Over thousands of years of navigation, people have learned to deal with the dangers of the water elements. Pilot directions indicate a safe route, weather forecasters warn about storms, satellites monitor icebergs and other dangerous objects. However, it is still unclear how to protect yourself from a thirty-meter wave that suddenly appears for no apparent reason. Just fifteen years ago, mysterious rogue waves were considered fiction.
Sometimes the appearance of giant waves on the surface of the ocean is quite understandable and expected, but sometimes they are a real mystery. Often such a wave is a death sentence for any vessel. The name of these mysteries is rogue waves.
You will hardly find a sailor who has not been baptized by a storm. Because, to paraphrase a well-known saying, to be afraid of storms means not to go out to sea. Since the dawn of navigation, a storm has been the best test of both courage and professionalism. And if the favorite theme of war veterans’ memories is past battles, then the “sea wolves” will certainly tell you about the whistling wind that blew away radio antennas and radars, and the huge roaring waves that almost swallowed their ship. Which, perhaps, was “the very best.”
But already 200 years ago there was a need to clarify the strength of the storm. Therefore, in 1806, the Irish hydrographer and admiral of the British fleet Francis Beaufort (1774-1875) introduced a special scale according to which the weather at sea was classified depending on the degree of influence of the wind on the water surface. It was divided into thirteen levels: from zero (complete calm) to 12 points (hurricane). In the twentieth century, with some changes (in 1946 it was 17-point), it was adopted by the International Meteorological Committee - including for the classification of winds on land. Since then, hats have been involuntarily taken off to a sailor who has gone through a 12-point “swell” - because they have at least heard what it is: huge heaving shafts, the tops of which are blown into continuous clouds of spray and foam by a hurricane wind.
However, for the terrible phenomenon that regularly hits the southeastern tip of the North American continent, a new scale had to be invented in 1920. This is the five-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which evaluates not so much the power of the element itself, but the destruction it causes.
According to this scale, a hurricane of the first category (wind speed 119-153 km/h) breaks tree branches and causes some damage to small ships at the pier. A category three hurricane (179-209 km/h) knocks down trees, tears off roofs and destroys light prefabricated houses, and floods the coastline. The worst hurricane of the fifth category (more than 255 km/h) destroys most buildings and causes serious flooding - driving large masses of water onto land. This is exactly what happened to the infamous Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.
The Caribbean Sea, where up to ten hurricanes forming in the Atlantic sweep through each year between June 1 and November 30, has long been considered one of the most dangerous areas for navigation. And living on the islands of this basin is by no means safe - especially in such a poor country as Haiti - where there is neither a normal warning service nor the ability to evacuate from a dangerous coast. In 2004, Hurricane Jenny killed 1,316 people there. The wind, roaring like a squadron of jet planes, blew away dilapidated huts along with their occupants and brought palm trees down on people's heads. And foaming waves rolled towards them from the sea.
One can only imagine what the crew of a ship experiencing when it finds itself in the “heavy heat” of such a hurricane. However, it happens that ships do not die during a storm at all.
In April 2005, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, leaving the fabulous Bahamas, was heading to New York Harbor. The sea was slightly stormy, but the huge 300-meter ship could simply afford to ignore such disturbances. Two and a half thousand passengers had fun in restaurants, walked along the decks and took photographs for memory.
Suddenly the liner tilted sharply, and in the next seconds a gigantic wave crashed onto its side, knocking out the cabin windows. It swept through the ship, sweeping away sun loungers in its path, overturning boats and the Jacuzzi installed on the 12th deck, knocking passengers and sailors off their feet.
“It was pure hell,” said James Fraley, one of the passengers who was celebrating his honeymoon on the liner with his wife. — Streams of water rolled over the decks. We started calling family and friends to say goodbye, deciding that the ship was sinking.”
So the Norwegian Dawn encountered one of the most mysterious and terrible ocean anomalies - a giant rogue wave. In the West they received various names: freak, rogue, rabid-dog, giant waves, cape rollers, steep wave events, etc.
The ship was very lucky - it escaped with only minor damage to the hull, property washed overboard and injured passengers. But the wave that suddenly hit him didn’t get its ominous nickname for nothing. The liner could well have suffered the fate of the Hollywood Poseidon, which turned upside down in the film of the same name. Or, even worse, simply break in half and drown, becoming the second Titanic.
Back in 1840, during his expedition, the French navigator Dumont d'Urville (Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville, 1792-1842) observed a giant wave about 35 m high. But his message at a meeting of the French Geographical Society caused only ironic laughter. None of the scientists could believe that such waves could exist.
They began to study this phenomenon seriously only after the English cargo ship Derbyshire sank off the coast of Japan in 1980. As the examination showed, the ship, almost 300 meters long, was destroyed by a gigantic wave, which pierced the main cargo hatch and flooded the hold. 44 people died. In the same year, the oil tanker Esso Languedoc collided with a rogue wave east of the coast of South Africa.
