Member-only story
The Largest Rogue Wave Ever Recorded Was Spotted Recently
It was haunting the seas off the coast of British Columbia
For the longest time, rogue waves were seen as a fantasy. Captains would tell of massive waves that lifted ships dozens of feet into the air but their existence was impossible to prove. That ambiguity led many to believe that rogue waves were fables like giant squids and leviathans. But recent technology has allowed scientists to confirm the existence of rogue waves. Now, we know that these massive walls of water are indeed real and they haunt the seas. We just aren’t sure why. At least, not yet.
The most massive one of these waves was just recorded off of the coast of Canada and it was a doozy.
What are rogue waves?
Rogue waves are mammoth waves that appear in the open ocean without any discernable cause. Humanity is no stranger to giant waves but many times giant waves have an easily recognizable cause such as earthquakes or hurricanes. Rogue waves appear out of nowhere and do not have any readily available cause. Rogue waves can rise dozens of feet above the surrounding water making them extremely dangerous.
A rogue wave is defined as an area of water that rises at least twice the height of the surrounding ocean.
The “most extreme” rogue wave ever recorded
On November 17th, 2020, a wave raised an ocean buoy 58 feet above the surrounding sea. This event has now been labeled the most extreme rogue wave ever recorded so far. Scientists are calling the wave a once in a millennium event due to its sheer size.
The wave was roughly three times the height of the surrounding waves which marks the tallest such wave ever seen up until this point.
The rogue wave was recorded about four miles off of the coast of Vancouver Island in Canada.
A ship caught in a neighboring trough would have observed a wall of water that towered over 50 feet above them. Tales like this have punctuated tales from the sea for hundreds of years but up until now, they have not been able to be verified as fact.
