hard or be spared from the worst of the storm.
14:26Thankfully, Hurricane Melton weakened a bit because of some tricky wind changes up in the atmosphere until it finally made
14:33landfall.
14:34After that, it moved across the peninsula and headed out to sea, quickly losing strength as it pulled away from
14:40the warmer waters.
14:42Now, even though the damage was significant, the good news, if you can call it that,
14:47is that experts were honestly expecting things to be way, way worse.
14:51Still, it raises a question. How close was Melton's wind speed to the maximum?
14:56Or, in other words, is there a limit to how strong a hurricane can get?
15:01Well, the answer is yes, there is a speed limit for hurricane winds.
15:05But it's not a set number.
15:08Right now, the strongest the storm can get is around 200 miles per hour.
15:12But that maximum speed can change depending on many factors, like the heat in the ocean.
15:17Think of the ocean as the fuel for hurricanes.
15:20The warmer the water, the more fuel these storms have to work with.
15:25Experts believe that as the oceans continue to warm, they can ramp up the wind speeds and the impacts of
15:31hurricanes, making them a lot stronger.
15:34But other things can also help figure out how intense a hurricane can get.
15:38For example, the heat in the air and the temperature at the top of the clouds matter, as they also
15:44affect how fast heat moves from the ocean surface to the top of the storm.
15:49Some estimates suggest that maximum wind speeds could reach closer to 220 miles per hour until the end of the
15:56century.
15:56So it's definitely something that experts need to keep an eye on to help prevent future disasters.
16:02As we move forward, it's essential to keep researching and studying these storms.
16:06The more we understand them, the better we can protect ourselves and our communities.
16:12It happened 66 million years ago.
16:15Hey, it could have been September.
16:16A massive asteroid slammed into Earth, bringing along chaos and devastation.
16:21The tragic aftermath of the terrifying collision led to the extinction of dinosaurs.
16:27Yes, I'm talking about the Chicxulub asteroid that left a massive crater in Mexico and changed life on Earth forever.
16:34And now, it turns out it wasn't the only cosmic rock to hit our planet during that time.
16:40Scientists have just confirmed there was another asteroid.
16:44This second space rock wasn't as big as Chicxulub, but it still packed a punch.
16:48It crashed to the ground off the coast of West Africa, smashing into the ocean and leaving a crater called
16:55the Nader Crater.
16:56And tell you what, it wasn't a small splash.
16:59The impact was so powerful, it triggered a whole tsunami.
17:02It was more than 2,600 feet high, almost as high as the Burj Khalifa, the tallest man-made structure
17:08in the world.
17:09But how did we come to the conclusion that there was a second impact?
17:14Well, this researcher spotted the Nader Crater in 2022.
17:18Dr. Nicholson was looking for some high-tech scans of the ocean floor
17:22when he noticed a massive 5.5-mile-wide depression under almost 1,000 feet of water.
17:28Well, he thought it could be an asteroid impact crater.
17:31But at the time, the evidence he had wasn't solid.
17:35But now, scientists have confirmed that this is the real deal.
17:39A second asteroid did hit Earth during the dinosaur extinction era.
17:43Now, let's see how they figured all this out.
17:46For one thing, there were those super high-resolution 3D seismic images.
17:50They allowed researchers to peel back layers of the ocean floor and get a crystal-clear look at the crater.
17:56It was like going from a blurry old ultrasound to the kind of 3D scans where you can see every
18:01little feature.
18:02Their findings confirmed that the crater was left by an asteroid, somewhere between 1,500 to 1,640 feet wide.
18:10And it didn't just create a hole in the ground.
18:13The impact was so intense that it produced a central peak, formed escalating ridges around the crater,
18:19and even left a damaged zone that stretched out for thousands of miles.
18:23Using those super-detailed images, the scientists have managed to reconstruct what happened right after the asteroid hit the surface
18:30of our planet.
18:31First, it slammed into the ocean, creating an initial bowl-shaped crater.
18:36As the shockwave spread, the seabed was shaken so violently that it triggered landslides.
18:42And the soft sediment surrounding the crater collapsed inward, creating a noticeable brim.
18:48As you already know, the impact also triggered a tsunami.
18:52And it was so shockingly powerful that its waves didn't just go outward.
18:56They actually turned back towards the crater, leaving huge scars on the ocean floor.
19:01And this wasn't just one big wave.
19:03No, it was a whole series of them.
19:05A train of tsunamis smashing everything in their path.
19:09Now, this second asteroid impact is a huge deal for scientists.
