A question about waves?

Question

Well, I'm sure we've all seen the movie "Posideon". Does anyone think that the rogue wave is even possible?? Some sciencetists say that there is an average wave height, and some smaller and bigger, but a "freak" wave could never get as high as 30 meters (about 100 feet). If this is truely possible, what would cause them to occur?

Answer 1

that would be a tsunami and would be caused by an underwater earthquake.

Answer 2

God?

no sense in worrying about what could happen

Answer 3

A wave, in free open sea, builds up to about 4 meters high in a gale wind of Beaufort 7. If the wind increases to Beaufort 12, which is called hurricane force, waves will build up in amplitude as well. The rule is: The speed of the waves in knots is roughty 1.34 times the square root of the distances between the crests in feet.

But that is only part of the picture. When a train of waves meets shallow ground, the friction shorten the distances between crests and build up the amplitude.

In the 70s, I was in a mini-submarine outside The Netherlands at a shallow depth of about 30 meters. The waves on the surface was estimated to be below 2 meters. Yet we couldn't rest the sub on the seabed because of the swell effect, felt down at 30 meters under the surface!

In those conditions, yes, a rogue wave can reach a hight of 30 meters. In fact, all offshore platforms in the North Sea are designed to withstand a wave of 30 meters; what they call the 100-years wave.

The reason some waves can reach that hight is that they are in a random pattern and once in a while they become harmonic and amplify each other.