“It was stormy, but not very strong,” the English magazine New Scientist quoted senior mate Philippe Lijour as saying. “Suddenly a huge wave appeared from the stern, many times higher than all the others. It covered the entire ship, even the masts disappeared under the water.”
While the water was rolling along the deck, Philip managed to grab a photo of it. According to his estimates, the shaft shot up at least 30 meters. The tanker was lucky - it remained afloat. However, these two cases were the last straw, causing companies involved in the export and import of raw materials to panic. After all, it was believed that transporting it on giant ships was not only more economically profitable, but also safer - they say that such ships, which are “knee-deep in the sea,” are not afraid of any storm.
Alas! Between 1969 and 1994 alone, twenty-two supertankers sank or were seriously damaged in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans when encountering such waves, killing five hundred and twenty-five people. Twelve more similar tragedies occurred during this time in the Indian Ocean. Offshore oil platforms also suffer from them. Thus, on February 15, 1982, a rogue wave overturned a Mobil Oil rig in the Newfoundland Bank area, killing eighty-four workers.
But an even greater number of small vessels (trawlers, pleasure yachts) when encountering rogue waves simply disappear without a trace, without even having time to send a distress signal. Giant water shafts as high as a fifteen-story building crushed or smashed small boats. The skill of the helmsmen did not help either: if someone managed to turn his nose towards the wave, then his fate was the same as that of the unfortunate fishermen in the film “The Perfect Storm”: the boat, trying to climb onto the crest, became vertical - and fell off down, falling into the abyss with the keel up.
Rogue waves usually occur during a storm. This is the same “ninth wave” that sailors are so afraid of - but, fortunately, not everyone happens to encounter it. If the height of ordinary storm crests is on average 4-6 meters (10-15 for a hurricane), then a wave that suddenly appears among them can reach a height of 25-30 meters.
However, rarer, and much more dangerous rogue waves appear in fairly calm weather - and this is not called anything other than an anomaly. At first they tried to justify them by the collision of sea currents: most often such waves appear at the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa), where warm and cold currents connect. It is there that sometimes the so-called “three sisters” - three giant waves following one after another, upon which, rising, the supertankers break under their own weight.
But reports of deadly waves also came from other parts of the planet. They were also seen in the Black Sea - “only” ten meters high, but this was enough to capsize several small trawlers. In 2006, such a wave hit the British ferry Pont-Aven, which was traveling along the Pas-de-Calais Strait. She broke windows at the height of the sixth deck, injuring several passengers.
What causes the surface of the sea to suddenly rise up like a gigantic wave? Both serious scientists and amateur theorists develop a variety of hypotheses. The waves are recorded by satellites from space, their models are created in research basins, but they still cannot explain the reasons for all cases of rogue waves.
But the causes that cause the most terrible and destructive sea waves - tsunamis - have long been established and studied.
Seaside resorts are not always a paradise on the planet. Sometimes they become a real hell - when unexpectedly, in clear and sunny weather, gigantic shafts of water fall on them, washing away entire cities along the way.
...These images went around the whole world: unsuspecting tourists who, out of curiosity, went to the bottom of the suddenly receding sea to pick up a few shells and starfish. And suddenly they notice a rapidly approaching wave appearing on the horizon. The poor people are trying to escape, but a muddy, seething stream overtakes and captures them, and then rushes towards the whitewashed houses on the coast...
The disaster that erupted on December 26, 2004 in Southeast Asia shocked humanity. A giant wave swept away everything in its path, spreading across the Indian Ocean. Sumatra and Java, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, Thailand were affected, and the wave even reached the east coast of Africa. The Andaman Islands went under water for several hours - and the local aborigines miraculously survived, saving themselves on the treetops. As a result of the disaster, more than 230 thousand people died; it took more than a month to find and bury them all. Millions of people were left homeless and without a means of livelihood. The tragedy turned out to be one of the largest and most tragic natural disasters in human history.
“A high wave entering the harbor” is how the word “tsunami” is translated from Japanese. In 99% of cases, tsunamis are caused by an earthquake of the ocean floor when it suddenly drops or rises. Just a few meters, but over a huge area - and this is enough to cause a wave spreading out from the epicenter in a circle. In the open sea, its speed reaches 800 km/h, but it is almost impossible to notice it, since its height is only about one, maximum two meters - but with a length of up to several kilometers. The ship under which it passes will only rock slightly - that is why, having received a warning, ships strive to leave the ports and go as far out to sea as possible.
The situation changes when the wave approaches the shore, in shallow water (enters the harbor). Its speed and length drop sharply, but its height increases - up to seven, ten or more meters (cases of 40-meter tsunamis are known). It bursts onto the land like a solid wall and has enormous energy - that’s why tsunamis are so destructive and can travel several hundred and sometimes thousands of meters along the ground. Moreover, each tsunami hits twice. At first, when it hits the shore, flooding it. And then - when the water begins to return to the sea, carrying away those who survived the first blow.
