Scientists are trying to understand how monstrous water mountains arise in the ocean
Portugal is famous for its giant waves. Here in the vicinity of the city of Nazare on Praia do Norte beach, American Garrett McNamara, set two world records in surfing. First, he rode on a wave with a height of 23 meters, and then safely rolled down a 33-meter water mountain.
A surfer slides off a 30-meter wave in Portugal
Waves conquered by people
It is generally accepted that waves rolling onto the shore can hardly be higher than 33-35 meters. But it turns out that there is a place on our planet where water mountains can rise up to 40 meters. It is located on the western side of Ireland. Waves of unprecedented heights arise here during winter storms.
Waves that roll onto the coast of Ireland catch up with winds and cyclones
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36-year-old British surfer Andrew Cotton is set to break McNamara's record and is waiting for the right wave - that is, monstrous. In this he is helped by scientists - oceanologists and meteorologists, who, focusing on ocean currents and weather, calculate the appearance of a water monster. Nowadays, computer programs have been created with the help of which a very accurate forecast has become possible.
Giant waves near Nazare arise as a result of the interaction of the bottom landscape and the current. Off the coast of Ireland, they are formed by air vortices and strong winds.
Scientists track the approach of abnormally large waves
AT THIS TIME
Waves with a 12-storey building
The conditions under which the formation of giant surf waves is possible are known. But scientists give in to the open ocean. And they cannot yet understand where the waves with a height of several tens of meters come from - the so-called wandering waves. Or killer waves. They are not tsunamis. These waves, like ghosts, suddenly appear as a foam, then as a bluish-black wall from the ocean surface, crash on the decks of ships and disappear into no one knows where. Until recently, scientists did not believe in them at all, despite numerous testimonies and even documentary photographs.
“It was stormy, but not strong,” said Philippe Lizhour, first mate of the oil tanker Esso Languedoc. - Suddenly a huge wave appeared from the stern, many times higher than all the others. She covered the entire ship, even the masts disappeared under the water.
The tanker remained afloat. His team was lucky. And while the water was rolling across the deck, Philip managed to grab the camera and shoot the receding wave. According to his estimates, the shaft shot up at least 30 meters. It happened in 1980 east of the South African coast.
The wave photographed by Philippe Lizhour
It took almost a quarter of a century for scientists to finally start studying the phenomenon. During this time, as a result of encounters with roaming waves, more than 200 ships went to the bottom. Among them there are 22 huge - "unsinkable" - supertankers.
A giant wave that nearly drowned a merchant ship in the Biyskay Bay
By the way, the killer waves are visible from satellites. The buoys placed in the oceans react to abnormal vibrations. On average, the equipment records 3-4 shafts with a height of at least 25 meters per day. However, scientists believe that not everyone comes into view. Research by Professor Nail Akhmediev of the National Australian University (ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering) shows that at any given time, 10 giant waves are rising somewhere.
A killer wave ground in an archived image from space
The mystery of nature
The height of the wave depends on the strength of the wind, how long it blows, and the area of open water. For example, a hurricane with a force of 12 points, which is very rare, sweeping through the widest body of water, 17,700 kilometers from Panama to Malaysia (Pacific Ocean), is able to catch waves with an average height of 4.2 meters in one hour.
Further calculations show that the waves rise by 14.1 meters per day, but in the end, even in a week, they will not rise above 20.7 meters. The giant shafts discovered from space do not fit into such parameters. Although they are "only" 25 meters long.
And there were giants and larger ones. On the morning of February 7, 1933, the US Navy ship Ramapo, which was sailing from Manila to San Diego, was hit by a wave 34 meters high - the size of a 12-story building. The duty officer had time to estimate.
Now scientists are ready to believe that waves of 50 meters can be expected in the vastness of the ocean. After all, 30-meters, contrary to all calculations, appear in a very limited space. And without a strong wind. For example, in the North Sea. In 1995, one of them, later called the "January Wave", demolished equipment from the Statoil gas production platform, which stood at a height of 31 meters.
Comparison of normal waves with anomalous: 1. Spertanker 458 meters long. 2. An ordinary storm surge. 3. The killer wave. 4. A person of average height
Scientists are currently conducting research under a project called WaveAtlas. The goal is to at least have time to warn the crews of the ships caught in the path of the monsters, since it is not yet possible to understand their nature.
Oddities have already been discovered that did not add clarity: some giant waves gradually rise in rows of three, four, or even five walls and overcome thousands of kilometers without falling. Others rise up suddenly and just as suddenly disappear without a trace. There are only advice: oil workers - to increase the height of platforms above sea level by 20 percent, transport workers - to strengthen cargo hatches, sea tourists - to pray.
A 33-meter wave in the North Sea rolls over the ship. 33-meter wave in the North Sea rolls over the ship
HYPOTHESES
This is the kind of dispersive focusing obtained
Some mathematicians try to calculate the maximum wave height, assuming that ultrahigh waves are formed from the addition of smaller ones as a result of the so-called dispersive focusing. It turns out badly.
Others unsuccessfully draw on equations describing chaotic processes that are akin to those that shake the world's financial markets.
Still others sin on currents. Giant waves can indeed often be found where winds slow down fast ocean currents. Maybe from this there are some kind of dams? Suddenly weakening, the winds "release" the water, which rushes on in monstrous ramparts? Such a mechanism is not excluded. But he does not explain the appearance of roving giants where there are no currents at all.
Anomalous people believe that in some areas of the ocean "local gravitational fluctuations take place." Simply put, the force of gravity decreases or increases sharply. A depression or hump appears.
Waves many times greater than those nearby baffle scientists
Some very serious scientists, for example from the same National Australian University - recognized authorities in the field of the study of giant waves, assure: in addition to giant humps, depressions can indeed appear - such extended dips on the surface of the water. They are called inverted waves. There are also enough tales about this phenomenon. Although there is no documentary evidence.
And vast gravitational anomalies are not so fiction. In some places, the “mirror” of the World Ocean has convexities and concavities several tens of meters deep. This is visible to astronauts from orbit. They were the first to notice such miracles, the existence of which scientists explain by the difference in gravity. What if the "difference" can move as a result of some processes in the depths and "launch" giant waves?
Vladimir LAGOVSKY