For a long time, monster waves were dismissed as sailor’s fairy tales. But they really exist. And scientists are now revealing the detection of a very monstrous specimen.

A monster wave is an unpredictable gigantic wave at sea, which seems to appear out of nowhere and can endanger even large ships. For a long time, however, monster waves were dismissed as sailor’s fairy tales. We now know that they really exist. And just recently, researchers detected a giant one in Canada.

More about monster waves
Monster waves are surprisingly high compared to surrounding waves. They are defined as waves with a height that is more than double the waves that occur around it. In the Netherlands, these waves are also known as Rogue wave or Freak wave. And that’s not for nothing. Because they act very unexpectedly and with enormous force, they are particularly dangerous. For this reason, disasters such as the sinking of ships are often attributed to the sudden appearance of a monster wave.

The monster wave in question that appeared off the coast of Canada in November 2020 was no less than 17.6 meters high. With this bizarre height, the wave could compete with a building of at least four floors, the researchers write in their studies† Experts tracked it down using strategically placed sensor buoys scattered along the coast of Canada’s Ucluelet Peninsula.

most extreme ever

Experts have now bombed this monstrous specimen as the ‘most extreme monster wave ever measured’. And that’s not for nothing. The waves surrounding this over seventeen meters high specimen only reached a height of six meters. It means that the monster wave was more than three times the size of the waves around it.

The monster wave in question measured off the coast of Canada. The wave was more than three times the size of the waves around it. Image: MarineLabs

“Proportionally, it is probably the most extreme monster wave ever detected,” said researcher Johannes Gemmrich. “So far, some monster waves have been observed, but not of this magnitude. The chance of this occurring is once every 1,300 years.”

The first monster wave

As mentioned, monster waves have long been portrayed as sailor’s fairy tales. Until 1995, when researchers off the coast of Norway made the first measurements of such a monster wave around an oil rig. The ‘Draupner wave’ as this first detected specimen is called, reached a height of 26 meters. This made it about twice the size of the waves around it, which reached about 12 meters high.

Dangerous

The company MarineLabs plans to more than double the number of sensor buoys, leaving nearly 70 buoys floating at sea by the end of this year. In this way, researchers hope to gain a better understanding of when, where and how the waves form. And that is very important. “The unpredictability of monster waves and the sheer power of these ‘walls of water’ make them incredibly dangerous,” said MarineLabs CEO Scott Beatty. “We aim to improve safety through measurements along global coastlines.”

The fact that experts have now succeeded in detecting the more than seventeen meters high monster wave off the coast of Canada is therefore a major step forward. “The detection of this once-in-a-millennium wave shows how we can use technology to our advantage to make the sea a safer place,” said Beatty.