In 1755, a tsunami caused by a devastating earthquake killed 40 thousand Portuguese. A formidable ocean wave hit Japan on June 15, 1896: the height of the wave reached 35 meters, then 27 thousand people died, and all coastal towns and villages in an 800 km strip ceased to exist. In 1992, a tsunami killed 2,000 Indonesian islanders.
Experienced residents of coastal cities and towns in seismically dangerous areas know: as soon as an earthquake begins, and after it a sudden and rapid ebb of tide, you need to drop everything and run without looking back to higher ground or inland. In a number of regions regularly affected by tsunamis (Japan, Sakhalin, Hawaii), special warning services have been created. They record an earthquake in the ocean and immediately give an alarm to all the media and through street loudspeakers.
But tsunamis can be caused not only by earthquakes. The explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883 caused a wave that struck the islands of Java and Sumatra, washing away more than 5,000 fishing boats, about 300 villages and killing more than 36,000 people. And in Lituya Bay (Alaska), a tsunami caused a landslide that collapsed a mountainside into the sea. The wave spread over a limited area, but its height was enormous - over three hundred meters, while hitting the opposite shore, it licked the bushes at an altitude of 580 meters!
However, this is not the limit. The largest and most destructive waves are generated when large meteorites or asteroids fall into the ocean. True, fortunately, this happens extremely rarely - once every few million years. But this cataclysm is taking on the scale of a truly planetary flood. For example, German scientists have established that about 200 million years ago a large cosmic body crashed into the Earth. It raised a tsunami over one kilometer high, which burst onto the continental plains, destroying all life in its path.
Rogue waves should not be confused with tsunamis: tsunamis arise as a result of seismic phenomena and gain great height only close to the coast, while rogue waves can appear for no known reason, in almost any part of the sea, with low winds and relatively low waves. Tsunamis are dangerous for coastal structures and ships close to the shore, while a rogue wave can destroy any ship or offshore structure that comes its way.
Where do these monsters come from? Until recently, oceanographers believed that they were formed as a result of well-known linear processes. According to the prevailing theory, large waves are simply the product of interference, in which small waves combine into one large one.
In some cases, this is exactly what happens. A good example of this is the waters off Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent. The Atlantic and Indian oceans meet there. Ships rounding the cape are regularly attacked by huge waves, which are formed as a result of the collision of the fast Agulyas Current and winds blowing from the south. The movement of the water slows down, and the waves begin to pile on top of each other, forming giant waves. In addition, super waves can often be found in the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Current south of the coast of Japan and in the notorious waters off Cape Horn, where the same thing happens - fast currents collide with opposing winds.
However, the interference mechanism does not apply to all giant waves. Firstly, it is in no way suitable for justifying the appearance of giant waves in places like the North Sea. There are no traces of fast currents there.
Secondly, even if interference occurs, giant waves should not occur so often. Their absolute majority should gravitate towards an average height - some are slightly higher, others are slightly lower. Double-sized giants should appear no more than once during a human life. However, in reality everything is completely different. Observations by oceanographers suggest that most waves are smaller than average, and true giants are much more common than we think. Orthodox oceanography gets a hole below the waterline.
A rogue wave is usually described as a rapidly approaching wall of water of enormous height. In front of it moves a depression several meters deep - a “hole in the sea.” Wave height is usually specified as the distance from the highest point of the crest to the lowest point of the trough. Based on their appearance, rogue waves are divided into three main types: “white wall”, “three sisters” (a group of three waves), and a single wave (“single tower”).
To appreciate what they can do, just look at the photo of the Willstar above. The surface on which such a wave hits can experience pressure of up to one hundred tons per square meter (about 980 kilopascals). A typical twelve-meter wave threatens only six tons per square meter. Most modern vessels can support up to 15 tons per square meter.
According to the observations of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rogue waves can be dissipated and non-dispersed. Those who do not disperse can travel quite a long distance by sea: from six to ten miles. If the ship notices a wave from afar, you can take some action. Those that dissipate appear literally out of nowhere (apparently, such a wave attacked the “Taganrog Bay”), collapse and disappear.
According to some experts, rogue waves are dangerous even for helicopters flying low over the sea: first of all, rescue ones. Despite the seeming improbability of such an event, the authors of the hypothesis believe that it cannot be ruled out and that at least two cases of death of rescue helicopters are similar to the result of a giant wave.
Scientists are trying to figure out how energy in the ocean is redistributed in such a way that the formation of rogue waves becomes possible. The behavior of nonlinear systems like the sea surface is extremely difficult to describe. Some theories use the nonlinear Schrödinger equation to describe the generation of waves. Some are trying to apply existing descriptions of solitons—single waves of unusual nature. In the latest research on this topic, scientists were able to reproduce a very similar phenomenon in electromagnetic waves, but this has not yet led to practical results.
