Rogue Waves

A rogue wave is a large, spontaneous wave that occurs out in the oceans. The can pose a threat even to large ships and sea liners. They use to be thought of as legendary, but now people know they are real things. A rogue wave is a natural occurring phenomena in the oceans. They are not rare phenomena but they are rarely encountered.
In storms, it is common for a wave to reach the height of 7m. Even in extreme storms/conditions, some waves can reach heights of 15m. A rogue wave height is around 30m or a 12 story building. These waves can appear without warning and in clear weather. It is very unlikely for most ships to survive such a wave and with pressures of 100tonnes/m². A rogue wave is not the same thing as a tsunami. The cause of such waves is still a mystery to the scientific world, but active research is being conducted. It is hard for scientist to narrow down a cause and if it varies from place to place. But what they think they know is that the areas of highest risk are those areas that have strong currents that runs counter to the primary direction of travel of the waves.
I personally think that rogue waves are a facinating phenomena But i would never want to encounter one for myself.

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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freak_waves
~http://www.math.uio.no/~karstent/waves/index_en.html