Rogue wave

A study by the European Space Agency in 2001 using satellite data found more than 10 high amplitude rogue waves occurring within a three-week period.

So maybe all those ships of yore that disappeared into thin air were actually sunk by monster waves because rogue waves aren't so rare after all.

Why were scientists so wrong? Well, it turns out ocean waves are really complicated.

More complicated than just superposition.

It rose from a sea where the surrounding waves averaged only 12 meters.

This was the first undeniable instrument-verified rogue wave.

Ocean wave physics required a complete re-evaluation, as what was once considered folklore had undeniably become fact.

The Droppner wave gave scientists a clear definition to work with.

A rogue wave is a wave whose height is more than double the significant wave height, a metric defined as the average height of the tallest one-third of the waves in a given area.

It is an outlier not because of its absolute size, but because of its extreme size relative to the sea state around it.

This new understanding really made us see the historical data differently.

Researchers now believe that rogue waves were responsible for at least 22 supertankers between 1969 and 1994, resulting in the loss of more than 500 lives.

And one day, that's exactly what happened to Brett out on the water.

He said it was a rogue wave, like the timing of it.

Um-

A student was driving

The sailor's bane.

A rogue wave.

Now, rogue waves result from the interference of different wave systems, swells from different storms and wind-driven waves and ocean currents all combining at once to create this single enormous wave before it eventually dissipates.

They were actually once the stuff of legend, you know, old salts coming back and claiming waves of such immense height that landlubbers dismissed such claims as, you know, sailors' dross.

But the advent of deep-sea buoys and other measurement tools would suggest that these waves do occur, and quite frequently.

So yes, they were in great peril.

Perhaps the greatest danger they'd been in since leaving Elephant Island.

Greater even than the encounter with the Rogue Wave.