Some empirical data on the conditions under which rogue waves are more likely to occur are still known. So, if the wind drives waves against a strong current, this can lead to the appearance of high, steep waves. For example, the Cape Agulhas current (in which the Wilstar suffered) is notorious for this. Other high-risk areas include the Kuroshio Current, Gulf Stream, North Sea and surrounding areas.
Experts call the following prerequisites for the occurrence of a rogue wave:
1. area of low pressure;
2. wind blowing in one direction for more than 12 hours in a row;
3. waves moving at the same speed as the area of low pressure;
4. waves moving against a strong current;
5. fast waves catching up with slower waves and merging with them.
The absurd nature of rogue waves, however, is manifested in the fact that they can also arise when the listed conditions are not met. This unpredictability is the main mystery for scientists and danger for sailors.
They managed to escape
1943, North Atlantic. The cruise ship Queen Elizabeth falls into a deep trough and is subjected to two powerful wave shocks in a row, which cause serious damage to the bridge - twenty meters above the waterline.
1944 Indian Ocean. The British Navy cruiser Birmingham falls into a deep hole, after which a gigantic wave crashes onto its bow. According to the notes of the ship's commander, the deck, located at an altitude of eighteen meters from sea level, is flooded with knee-deep water.
1966, North Atlantic. On the way to New York, the Italian steamship Michelangelo is hit by a wave eighteen meters high. Water rushes onto the bridge and into the first class cabins, killing two passengers and one crew member.
1995, North Sea. The floating drilling rig Veslefrikk B, owned by Statoil, was seriously damaged by a giant wave. According to one of the crew members, a few minutes before the impact he saw a “wall of water.”
1995 North Atlantic. While sailing to New York, the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 encounters a hurricane and is hit by a wave twenty-nine meters high on its bow. “It felt like we were crashing into the White Cliffs of Dover,” says Captain Ronald Warrick.
1998, North Atlantic. BP Amoco's floating production platform "Schihallion" is hit by a giant wave, which destroys its tank superstructure at a height of eighteen meters from the water level.
2000, North Atlantic. After receiving a distress call from a yacht 600 miles from the Irish port of Cork, the British cruise liner Oriana is hit by a twenty-one meter high wave.
Killer waves or wandering waves, monster waves are giant single waves 20-30 meters high, sometimes appearing larger in the ocean and exhibiting behavior uncharacteristic of sea waves.
Killer waves have a different origin from tsunamis and have long been considered fiction.
However, as part of the MaxWave project ("Maximum Wave"), which involved monitoring the surface of the world's oceans using the ERS-1 and ERS-2 radar satellites of the European Space Agency (ESA), more than 10 single giant waves were recorded in three weeks around the globe, whose height exceeded 25 meters.
This forced the scientific community to reconsider their views, and despite the impossibility of mathematical modeling of the process of the occurrence of such waves, to recognize the fact of their existence.
1 Robber waves are waves whose height is more than twice the significant wave height.
Significant wave heights are calculated for a given period in a given region. To do this, a third of all recorded waves with the highest height are selected and their average height is found.
2 The first reliable instrumental evidence of the appearance of a rogue wave is considered to be the readings of instruments on the Dropner oil platform located in the North Sea.
On January 1, 1995, with a significant wave height of 12 meters (which is a lot, but quite common), a 26-meter wave suddenly appeared and hit the platform. The nature of the equipment damage corresponded to the specified wave height.
3 Robber waves can appear for no known reason in light winds and relatively small waves, reaching a height of 30 meters.
This is a mortal threat to even the most modern ships: the surface on which a giant wave crashes can experience pressure of up to 100 tons per square meter.
4 The most probable zones of wave formation in this case are called zones of sea currents, since in them the disturbances caused by the inhomogeneity of the current and the unevenness of the bottom are the most constant and intense. Interestingly, such waves can be both crests and troughs, which is confirmed by eyewitnesses. Further research involves the effects of nonlinearity in wind waves, which can lead to the formation of small groups of waves (packets) or individual waves (solitons) that can travel long distances without significantly changing their structure. Similar packages have also been observed many times in practice. The characteristic features of such groups of waves, confirming this theory, are that they move independently of other waves and have a small width (less than 1 km), with heights decreasing sharply at the edges.
5 In 1974, off the coast of South Africa, a rogue wave severely damaged the Norwegian tanker Wilstar..
Some scientists suggest that between 1968 and 1994, rogue waves destroyed 22 supertankers (and it is very difficult to destroy a supertanker). Experts, however, disagree on the causes of many shipwrecks: it is unknown whether rogue waves were involved.
