A massive, 64-foot high wave was measured by an automated buoy about 400 miles south of New Zealand in the Southern Ocean on Saturday. That's taller than a six-story building.
"This is one of the largest waves recorded in the Southern Hemisphere," said oceanographer Tom Durrant of MetOcean Solutions, a private weather firm in New Zealand. "This is the world's southernmost wave buoy moored in the open ocean, and we are excited to put it to the test in large seas," he wrote on the company's blog.
The buoy was installed only three months ago to "get valuable observations from this remote part of the ocean," the company said. The wild winds, seas and storms of the Southern Ocean create some of the biggest waves in the world.
Here are some big boys in the North Sea.
Those waves in the picture are impressive, but they look like ripples next to a 64' wave. A 64 footer would put a lot of blue water over the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. That sort of wave action is not unheard of but you could be talking Poseidon Adventure.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I live in the hills.
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