Doom Waves That Rise from Nowhere to Attack

Bright Side

Imagine you're out at sea, and out of nowhere, a massive wall of water—bigger than a building—rises up to attack. 🌊 These are rogue waves, mysterious giants that seem to defy the rules of the ocean. They can appear suddenly, even when the sea looks calm, and they're so powerful they’ve sunk ships without warning. Scientists are still figuring out how they form, but it’s like nature’s ultimate surprise attack! 🌪️🌊 What’s wild is that rogue waves can tower over 100 feet, making them taller than most stories you hear about the sea. Dive in to discover the truth about these ocean monsters! 🚢  Credit: CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/: Simulación Tsunami: by Carmen Álvarez Cobos, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simulaci%C3%B3n_Tsunami.ogv Ile de ré: by Michel Griffon, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ile_de_r%C3%A9.JPG Wave Animation: by NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rossby_Wave_Animation.webm Aerial Superhighway: by NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_Superhighway.ogv Animation is created by Bright Side.  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV   Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other): https://www.depositphotos.com https://www.shutterstock.com https://www.eastnews.ru ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00Ah, the sea is kinda rough today.

00:05Nothing special, but still, you have that sinking feeling in your stomach.

00:09Call it a sense of foreboding.

00:11Something bad is going to happen, and then you hear terrified shouts.

00:16You turn around and see a giant wave, much higher than the one surrounding it.

00:20Is it a tsunami?

00:22That's true.

00:23When people think of frightening destructive waves, tsunamis are the first thing to come

00:27to mind.

00:28But the one that is going to crash against your ship has a different nature.

00:32It's a rogue wave.

00:35Both tsunamis and rogue waves can lead to catastrophic consequences.

00:39But the difference lies in what causes these walls of water and where the destruction they

00:44bring about occurs.

00:46So imagine a giant 60-foot-tall wave rolling over your ship.

00:51It's a miracle that the vessel doesn't sink.

00:54This massive wave, a rogue wave, seems to have appeared out of the blue, very suddenly

00:59and unexpectedly.

01:01But however mysterious, solitary, and ominous rogue waves may seem, they're actually not

01:06that rare.

01:08Now imagine the average room in your house.

01:11The ceiling there is likely 8 feet high.

01:13A typical two-story house is somewhere between 20 and 30 feet high.

01:17And the Statue of Liberty is 111 feet tall if we measure it from the toes to the top

01:23of the head.

01:24Now you have something to compare rogue waves with.

01:27The largest of such waves can reach a height of 50 to 90 feet.

01:32To be considered rogue, a wave must appear seemingly out of nowhere and be higher than

01:37other waves in the area.

01:39But how much higher is still under debate.

01:42Some experts think it should be at least twice as high as other large waves in the area,

01:47while others disagree.

01:49Rogue waves are also steeper than regular waves, which normally take the form of massive

01:54swells.

01:55This allows ships to maneuver up and down such waves, even when they're really high.

02:00A rogue wave, however, looks like a wall of water.

02:03And since it's steeper than other waves, it slams into a ship with enormous force,

02:09sometimes breaking over the vessel.

02:12Another reason why rogue waves are a mystery is that no one has ever filmed the formation

02:17of such a wave and followed its life cycle.

02:20There are several photos of rogue waves, but for many centuries, the only evidence of their

02:26existence was legends and stories told by sailors who survived them.

02:32Scientists are still not sure how rogue waves form.

02:35But one theory involves wave reinforcement.

02:38It happens when two waves interact, and their heights get combined.

02:43So when a 15-foot wave passes over a 30-foot one, let's do the math, it results in a

02:48short-living 45-foot wave.

02:52But rogue waves can occur not only in the ocean.

02:55On November 10, 1975, on Lake Superior, a group of three rogue waves, also known as

03:01the Three Sisters, might have sunk the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, an American Great Lakes

03:07freighter.

03:08The ship and the crew members were lost in the catastrophe.

03:12The waves followed each other too closely, so the ship couldn't recover and shed the

03:16water from the first wave before the following one struck.

03:20The captain of a ship that was not far from the Fitzgerald reported that his vessel had

03:25been hit by two 30- to 35-foot waves.

03:28These waves, likely followed by a third one, then moved further in the direction of the

03:32Fitzgerald and might have caused the sinking.

03:36Now let's wave bye-bye to that, and let's move on to tsunamis.