6 In 1980, the Russian tanker Taganrog Bay collided with a rogue wave". Description from the book by I. Lavrenov. “Mathematical modeling of wind waves in a spatially inhomogeneous ocean,” op. based on the article by E. Pelinovsky and A. Slyunyaev. The sea state after 12 o'clock also decreased slightly and did not exceed 6 points. The ship's speed was slowed down to the very minimum, it obeyed the rudder and "played out" well on the wave. The tank and deck were not filled with water. Suddenly, at 13:01, the bow of the ship dropped slightly, and suddenly, at the very stem at an angle of 10-15 degrees to the ship's heading, the crest of a single wave was noticed, which rose 4-5 m above the forecastle (the bulwark of the forecastle was 11 m). The ridge instantly collapsed on the tank and covered the sailors working there (one of them died). The sailors said that the ship seemed to smoothly go down, gliding along the wave, and “buried” in the vertical section of its front part. No one felt the impact; the wave smoothly rolled over the tank of the ship, covering it with a layer of water more than 2 m thick. There was no continuation of the wave either to the right or to the left.
7 Analysis of radar data from the Goma oil platform in the North Sea showed, that over 12 years, 466 rogue waves were recorded in the available field of view.
While theoretical calculations showed that in this region the appearance of a rogue wave could occur approximately once every ten thousand years.
8 A rogue wave is usually described as a rapidly approaching wall of water of enormous height.
In front of it moves a depression several meters deep - a “hole in the sea.” Wave height is usually specified as the distance from the highest point of the crest to the lowest point of the trough. Based on their appearance, rogue waves are divided into three main types: “white wall”, “three sisters” (a group of three waves), and a single wave (“single tower”).
9 According to some experts, rogue waves are dangerous even for helicopters flying low over the sea: first of all, rescue ones.
Despite the seeming improbability of such an event, the authors of the hypothesis believe that it cannot be ruled out and that at least two cases of death of rescue helicopters are similar to the result of a giant wave.
10 In the 2006 film Poseidon, the Poseidon passenger liner fell victim to a rogue wave. sailing in the Atlantic Ocean on New Year's Eve.
The wave turned the ship upside down, and a few hours later it sank.
Based on materials:
Video on the topic “Killer Waves”:
The melodious Japanese word “tsunami” means “harbour wave.” This phenomenon has long brought terrible destruction and death to people: it is mentioned in chronicles centuries ago. On average, seven to ten destructive tsunamis occur on Earth per century.
From Romulus to the present day
The Greek historian Thucydides, who lived in the 5th century BC, was perhaps the first to suggest that the gigantic waves rolling onto the shore and sweeping away everything in their path were generated by underwater earthquakes. Indeed, a tsunami is a huge ocean wave resulting from an earthquake in the depths of the ocean or in the coastal zone. A similar wave can also be formed as a result of huge landslides, glaciers, or the fall of a large meteorite. Its speed can reach 1000 km/h. In the source of origin, the height of the wave can be only from half a meter to 5 m. In the coastal zone, its speed drops significantly, but its dimensions can reach incredible values - from 10 to 50 m.
Chronicles say: in 1540, a tsunami resulting from an earthquake covered Venice, surrounded on all sides by the sea. The city was thoroughly destroyed, about 1000 of its inhabitants died. More than two centuries later, a new tragedy occurred: on November 1, 1775, a powerful earthquake occurred in the center of the Atlantic Ocean, after which 20-meter waves hit the capital of Portugal. Within a few minutes, Lisbon was practically wiped off the face of the earth, more than 100 thousand people lost their lives. The waves even reached the Spanish and African shores, bringing a lot of misfortune to the people who lived on them. Our country also experienced the force of the destructive elements: in 1952, almost 20-meter waves hit Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka. The largest of the island cities, Severo-Kurilsk, was almost completely destroyed, and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky suffered. The disaster killed 2,300 people.
Terrible records
The tsunami hit a record high in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. In Lituya Bay, off the southern coast of Alaska, on July 9, 1958, a strong earthquake occurred at the very edge of the coast, as a result of which more than 30 million cubic meters of rock and ice fell into the waters of the bay from almost a kilometer high. A wave 524 meters high (!) swept away all vegetation and even soil from the high banks. Numerous casualties were avoided only because there were practically no people on this deserted shore. Unfortunately, small human losses during a tsunami are the exception rather than the rule.
In 1960, the Great Chilean Earthquake occurred. Born off the coast of Chile, 25-meter waves reached Hawaii and Japan across the entire endless ocean. This disaster claimed more than 6,000 lives.
On August 16, 1976, a huge wave arose in the Philippine Moro Gulf just a couple of tens of kilometers from the densely populated coast. Very few of those near the shore managed to escape. The number of victims exceeded 5,000 people.
