Rogue waves

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Once considered mythical and lacking hard evidence for their existence, rogue waves are now proven to exist and known to be a natural ocean phenomenon. Eyewitness accounts from mariners and damage inflicted on ships have long suggested they occurred. The first scientific evidence of the existence of rogue waves came with the recording of a rogue wave by the Gorm platform in the central North Sea in 1984. A stand-out wave was detected with a wave height of 11 metres (36 ft) in a relatively low sea state.[5] However, the wave that caught the attention of the scientific community was the digital measurement of the "Draupner wave", a rogue wave at the Draupner platform in the North Sea on January 1, 1995, with a maximum wave height of 25.6 metres (84 ft) (peak elevation of 18.5 metres [61 ft]) . During that event, minor damage was also inflicted on the platform, far above sea level, confirming that the reading was valid.[1]



Author Susan Casey wrote that much of that disbelief came because there were very few people who had seen a rogue wave, and until the advent of steel double-hulled ships of the 20th century "people who encountered 100-foot rogue waves generally weren't coming back to tell people about it.