Bit Of A Wave...

[Amadeus]

Vessel Measures Record Ocean Swells

 

From Spiegel International

 

A British research team has observed some of the biggest sea swells ever measured. A whole series of giant waves hammered into their ship that were so big, according to computer models used to set safety standards for ships and oil rigs, they shouldn't even exist.

 

When the RRS Discovery set out to sea, the crew was expecting stormy weather. Meteorologists had predicted a violent storm, and the scientists -- a team from Britain's National Oceanography Center -- wanted to observe it from up close. What they ended up experiencing went far beyond anything they could have imagined -- and could have cost them their lives.

 

Near the island of Rockall, 250 kilometers (155 miles) west of Scotland, enormous waves came racing toward the vessel. When they checked their measuring instruments later, the scientists discovered that the tallest of these monster waves had hit nearly 30 meters (98 feet) at wind force 9. And it didn't come alone. "We were shaken up these waves for 12 hours," said Naomi Holliday, the leader of the expedition. Entire sets of giant waves hammered the ship.

 

With a height of up to 29.1 meters (95 feet) from trough to crest, the single waves are the highest ever measured. In terms of so-called significant wave height, they established a new record, according to the scientists: 18.5 meters (61 feet). Significant wave height is the median height of a wave's upper third. It corresponds roughly to the sea swell that experienced sailors can estimate with the naked eye.

 

Get a load of that - hitting a 95 footer - boy, that must have been fun! Although the actual trip appears to have been in 2000, the research is still ongoing, and only god knows what surprises the sea has in store for all the vessels out there - I still would have paid good money to be on board when they went on that trip, though

 

Some pics of what "the big one" might have looked like:

 

 

On the web:

 

"Freak Wave" - web summary from a 2002 BBC programme

 

Heavy Seas - some absolutely awesome pictures from the not-so-calm sailings

 

Does anyone remember the pictures of the damage done to the Lady by a freak wave years ago? Seems, the big ones visit the Irish Sea once in a while - how did the announcement go at the start of the sailing? "Welcome on board the Ben My Chree - sit back, relax, and enjoy the crossing!"

[Albert Tatlock]

Call that a wave?

 

"One flank of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma, in the Canaries, is unstable and could plunge into the ocean during the volcano's next eruption. If this collapsed in one block of almost 20 cubic kilometres of rock, weighing 500 billion tonnes - twice the size of the Isle of Wight - it would fall into water almost 4 miles deep and create an undersea wave 2000 feet tall. Within five minutes of the landslide, a dome of water about a mile high would form and then collapse, before the Mega Tsunami fanned out in every direction, travelling at speeds of up to 500 mph. A 330ft wave would strike the western Sahara in less than an hour."

 

...with the added benefit that St Johns would get a marina.

 

Now that's a wave!

[manxchatterbox]

http://www.manxforums.com/forums/index.php...8820&hl=tsunami

 

yes its definately on the way!!!

[Gladys]

Horizon has covered the 'freak wave' scenario and that programme has been doing the rounds relentlessly on Sky over the past couple of years. Worrying, but not everything is under man's control!