For the time being, the Indian Ocean behaved peacefully. But December 2004 came. On that tragic day, there were no signs of trouble; there were no reports of an impending disaster. The tsunami was triggered by a powerful earthquake at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, but for residents of Thailand and numerous tourists, the onset of the disaster was sudden, since earthquake tremors that could warn of an impending disaster were almost not felt. People felt something was wrong only when sea water suddenly began to move away from the coast, exposing the bottom. After some minutes, it returned in the form of a 15-meter wave, approaching the shore in a single broad front. It was difficult to notice it from the shore - the wave did not have a foamy crest and for a long time merged with the surface of the sea. By the time they saw her, it was already too late. Unfortunately, people only had a couple of minutes to leave the dangerous place. The rogue wave left behind a terrible picture: almost all buildings were completely destroyed. The total number of victims exceeded 230,000 people. As a result of the natural disaster, the country's economy was seriously damaged, primarily fishing and tourism, which deprived many Thai families of their livelihoods. To a greater or lesser extent, the cataclysm affected 14 countries in the Indian Ocean basin.
Who is the real killer?
The analysis shows that the frequency of tsunamis, as well as the scale of disasters, have increased markedly in recent years. And many experts began to speculate about man-made causes of rogue waves. Some experts say that the tsunami could be caused by testing of seismic weapons. And it must be said that there are grounds for such conclusions. The idea of creating a seismic bomb was born in England during the Second World War. A powerful bomb with a very strong streamlined body was dropped from a great height. Thanks to its solid mass and high speed of fall, it went significantly deeper into the ground, where it exploded, destroying even very deep and protected underground communications and structures. The warheads of some modern bombs and ballistic missiles can operate on the same principle. Considering the power of modern nuclear warheads, a man-made earthquake no longer seems an impossible task. Scientists are already talking about tectonic weapons, though they are still hypothetical. This refers to devices or systems that can be used to artificially cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or similar phenomena in given regions of the planet by influencing natural geological processes. It is difficult to say how close such a task is to implementation. But it is known that the idea of using an artificial tsunami to strike a potential enemy was seriously considered in the Soviet Union in the second half of the 50s of the last century during the creation of the first Soviet nuclear submarine, Project 627. At the same time, new types of nuclear weapons were being created, and the idea arose combine these two new products. The author of the idea was Academician A.D. Sakharov. A special T-15 torpedo was designed. With a given firing range of 30 km, the result was a monster 23 m long, one and a half meters in diameter and weighing 40 tons. Due to its gigantic size, the submarine could only carry one such torpedo. The strategy provided for a hidden approach of Soviet boats to two coasts of the American continent at once - eastern and western - and a simultaneous salvo from several boats with T-15 torpedoes. The explosion of megaton nuclear charges was supposed to occur underwater several kilometers from the shore. It was assumed that the gigantic man-made tsunami that arose after the explosion would sweep away everything on both coasts of America (for example, New York, Boston, Philadelphia in the east, Los Angeles and San Francisco in the west). Fortunately, these plans were not destined to come true. According to a prevailing legend, when discussing the project, one of the admirals allegedly said: “We, military sailors, are accustomed to fighting with an armed enemy, and not with the civilian population of cities.” No one today can guarantee that such words were spoken, but, one way or another, the first nuclear submarine was armed with conventional anti-ship torpedoes. And in fact, humanity has more than enough of the disasters that the elements bring to it.
P.S. On June 7, 1692, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed the island's capital, Port Royal. The small town was only formally considered a possession of the English crown. In practice, it was the fiefdom of pirates; at one time, even the famous filibuster Henry Morgan was its lieutenant governor. The pirate capital was completely destroyed - one half of it went under water with the first blows of the underground elements, and the second was flooded and destroyed by the resulting tsunami. Between 5 and 10 thousand inhabitants died. Of the 50 ships in the harbor, not one survived. The grave of the famous pirate also disappeared.
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Destructive tsunamis occur off the Japanese islands on average every seven years. The tsunami of March 11, 2011, when 40-meter waves hit the shores of Japan, was a serious shock to humanity. The main word in those days was “Fukushima”. The Japanese nuclear power plant bearing this name suffered greatly from the destructive effects of a huge wave. The consequences of the disaster are still felt today. There was even talk about a “second Chernobyl,” although this was a gross exaggeration.
It strikes suddenly and destroys on the spot. It is almost impossible to stay alive when a tsunami appears - a killer wave. But it turns out that tsunamis and rogue waves are completely different phenomena. “Killers,” by the way, can be only a couple of centimeters tall.
For centuries, sailors have talked about unexpectedly appearing giant waves that could sink a ship. Scientists did not take these stories seriously. Until very recently, some oceanologists denied the existence of huge rogue waves on the open sea, considering the testimony of frightened eyewitnesses unreliable. Due to the depression that always precedes the wave, there is a feeling that the height of the water ridge is greater than it actually is. This feeling is further enhanced by the fact that the ship is not located horizontally, that is, parallel to the bottom of the wave, but is inclined towards it. As a result, the height may be greatly exaggerated.
