GIANT WAVE - The Lighthouse - page 88

is high and several large waves come together to create a monster. They can also hap-
pen in sea conditions with smaller average-sized waves, but because the average height
is small, the bigger wave tends to get overlooked because it does not stand out. There
appear to be four main reasons for the formation of the giant waves: when the wind
pushes against a strong current (one notable location for this occurrence is off the coast
of South Africa); when a shallow sea bottom focuses waves to one spot (for example
off the coast of Norway); purely by chance; and when waves become unstable and start
toself-focus.Scientificstudyappearstoshowthatthegiantwavesencounteredinareas
of deep ocean like the Pacific and North Atlantic are due to unstable waves self-focus-
ing in conditions of bad weather. Their research has shown that there appears to be a
population of unstable waves in the ocean which can grow into monster waves.
Whilstmonsterwavescanappearanywhere,therearecertainareaswheretheycanbe
predicted, including off the east coast of South Africa where the South African weather
servicegivesfreakwavewarnings.There,astrongwindblowsintheoppositedirection
to the strong Agulhas current, which is one of the conditions for creating giant waves.
The bottom of the sea just off the coast of Norway is another place where giant waves
can occur, as the sea bottom appears to focus waves together to create extremely large
ones. When this happens, ships are alerted to alter their routes in order to avoid the af-
fected area. 21 The vastness of the Pacific is also notorious for massive waves, which
can be caused by typhoons. One of the best-known cases involved the British bulk car-
rier Derbyshire which sank in a typhoon south of Japan on 9 September 1980. The
Derbyshire was sailing from Sept-Îles in Canada to Kawasaki, Japan, carrying a cargo
of 157,446 tonnes of iron ore. When 230 miles from Okinawa, she hove to in Typhoon
Orchid. The giant ore carrier was believed to have sunk in a matter of minutes without
any distress call being sent. All forty-two crew plus two women married to crew mem-
bers were lost. She was, and still remains, the largest British ship ever to have been lost
at sea. 22
Although the investigation concluded that the Derbyshire sank because of structural
failure, it was giant seas which had battered the front part of the ship combined with
open ventilator panels in the bow section of the ship which led directly to the ship
fillingupwithwaterandeventuallyacatastrophicfailureofthehull.DouglasFaulkner,
Professor of Marine Architecture and Ocean Engineering at Glasgow University, con-
cludedthatafreakwaveorwaveshadalsoplayedapartinthedestructionoftheship. 23
What has assisted greatly in wave research in more recent times is the use of satellite
technology and computer modelling. Research has been carried out by many institu-
tions and universities including research at Umea University in Sweden. One of the
main intentions ofthe research is to find out not just what causes these giant waves, but
to also see if they can be predicted by location and time in order to make it safer for