03:41It is an extremely dangerous natural disaster.

03:44It's very different from rogue waves.

03:46In most cases, a tsunami is caused by an underwater earthquake.

03:50Usually, when a tsunami is born, it's just a few feet high.

03:54But the closer it gets to the shore, the larger it grows.

03:58Soon it enters shallow waters and starts to slow down.

04:02The first tsunami wave crashes against the shore.

04:05Its top moves faster than the bottom, and that's what makes the wave so high and steep.

04:11The lowest point of the wave gets to dry land first.

04:14In the process, it creates a vacuum effect that pulls the water away from the coast,

04:19burying the harbor and seafloor.

04:22Those who recognize this first sign of an approaching tsunami still have a chance to

04:26save their lives.

04:28Five minutes later, an enormous wall of water hits the shore and wipes out everything in

04:33its way.

04:35But it's not just a single wave.

04:37There are many.

04:38This phenomenon is called a wave train.

04:41How fast this train is traveling depends not on how far it is from the source of the waves,

04:47but on the ocean depth.

04:49Tsunamis can move as fast as a jet plane in the middle of the ocean, but once they enter

04:53shallow waters, their speed drops.

04:56The first tsunami wave isn't usually the strongest, but lots of people don't know

05:01it and make the grave mistake that sometimes costs them their lives.

05:05After the first wave is gone, they relax and believe the danger is over.

05:10That's why the next waves, much bigger and more powerful, catch them off guard.

05:16Sometimes a tsunami comes as a torrent of foaming water.

05:19At other times, it makes the sea withdraw, leaving behind stranded fish and overturned

05:25boats.

05:26Also, if you spot a slight rise in sea level, it might be the sign of an approaching tsunami.

05:32The incoming water is the first tsunami wave.

05:35The second one can be even larger, and it comes some time later.

05:39You can also notice seawater bubbling, swirling, and creating bizarre patterns.

05:44It's another sure sign a tsunami is near.

05:48Repeated wave surges can also warn you about a tsunami.

05:52If you see unusual swells coming at regular intervals, it might be time to evacuate to

05:58high ground.

06:00Surprisingly, some of the largest tsunami waves in the world were caused by landslides.

06:06For example, a landslide in LaTuya Bay in Alaska formed a megawave, one of the largest

06:12ever recorded.

06:14Its height was 1,720 feet.

06:18A mega-tsunami surged over the headland, washing away trees, plants, and soil down to bedrock.

06:24The wave reached more than half the height of the Burj Khalifa, the tallest construction

06:29in the world.

06:30When a third of the East Molokai volcano in Hawaii caved in and collapsed into the Pacific

06:35Ocean, it triggered a tsunami the size of one of the tallest buildings in the world,

06:41Shanghai Tower.

06:42The wave was around 2,000 feet high.

06:47Another bizarre and dangerous ocean phenomenon is square waves.

06:51They appear when two different wave patterns crash into each other at 90 degrees.

06:56It often happens near peninsulas or land where two different seas or oceans meet.

07:02This phenomenon does kinda look spectacular, but only if you're watching it from the shore.

07:07Don't even think about getting in the water to play with such waves.

07:11Cross currents in that spot can easily pull even a skilled swimmer under the water.

07:16Square waves have caused many shipping accidents over the years too.

07:21And if you see wild choppy waves carrying ocean debris and seaweed, stay out of the

07:26water too!

07:27It can be a sign of a strong rip current.

07:30That can carry you far away into the ocean.

07:33And now let me tell you about a much larger, I would even say planet-wide phenomenon called

07:39raspy waves.

07:40There are two kinds of such waves – oceanic and atmospheric.

07:45Since we're talking about ocean waves, yeah.

07:48Slow-moving raspy waves are totally different from ocean surface waves.

07:52They don't look like those waves that break along the shore.

07:56No, raspy waves are giant movements of the ocean stretching horizontally across the planet.

08:03They can span hundreds of miles in a western direction and are so massive, they can change

08:08the climate conditions of our planet.

08:10They contribute to high tides and even flooding in some areas all over the world.

08:16The movement of raspy waves are complicated and depend on the location.

08:21For example, in the Pacific, waves that are closer to the equator take from a few months

08:26to a year to travel across the ocean.

08:29At the same time, waves further away from the equator often need more than 10 years

08:34to make this journey.

08:35So as it goes by, be sure to wave!

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