But with the beginning of oil production from the sea shelf, objective information appeared: instruments on drilling platforms began from time to time to record the arrival of a single giant wave, sharply exceeding the average level of excitement. Similar bursts are now systematically observed by satellites monitoring the ocean.
Studies rogue waves Leading Researcher at Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University Irina Didenkulova.
What is the difference between a tsunami and rogue waves?
They have different scales, and the nature of their appearance is different. The source of a tsunami is an earthquake or landslide. There is a lot of destruction from the tsunami. Rogue waves differ from ordinary waves only in amplitude. Their danger lies in surprise..
Tsunamis are easier to predict. In any case, those tsunamis that are caused by earthquakes: an earthquake occurs, then its parameters are assessed. Based on these calculations, they look at what tsunami wave can be generated and model the propagation of this wave. Then, as the wave propagates, the numerical calculations are compared with data from the buoys through which the wave passes. As a result, the calculated data are updated. This can be done quickly and have time to warn residents of all coasts that will be affected by the tsunami. But this is with tsunamis from earthquakes. And, for example, for tsunamis caused by landslides, accurate forecasts have not yet been made.
Should we wait for a really working tsunami and rogue wave forecasting system?
No system can start instantly. It was invented, now it needs to be tested and transferred to normal mode. I think it will take us at least five years.
The lighthouse near the island of Ouessant (at the exit of the English Channel) is almost 50 meters high. However, some waves cover it almost completely
Where should you be wary of single waves, only on the open sea?
Not only - they can occur both in the open sea and near the shore, and even on the shore. I'm just more interested in the last two varieties. “Rogue wave” is a very specific term. This is a wave whose height is twice the significant wave height (a certain value characteristic of a given sea state, the average of 1/3 of the highest waves). That is, this is just an unusual emission - it can be either in the Earth's oceans or in the atmosphere of the Sun.
It turns out that with no wind and calm, a rogue wave can be only two centimeters high?
From a statistical point of view, yes, this is true. But when we are talking not about science, but also about safety, then, of course, additional conditions are taken into account: for example, the wave should not be lower than so many meters. For forecasts, this second condition is especially important and should be applied taking into account the stability of each specific object. For one coastal structure it will be one, but for a land-based structure it will be completely different, and it will also differ for different ships.
Computer simulation of ocean wave energy. The differently colored areas are the result of approximately 500 thousand single waves moving through local eddies. All this creates convergence (refraction) of waves, in which rogue waves can be born
Mathematical models need to be tested. How are your outdoor experiments structured?
We are currently building an experimental pool in our laboratory, but I have worked in others - in English and German. As a rule, this is a long channel ending in an onshore module. We drive a wave through such a channel and see what happens to it on the shore. It was especially interesting to work in the huge 300-meter Hanover Basin. This is exactly the case when size matters. From the wave generator to the “shore” I had to ride a bicycle and walk for quite a long time, and I must admit, I’m somehow not very friendly with bicycles - I was afraid. But by the end of the experiment I had already gotten used to it.
We also carried out full-scale experiments right on the shore. The work scheme there is similar. We measure the wave at some distance from land and on the shore. The instruments we use are echo sounders, pressure sensors, and on the shore we often install high-resolution cameras or video cameras, which can then be used to track the dynamics of each specific wave.
PRIZE
This is a woman's business
Irina Didenkulova, who told Around the World about rogue waves, a couple of months ago received a prestigious international scholarship as a promising researcher. The 18th awards ceremony took place in Paris at the end of March. L'Oréal-UNESCO"For women in science." The awards (in addition to badges of honor, large cash prizes) were received by five famous women scientists, including Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for genome editing technology CRISPR/Cas9, which revolutionized genomic engineering.
After the award ceremony, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova and the President and Chairman of the Board of the Group L'Oréal Jean-Paul Agon announced the release of a manifesto “For Women in Science”. It calls for combating the underrepresentation of women in scientific communities. You can sign it on the project website.
Program L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science was founded in 1998 to support women scientists around the world. More than 2,500 researchers from 112 countries have already received awards, as well as international and national scholarships to continue their scientific careers.
And yet it’s hard to believe that the appearance of rogue waves can be predicted at all...
There is two approaches. One is to monitor the conditions in which rogue waves are most likely to form. Determining such conditions is the main task, for the solution of which it is necessary to take into account the results of numerical and laboratory experiments, the mechanisms of excitation of rogue waves, as well as data from field observations. The task is complex, since there are quite a lot of mechanisms and they can overlap each other. Rogue waves can be formed by the addition of several waves when they catch up with each other or come from different directions (sometimes even more than two), due to interaction with currents, the shore, with each other, as well as as a result of their own natural evolution. By developing this approach, we will be able to notify people about the high probability of encountering a rogue wave in a given region.
