A killer wave off the coast of Canada has set a world record. It was not the largest in history, but several times the height of all the surrounding waves. For a long time, such a phenomenon was considered a fiction, but since the killer waves were detected by instruments, scientists are forced to look for an explanation for them. In 2020, scientists discovered a record killer wave off Vancouver Island, off the Pacific coast of Canada. An article about this was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

From time immemorial, sailors have told stories of giant rogue waves appearing out of nowhere with relatively little swell. There was little such evidence, and scientists for a long time refused to believe in the existence of such waves, since they do not fit into the scientific understanding of the sea. According to classical models, waves in a certain area of ​​water are always uniform, and tsunamis are formed solely due to earthquakes or other events such as explosions. In addition, tsunamis are almost invisible in deep water.

However, in the 1990s, scientists had to change their minds, as the phenomenon was recorded using instruments on an oil platform. A distinctive feature of such single killer waves is that they significantly exceed the height of the surrounding sea.

A wave detected off Vancouver Island in 2020 was 17.6 meters high and three times the average height of the surrounding waves. Despite the fact that killer waves can reach almost 30 meters, a threefold difference in height with the surrounding waves made it possible to fix a world record. For comparison: the Dropner wave observed in 1995, at a height of 25 meters, was twice as large as the surrounding crests.

"Only a few rogue waves in history have been directly recorded, and this is the first with such a large amplitude," says Johannes Gemmrich of the Canadian Victorian University. “This happens about once every 1,300 years.”

Scientists spent two years trying to confirm the fixation of the phenomenon.

The wave, named Yuklulet (named after the nearby peninsula), was discovered by a measuring buoy of the MarineLabs project. The buoy data made it possible to reconstruct the shape of the wave. “It looks like a mound the size of a four-story house, sticking out of the water, in front of which depressions are visible,” Scott Beatty, head of MarineLabs, told CNN.

Despite the fact that the height of the wave is known, the researchers still have many questions. “Most of these observations are made usingle buoy at one point, and therefore when a wave passes, we know its height, but we do not know its length,” the authors of the work say.

In addition, scientists do not have an unambiguous explanation for this phenomenon. There are several hypotheses. For example, a particular shape of the shore or seabed can send waves that are in phase towards each other, in which case their heights add up. In addition, waves from one current can move into a counter current, which will shorten their length and increase their height. Finally, there is a mathematical explanation that follows from the non-linear Schrödinger equation. According to him, in simple terms, in some situations, the wave begins to absorb the energy of the waves in front and behind it. This model was confirmed during tests in the wave pool.

However, no single hypothesis is able to explain all the recorded cases, and therefore the researchers suggest that several different physical phenomena may be behind the formation of killer waves. One can only say unequivocally that such a phenomenon poses a threat to sailors and shipping, since a killer wave, unlike a storm, cannot be predicted, and its sudden appearance leaves the crew little time to prepare and maneuver.

In addition, people living by the sea can also be at risk if a wave forms near the coast. Scientists hope that in the future they will be able to unravel the cause of the appearance of such natural phenomena and begin to somehow predict them.

Previously, scientists hypothesized that it was killer waves that led to the death of ships in the Bermuda Triangle.

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