19:12It's a rare opportunity to study a marine impact crater in such incredible detail.
19:18There are only about 20 confirmed marine craters in the world, and none of them have been captured with this
19:24level of precision before.
19:26Plus, this data allows scientists to test new ideas about how craters form in water.
19:31You see, unlike craters on land, marine craters are hidden under layers of sediment, which makes them tricky to study.
19:38But with this new 3D imaging, we can look at the crater in all its layers.
19:43It's like slicing into a cake to see what's inside.
19:47Dr. Nicholson and his team are now dreaming of drilling into the crater and recovering samples from deep below the
19:53ocean floor.
19:54This would allow them to measure the shock pressure during the impact and figure out what happened in the minutes,
20:00hours, and days following the collision.
20:02Of course, the Chicxulub asteroid is still the star of the show when it comes to the dinosaur's extinction.
20:08This space traveler was giant, somewhere between 6 and 9 miles wide.
20:13It hit Earth at a devastating angle, sending vaporized rock and gas into the atmosphere.
20:19It caused an impact winter that lasted for 15 years, because all that stuff blocked out the sun and plunged
20:26Earth into darkness.
20:28Now, probably the most intriguing thing is that some experts think the Nader asteroid might have been a chunk that
20:35had broken off from Chicxulub before it hit Earth.
20:38It's still just a theory, but if true, it could mean that Earth got hit by a double whammy from
20:44space.
20:44Now, let's travel back in time to the year 1908 in Siberia.
20:49Look around.
20:50You see nothing but trees and rivers.
20:52And suddenly, a huge object, around 150 to 300 feet in diameter, dashes through the Earth's atmosphere.
21:00Is it a comet?
21:01An asteroid?
21:02Scientists aren't sure.
21:03What they do know for sure is that this intruder blew up in the sky over Tunguska, leading to one
21:09of the most powerful blasts in recorded history.
21:12It completely leveled the forest below, knocking out 80 million trees over an area of around 830 square miles.
21:20And that's an area larger than that of cities like Los Angeles or New York.
21:24The trees were literally flattened, and their trunks were stripped of branches.
21:28They were also arranged in a bizarre radial pattern around the epicenter.
21:33But what if this explosion had happened over a city?
21:37Every single building would have been destroyed, and countless lives would have been lost.
21:42Luckily, this disaster occurred in a super remote part of Siberia.
21:46The creepiest thing, though?
21:47When scientists finally reached the area years later, they found no impact crater.
21:53No wonder it led to even more mystery.
21:55The most logical explanation is that when the object went off in the sky, probably around 3 to 6 miles
22:01above the ground, it blew up before it could hit the ground.
22:05And still, it didn't stop the blast from leveling an entire forest.
22:10Fast forward to 2013 and another mind-blowing event, this time over a much more populated area, the city of
22:18Chelyabinsk.
22:18It was a regular February morning when an asteroid about 60 feet in diameter entered Earth's atmosphere, lighting up the
22:26sky.
22:26It was moving at a staggering speed of around 43,000 miles per hour.
22:31It blew up in mid-air, about 18 miles above the city.
22:35It was a horrific view, but luckily, the asteroid disintegrated high enough in the atmosphere without hitting the ground.
22:42If it had touched down, the city would have been in big, big trouble.
22:46Because even though there was no direct impact, the explosion still created a shockwave that tore through the atmosphere, hitting
22:54the ground with enough force to shatter windows all over the place.
22:57The blast damaged around 7,200 buildings, but fortunately, there were no direct fatalities.
23:04Still, it was a major wake-up call.
23:07This wasn't just some far-off cosmic event like Tunguska.
23:11This asteroid exploded over a modern populated area, and the damage was very real.
23:17The good news?
23:18Scientists are getting better at spotting such objects before they get too close.
23:22Space agencies around the world, like NASA, are tracking near-Earth objects to figure out which ones could pose a
23:29risk.
23:30But as we can see from these two events, sometimes space rocks can still sneak up on us.
23:36And while the chances of a major impact are low, the stakes are really high.
23:41At the moment, there's one asteroid that NASA is keeping an eye on.
23:45It's called Bennu, and it's about the same size as the Nader impactor.
23:49Bennu is considered one of the most hazardous objects in near-Earth orbit.
23:54According to NASA, there's a small chance it could hit the Earth between the years 2178 and 2290.
24:01And the biggest risk date is September 24, 2182.
24:06But don't freak out just yet.
24:08The odds of the impact are only 1 in 2,700.
24:12But still, it's a reminder that Earth is always in the cosmic firing line.
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