Another approach is to instrumentally detect a rogue wave at a sufficient distance from a protected object (be it coastal infrastructure or a ship) and predict its further behavior in the shortest possible time. Moreover, do this as soon as possible, so that, if necessary, there is time to evacuate people from the danger zone or maneuver the vessel. This is already an urgent forecast, and here we are not talking about probability, but about a specific approaching threat. In my group we are working to develop both of these approaches.
Movement of the tsunami generated by the Japanese earthquake of March 11, 2011 with a magnitude of up to 9.0. The height of the wave is marked in colors from yellow (small) to black (large, up to 7 meters). The tsunami crossed the entire Pacific Ocean in about 20 hours
What have you achieved?
I once had a nightmare: I was defending, there was a commission in front of me, and they sternly asked me: “What have you done new in science?” And cold sweat down my back. Seriously, I think that our most interesting results are on rogue waves. In general, our merit is that we have demonstrated with all certainty that there are also rogue waves off the coast. Yes, and we have made very significant progress in this area recently. If just a few years ago it was not really clear when, where and why they come from, now the emphasis has already shifted towards forecasting, which means that the day is not far off when we will be able to predict them.
SAVE YOURSELF WHO CAN!
The most dangerous places on Earth
11 years ago December 26, 2004, as a result of an earthquake with a magnitude above 9.0, a tsunami, which killed almost a quarter of a million people in coastal areas. Meanwhile, from a geological point of view, it was a moderate disaster with a wave height of only 30 meters. The difference between a tsunami and a megatsunami is the source. A normal tsunami is caused by strong earthquakes that displace the ocean floor. For a megatsunami to form, a large landslide or landslide into the water is necessary.
The only one registered by man megatsunami It happened July 9, 1958 in Lituya Bay, Alaska. As a result of a large earthquake with a magnitude of about 8, a mass of rock and ice collapsed into this bay, more than 10 km long and an average width of 3 km, and a wave 524 m high splashed onto the opposite shore. Landslide processes are activated when the level of water basins changes, when the slopes become unstable. And this is exactly what can be expected in connection with global warming.
Sumatra
A section of the giant Sunda Trench off the coast of Sumatra (Indonesia) is fully cocked and ready to fire. When this happens, there will be a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of up to 8.8, as well as a tsunami with a height of 5-6 m. Destructive waves will reach the Indonesian city of Padang with a population of about a million people in 30 minutes.
Cascadia subduction zone
The Cascadia Fault stretches along the west coast of North America for more than a thousand kilometers north of California to the middle of Canada's Vancouver Island. In 1700, the fault shifted, causing an earthquake of about 9.0 magnitude. A major earthquake of comparable magnitude is highly likely to occur within the next half century, causing a devastating tsunami.
Puerto Rican Trench
It runs along the junction of the Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate. This is the deepest part of the Atlantic Ocean basin, reaching a depth of more than 8 km. During underwater filming, many gigantic landslides caused by ancient earthquakes were discovered there. There are fears that the colossal earthquake and landslide will create a tsunami that threatens destruction across the Caribbean.
Greenland
Eight thousand years ago, an earthquake caused by the melting of the Scandinavian ice sheet caused the Sturegg landslide off the coast of Norway, and a tsunami swept through the Shetland Islands and Scotland. The 2-3 km thick Greenland glacier is melting at an accelerating pace. Its weight has bound the faults for tens of thousands of years, and now they can begin to move. The resulting earthquakes will trigger landslides like Sturegga. And they will create a tsunami throughout the Atlantic.
Photo: AGE / Legion-media, Solent News, SPL, Alamy (x2) / Legion-media, iStock (x2), SPL / Legion-media
Natural disasters have threatened the inhabitants of our planet since the beginning of civilization. Somewhere to a greater extent, in another place to a lesser extent. One hundred percent security does not exist anywhere. Natural disasters can cause enormous damage. Natural disasters are extremely diverse. As with all natural processes, there is a mutual connection between natural disasters. One disaster influences another; it happens that the first disaster serves as a trigger for subsequent ones. No one can control nature. Man had to learn to live with strong storms, intrusions of hot air, merciless droughts, and prolonged cold spells. The closest relationship exists between earthquakes and tsunamis, volcanic eruptions and fires. Tropical cyclones almost always cause flooding. Earthquakes can also cause landslides. Those, in turn, can block river valleys and cause floods. The relationship between earthquakes and volcanic eruptions is mutual: earthquakes caused by volcanic eruptions are known, and, conversely, volcanic eruptions caused by the rapid movement of masses under the Earth's surface. Tropical cyclones can be a direct cause of flooding, both river and sea. Atmospheric disturbances and heavy rains can affect slope sliding. Dust storms are a direct consequence of atmospheric phenomena. The authors of the program will talk about natural disasters that have occurred over the past hundred years in different parts of the globe.