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"We thought we'd have difficulties finding so many large waves," said Wolfgang Rosenthal, a research scientist at Germany's GKSS research center. "But roughly two ships each week are affected."

Rogue Freak Waves Are Very Common!

During the last two decades, more than 200 supertankers—ships over 200 meters (656 feet) long—have sunk beneath the waves. Rogue waves are thought to be the cause for many of these disasters, perhaps by flooding the main hold of these giant container ships.

In a single week in winter 2001, two tourist ships were hit by rogue waves in the South Atlantic. The Bremen and the Caledonian Star had their bridge windows smashed by the errant wall of water reaching 30 meters (98 feet) high.

During the last two decades, more than 200 supertankers—ships over 200 meters (656 feet) long—have sunk beneath the waves. Rogue waves are thought to be the cause for many of these disasters, perhaps by flooding the main hold of these giant container ships.

In a single week in winter 2001, two tourist ships were hit by rogue waves in the South Atlantic. The Bremen and the Caledonian Star had their bridge windows smashed by the errant wall of water reaching 30 meters (98 feet) high.

In the process of studying rogue waves the researchers spotted more than ten rogue waves during a three-week period. Each wave swelled to 25 meters or more (82 feet) in height. By comparison, big wave surfers—who chase monster waves around the globe —haven't documented surfing waves over 70 feet (21 meters) high. One of the biggest waves ever surfed was Mike Parsons's 66-foot (20-meter) wave off California's remote Cortes Bank.

No one knows for certain how often freak waves occur. Traditional theories of the ocean say the probability is once in every 10,000 years, but the latest data suggest that they take place more frequently. The satellite data from the German Aerospace Centre found over 10 waves in three weeks, but this is preliminary data not a statistically significant sample.

When do freak waves occur and why?

Freak waves occur in bad weather conditions when the average wave height is high and several big waves come together to create a monster. Technically this could happen when the wave size is small, but as the result is small no one notices. Waves can come together for four main reasons:

1. when wind pushes against a strong current (eg in South Africa)
2. when a shallow sea bottom focuses waves to one spot (eg in Norway)
3. by chance (hence the 1 in 10,000 year statistic)
4. when waves become unstable and start to self-focus

Scientists think the freak waves observed in the deep ocean are due to unstable waves self-focussing in bad weather conditions. It appears that there is a separate population of unstable waves in the ocean that can grow into freaks.

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Photo of the Norwegian Dream after encoutering a sucession of 25+ foot waves in 2005 colliding with the ‘Ever Decent’ while transiting the the English Channel in 1999.

The bow section of the tanker Pendleton lies awash off Chatham, Mass., on Feb. 19, 1952,

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